Henna Mousseline

Rande Bly of Birmingham, AL speculates:

The question is what is Henna Alabaster? Is it a color? Is it a glass type. Is it an advertising term used for regular alabaster? Well Gardner’s color list on page 59-60 lists it as an official color and it is in fact noticeably different than regular alabaster.
Clambroth glass started in England in the early 1880’s right about the time to be an influence on Mr. Carder. He worked with it in England and brought his ideas with him to the United States. It’s color was true to the name and took the appearance of actual clam broth or a pale ginger ale. By adding color he developed it into what we know today as his Jades series that came in a wide variety of colors and shades. All, except Red of course. Did Carder accidentally leave out red, one of the most popular and expensive colors in all collectible glassware today? Of course not. It was impossible to make Red Alabaster Jade. It required too much heat and needed to be “returned to the fire”. The “old timers” in their words tell the story that overcooked Alabaster played hell with the color. There were however rumors he had made a Red Jade that I will explain later.

To describe Henna Alabaster, it is more opaque and more white in color than regular Alabaster. It has the tendency to throw very soft hues of gray in certain lighting. Much like the soft subtle gray of Moonlight. The white looks like a cross between Calcite, Flint White and Alabaster. Factory records show it comes in shapes 7429,30,31,33,35,38. There are more shapes but not many. Wow! How about that. The Mousselene shapes! Was it limited to Mousselene shapes only? No. I have a Henna Alabaster bowl lined with Green Jade. How rare is it? Well I would say there is more Dark Jade Blue Mousselene pieces than the Henna Alabaster Mousselene ones. Both are considered quite rare. Once you see it and hold it in person there will be no mistaking it.

Today I will show a Henna Alabaster Mousselene 7447 shade vase with a pure white “Mousseline” cloth back drop. If you look carefully in the upper and lower left hand corners of the photo under magnification you can see the Mousseline stripes in the cloth emitting the very gray and white stripes you see in the vase. This vase honestly just takes my breath away. Mr. Carder actually did it! He took an optical illusion present in cloth and trapped it in a piece of glass forever. How cool is that?
Is that all? No, I see the Opaline color in this piece also. So far in the Mousselene pieces we see the Green Jade Mousseline does not look normal. The Ivory one glows under black light and Opaline is present. The Alabaster one has Opaline in it and shades from stark white to hints of gray. Next thing to show would be my piece of Cerise Ruby Mousselene that you can see the Opaline in from a mile away. It seems as though we are seeing a pattern here.