Tuesday, March 08, 2011

A lovely description of the classics from the Elizabeth & Frank Creech of Brevard, North Carolina.

Dear Alan,

Thanks to Susan Saul for noting about a Carder design, “The vase takes on a shape reminiscent to the Greek form ‘Krater’, which translates ‘to mix’.” And thanks to you, Alan, for observing, “Unfortunately, we don’t address art glass often enough in terms of its artistry and Carder’s use of classic shapes for the inspiration of his work.”

One Carder scholar who does recognize Carder’s design artistry is our own Tom Dimitroff. Those fortunate enough to attend Tom’s presentation at last fall’s Carder symposium heard him expound beautifully on several themes in Carder’s designs, including that of classicism.

Design was a fundamental focus of Carder’s creative energies throughout his tenure at Stevens and Williams and then at his Steuben. He was trained in the classics; he embraced and believed in the classical style above all others. This is clearly shown in his earliest and latest designs. He loved elegant, beautiful design as he loved pure, beautiful color.

Here is another example of Frederick Carder’s superb designs—Steuben Shape No. 6309. It is Carder’s iteration of the classical Greek “Amphoriskos.” The pictured specimen of the latter was executed in terra cotta about 700 B.C., possibly in Phoenicia. If you look carefully, you can see the “swirls” in the body as the piece was built up of rolled clay “rope”—not on a potter’s wheel.

Now look at Carder’s creation again. The design is identical. The topaz swirled drops recall the subtle swirls in the Phoenician piece, and they add dynamic interest to the Steuben piece. Carder, the pragmatic Englishman, added a stable, sensible foot and a neat, minimalist stopper with long dauber in Selenium Red glass. —Ah, the genius of Frederick Carder!

Cordially, Elizabeth and Frank Creech

P.S. Alan, as an aside, these pieces from Elizabeth’s scent bottle collection were a perfect opening and closing for a retrospective of 2000 years of scent containers, presented at the International Perfume Bottle Association Annual Convention in 2000.

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