POINT-COUNTERPOINT CARDINAL RED

Sep 15, 2009
Issue 676

Opinions and details vary. First from Rande Bly of Birmingham, Alabama
Debate is good in the fact that it creates accuracy while we pioneer some of this uncharted territory. I have seen shape 1455 come with no flame stopper at all but with the smooth plain stopper with no pattern to the shape at all. I have seen the plain stopper in both Jade and in Transparent Colored Crystal. I have seen some 1455’s where the flame pattern was not as pronounced as others. I understand we are doing the best we can with photos and this adds difficulty. However, I can see the flame pattern in the stopper from the photo and have double checked by e-mail this morning and have confirmed that the stopper is a flame pattern and better closeup photo’s are on their way. My concern is that the subject does not rabbit trail from the actual subject of Cardinal Red. So little is known about this color and I felt it would be of great importance if we collectively could come up with some more examples. If we can come up with a few more examples we could show that Cardinal Red is actually a “production” color rather than experimental. I have a photo of a Cardinal Red (Copper Ruby?) swirl bowl I had 25 years ago but unfortunately it has no shape number. It has similarities to the bowl pictured in Figure 152 in Marshall Ketchum’s Book 2 page 40. His piece has no shape number either and he has called it a Whimsy which fits with what we have been learning about Whimseys not being production items. It was my hope we could find some other examples in “obvious” Steuben shapes like Alan Shovers’ shape 2909 and was calling to the members of the Club to check their collections and bring some to light.
I think I have seen Cardinal Red in the handle of a letter opener with Crystal Blade. Question is does anyone else have this Strawberry (copper ruby) color?

Next, the opinion of Lon Knickerbocker of Dansville, New York
I am responding to Rande Bly’s comments on Cardinal red. The cologne he is calling Cardinal Red in my opinion is not even American, but English. When I was in England several years ago I attended many shows-shops-markets and museums. This cologne was quite prevalent in England in this red color, along with clear and a dark green, generally the clear pieces had silver overlay. I always believed Carder did this design at Stevens and Williams before coming here, but have not researched it properly yet. When I can find the time I will try and do proper research and if I can find anything I will send it to you. One thing that sticks out is the stopper is different than what the typical Steuben stopper looks like and all of the English colognes have the stopper shown in the photo. You never used to see these colognes in this color; now there are many around, there were two at Brimfield, offered very reasonable.

Finally, from Jane Spillman, Curator of American Glass at The Corning Museum of Glass in response to a comment made that it could have been made at Corning, Inc.
Well, I don’t think that Corning Glass made it outside of Steuben. To my knowledge, they did not do colored table wares at the turn of the century. They did blanks for cutting, then Pyrex tableware, as well as scientific glassware of various types and lantern globes. I have no opinion as to whether or not it’s Steuben, but I don’t think it was made by Corning Glass Works.

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