Question? Is “Mousselene” or “Mouss” just a term to describe, or another way of saying, “Optic Ribbed”.

from Marshall Ketchum

Mousselene is a peculiar term. I have not seen it used in advertisements so it may not be a marketing term. The factory records seem to use it in two ways. The factory records were developed over time. The early ones had the drawing on the left side of the sheet and the color, size and cost info on the right side of the same sheet. On popular shapes the color, size and cost info was revised many times. At some point someone got the idea that if they started over with the drawings on one sheet of paper on the left in an open notebook the color, size and cost info could be on the right sheet of paper. They could make all the revisions they wanted without disturbing the drawing which was the expensive part to have redrawn.

Back to Mousselene. The early single sheet records often used the term Mousselene or Mouss. as a descriptor. The later records for the same shapes with the same information might use Transparent Colors or Trans. Colors. The optic ribs that were implied by the Mouss. term seemed to be lost. Since the people in sales where these records were used “knew” what the glass was supposed to look like the Mouss. term was probably unimportant.

I think that Mousselene was a factory term really a Carder term that implied optic ribs. Rande Bly is correct that a look at the ’32 catalog will list many shapes available in “Mouss” and these shapes are the ones most often seen with optic ribs.

Color Me Canterbury

This is a relatively large plate at 14″ in diameter. It is shape 5121 and is in the unusual and only recently identified color of Canterbury. MK

14″ Canterbury Charger Plate

Shape #5121

2013 Carder Steuben Club annual Symposium will be held at The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY from September 19-21, 2013. The festivities will begin with Frederick Carder’s 150th birthday celebration on the evening of September 18, 2013.

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