Hi Scott,

I enjoyed your comments. Yes, Perrot, Gardner and Plaut’s book STEUBEN – Seventy Years of American Glassmaking is an extremely well-written and informative book.Your comments about Verre de Soie having another name Flint Iridescent is interesting and very timely. There seems to be a significant debate about Carder’s colors. Some of the disagreement–not all, but some–may be the result of semantics as in the case of the different names for Verre de Soie.

The reason there were so many copies of Carder’s line drawings with annotations is that most of his salespeople carried copies. It is quite usual to find different names written beside the same pieces in different copies of the book. The reason is very pragmatic. Salesmen often named types and colors of glasses names they thought would sell the items better than the given name in the book. The result is the fact that several names may have been, and may still be used to describe one color.

In Gardner’s book on page 59, for example, Paul said that one of Carder’s colors was Dark Blue Jade. This appears in the list of Carder’s colors as given by Gardner Yet,we know what Dark Blue Jade is. However, it is also called Royal Blue Jade and Midnight Blue Jade. The bottom line of importance is that everyone who cares about it, knows what color it is that is described by those different names. That of course is what language is all about–knowing what somebody means when somebody says I have a piece of Midnight Blue Jade.

In my thinking, I agree with Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) when in Sacred Emily, she said, “Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.

Now, if you want to know anything about that Dark Blue Jade color, talk to my friend Bonnie Salzman, She is the expert.

Scott, Thank you for the thoughts that led to my rambling comments.

Tom Dimitroff,
Corning, NY