I found myself continually watching a plaque at a recent Humler & Nolan auction. As I thought about my fascination with this plaque I realized that within my Carder collection I have created a sub-collection of plaques and luminors. One of the beauties of collecting Carder is the breadth of what he created. So, as a result there are many niches for the likes of shade collectors, toothpick collectors, perfume collectors, colors like Rosaline, salts, table decorations and the list goes on and on. In my case I’m fascinated with the sculpturing of his plaques, and then where there is a lighted base that goes with it, the extra dimension from the lighting against the intaglio.

I would also note that there doesn’t seem to be that many plaques to be found. With some research I’ve discovered that perhaps there was a huge number of different and often unique Carder plaques, excepting for the huge edition of the Thomas Edison plaques. (That discussion is for another day) That is, there were many plaques created by Mr. Carder, with perhaps most now in the archives of CMoG (not on display). So, we’ll follow my passion and for some number of future Gazettes we’ll take a look at some of these objects.

So, let’s begin this journey. The plaque at Humler & Nolan is below and in a technique called Pate de Verre. Alan Shovers

Image of a young glassmaker pulling the arm of a glass-pressing machine.

One of the more notable techniques that Carder revived and perfected in his later years was Pate de Verre (glass paste). This process of melting powdered glass in molds to form objects resembling those made from semiprecious stones or their minerals was known to the Egyptians as early as 1500 B.C. Some Steuben Pate de Verre figures were offered for sale in the 1920s. Carder produced a few more in the 1930s, as one of the steps in his experimentation with cire perdue process. Perfecting the ceramic mold for the lost was process enabled him to use his procedure for Pate de Verre, as well as for his sculptured and Diatreta pieces.

abstracted from The Glass of Frederick Carder by Paul V. Gardner, p. 130

From The Archives At CMoG

Cast glass with acid finish

Cast opaque green