Thursday, May 10, 2012

Words. In factory records the term “Mousselene” appears. We asked, is it a color? Perhaps it’s a technique imitating some other form. Sam Kissee passes this along.

Hi Alan,

Maybe the “color” was derived after the name Mousseline, a type of fabric.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mousseline

Sam Kissée

Chico, California

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I was going through some of my “stuff” the other day. I came across some correspondence with the late Neil Kohut, a dealer from Las Vegas on the subject we’ve recently been discussing, cracks and other damage to glass. So, I’m passing it along.

Whether to collect damaged glass at all and if so, when. Another important decision along the same lines is deciding what is and isn’t damage for me. Any manufacturing defect is not damage. This extends to burst bubbles, heat checks, leaning pieces, stray bits of foreign matter and colors or any less serious flaws. If it was acceptable to Mr. Carder, I am not going to turn my nose up at it. Some of these pieces do carry a somewhat reduced value though. As to the aftermarket damage, I am much stricter unless the piece is an extreme rarity. I will never touch a piece with a crack. Cracks are glass under stress and the crack is capable of spreading at any time. Heat checks do not spread as they were created in hot glass and annealed. I would limit my spending to about $200 for an extreme rarity with a crack and I would not offer it for sale. Chips, dings and poor repairs must be invisibly repairable and I only resell those pieces as restored merchandise. I will not buy glued pieces with the possible exception of an extreme rarity. I will accept unrepairable damage to a rarity, but it must be priced commensurate, obviously. The location of the damage is very important to its desirability and value. Things like chips to the underfoot of a flower frog I consider normal wear and tear as I do with underfoot scratches on a vase or bowl. Museums routinely inventory pieces with horrible damages. One of the rarest pieces of glass extant is the Portland vase which has been pieced together from lots of broken shards.

www.cardersteubenclub.org

2012 Carder Steuben Club annual Symposium will be held at The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY from September 20-22, 2012.

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