Thursday, September 13, 2012

Marshall Ketchum, our webmaster, who is the master at identifying Carder shape numbers explains some shape number issues with the Poussin plate we saw the other day.

Alan

The recent posting of a picture of a Poussin engraved plate (Gazette 1563) reminded me of something about the Gardner book that might be of interest. The book by Paul Gardner The Glass of Frederick Carder is one of the books that every Carder Steuben collector should have. It is particularly important since it has most of the existing factory line drawings that are used as a means of identification. Like all books, errors have been found over the 40 years that collectors have used the book. One of these shows up on page 99 in Illustration 155. The stemware set that is engraved in Poussin pattern is identified as being on shape 7181. The 1932 Steuben catalog makes it clear that Poussin pattern was made on shape 6844.

The factory records list shape 6844 as being made in Amethyst, Cerise Ruby and Crystal engraved in Grapes pattern. Poussin pattern must have come later but its mention was not added back into the records. Shape 6844 is the “blank” for shape 7181. That is, the shape of 7181 is identical with shape 6844 but must have been designed for a different purpose. It is unknown why another number was necessary but this was a fairly common occurrence with many of the higher number Steuben shapes. Perhaps shape 7181 was a special order but we will probably never know for sure. The factory records for shape 7181 just say “Wisteria Glass Cut”. The cut pattern shown on the drawing is different from Poussin.

Marshall

Poussin plate

www.cardersteubenclub.org

2012 Carder Steuben Club annual Symposium will be held at The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY from September 20-22, 2012.

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