Pegasus Drip Lamp

Beth Shaut of Corning adds this general information:

Hi Alan,

Bobby Rockwell told me that these Lava Drip Bases were made in 1928 & 29 for the Crest Lamp Company only. Aren’t they just beautiful?

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David Chadwick-Brown of San Diego elaborates on some details of the lamp:

The lamp is also pictured, black and white, in Revi, p. 160. Mine is the 14 inch version, and what makes it less than special is that it is signed – in inch high block letters, inscribing the name of the person who, presumably, purchased the lamp! At the top of each of the aurene ‘drips,’ someone (at Steuben, or a later contractor?) engraved: G. B. WARD. I guess, if you want to memorialize your possession of a Carder work, that is one way to do it! This undoubtedly devalues the piece, as does drilling for a lamp, or cracks in Mandarin Yellow, but at some point of rarity, one must ask, “Who cares?” Then too, who among us has not turned a piece, so its ‘infirmity’ faces the wall?

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Dean Powlus of Harrisburg, PA asked the following question:

What is the design on this lamp below the flowing decoration on the top? It’s a very unique lamp.

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In answer to Dean Powlus’ question, David Chadwick-Brown answers:

The figures on the lamp are the horse, Pegasus, and the rider, Bellerophon. Greek mythology tells us that Bellerophon, suspected of being the offspring of Poseidon, Ruler of the Sea, but born of a mortal mother, was given a bridle made of gold, with which he saddled the horse, Pegasus. Pegasus was described as: “A winged steed, unwearying of flight; Sweeping through air swift as a gale of wind.” Together they rode in the skies, but to expiate the sin of having accidentally killed his brother, Bellerophon was ordered to attack the Chimaera, that mythical beast of a lion’s head, serpent’s behind, and goat’s body. On Pegasus he slew the Chimaera, and with expiation achieved, lived a comfortable life – until he decided to ride Pegasus to Mt. Olympus and be with the gods. Such impiety, be it tasting the knowledge of heaven in the Garden of Eden, or Prometheus bringing fire from the exclusive control of the gods to earth, and thereby earning him eternal impalement on a rock. or the admonitions of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, warrants ultimate destruction, by fire and desolation.

The symbols by Carder of heavenly rays of the sun god, and arching through the skies depict this ancient allegory. And that we still have politicians who are tilting at imaginary evils known as chimera, harks back to mythology, and created fears lacking substance and reality. Not only were Carder’s shapes classical, his cage cups captured in diatreta, and his colors of ancient royalty, e.g., tyrian, but his inspirations were mythical. Perhaps I am jaded (no pun intended) but I look at modern glass makers, and so many just do not have the classicism that I find in Carder’s shapes. Then again, maybe such imbuing is what makes one a passionate collector…!

Also, an aside that could be added to my disquisition on Pegasus, concerns another Greek concept that is in our political discourse today: hubris. That over-arching arrogance that evoked the gods’ wrath, and was the theme of the Greek Tragedians’ educational admonition to the public to obey the gods, is still cited by today’s critics of politicians’ over-reach.