To Prop or Not to Prop?

Alan Shovers of Evansville, Indiana asks for your opinion:

Recently I received a complaint from a homeowner in our condominium building. She was upset that staff wasn’t adequately maintaining our lobby. She noted that the staff allowed a pair of decorative candlesticks in our lobby to go without candles in them. I told her I disagreed. These are artistic candlesticks and candles could be viewed as taking focus away from the full beauty of the sticks themselves. I told her that I thought that art glass collectors would likely prefer no candles to candles.
I was reminded that Mr. Carder viewed his vases as so beautiful that they didn’t need flowers as an embellishment. Actually, putting water in vases has the risk leaving mineral deposits and therefore it isn’t recommended to put flowers and water in a collectible vase.
This made me think about Mr. Carder’s limousines. These are flower holders that were put between the driver’s compartment and the rear passenger portion of a chauffeur driven car. These were expected to hold fresh flowers for the occupant. Perhaps, this meant they contained water, or perhaps if the flower were changed daily water wasn’t deemed essential.
All this discussion with my condo neighbor led me to say I was going to ask collectors what they thought about propping a decorative candle holder with candles or not; or either way was just fine. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Water Jugs

Good morning Alan,
Below is a Fry glass version of a Water Lamp. Just a point counter-point for the Club.
Kind Regards,
David Donaldson, MFA

“A large lamp base, this is a water lamp, the base is hollow- it can be filled with water or other decorative items; the top is designed to accept hardware for a lamp.
The top has a short neck, about 2″ tall then it cups out to accommodate electrical hardware. The base is about 5″ across and flat to make a sturdy lamp. It could also be used for a vase. The glass has a cluthra effect, there are bubbles in the glass dispersed evenly all over the body of the lamp. None of the bubbles have burst and none are in danger of bursting.
The lamp base is about 12″ tall and about 7″ in diameter. The opening is about 2″ across and is about 1 1/2″ deep before it narrows.