First, as I get ready to leave for Corning, NY for the annual Carder Steuben Club
Symposium I am greeted with the news that we will have a nice attendance bump
this year.

Next, we’ve been writing about glass collections at various museums and their
willingness to take gifts, sells gifts and the such. A subject that will be
addressed at the Symposium. Eleanor Cicerchi who was for many years
associated with CMoG is now at The Newark Museum. She asked their curator
of decorative arts, Ulysses Dietz, to comment on their collection and this issue.
Here’s his response:
EASY! The initial story: we purchased several pieces of Tiffany glass in the
1920s from Tiffany–and then de-accessioned them in the 1940s (why, I can’t
say). We purchased one large piece of blue Aurene from Steuben in the 1920s,
and still have it in the collection. We also purchased a whole group of Carder
Steuben in the 1920s, and then de-accessioned that (same time as the Tiffany
things). I can’t imagine what we were thinking, because we kept a lot of crap.
One of those odd quirks.
Subsequent history: we were given a great little group of art glass in the 1960s,
including a range of Tiffany and Carder and Durand glass (and some Quezal, too).
I think our Carder things are weak, except for the one surviving large example
of the 1920s. But it is overall a representative collection…I’d love some more
Carder things.