Monday, October 3, 2011

We have several responses to the discussion on “window pane green”. First, from Francis Allen of Hyattsville, Maryland.

Alan,

I never heard of “window glass” Steuben, however, I think Terry Smith means to cite manganese dioxide vice magnesium oxide as a decolorizer which, interestingly enough, also produces lilac/purpling of “sun-colored” glass.

Francis Allen

Next, Beth Shaut of the Carder Steuben Shop of Corning opines:

In my opinion the Mug shown yesterday was meant to be Cyprian but was not Iridized giving it a hint of green to the rim.

Finally, Marshall Ketchum Carder Steuben Club Webmaster of Genoa, New York suggests:

Alan

If you search the color Window Glass Green on the www.cardersteubenclub.org website you will find it used for four pieces. I have used that color name reluctantly but there is some evidence that it may have been a Carder color. If you search the factory records that exist for the line drawings that color name is found exactly once, for door stop shape 7257. That mention in the records is not proof, in my opinion, that Window Glass Green was the factory name for any color because there were too many people involved in trying to keep those records up to date and many of them seemed to have little experience in knowing what the colors were. As an example there are many references to pieces made in Jade Green and Alabaster but there are also 6 or 8 pieces that are listed as being made in Jade Green and “white glass”. It is almost certain that the “white glass” was Alabaster but we can never be fully certain. It is probable that whoever entered that data in the records did not know or did not remember that the “white glass” was normally called Alabaster.

The four pieces that are found on the website called Window Glass Green are pieces probably made around 1920 or later. Is it possible that the color is a result of iron oxide contamination of the silica used to manufacturer the glass? I think that it is possible. Bobby Rockwell has told me that it is his opinion that some of the strange colors that collectors now run across may be due to mistakes made in mixing a batch of glass. Instead of discarding 800 pounds of glass at some expense they just used the batch and now we, as collectors, attempt to tie factory names to those colors. If the name Window Glass Green had not been found in factory records I would not have used it on the website. Since it was used at least once it may be a legitimate name. A color name that I will not use on the website is “sea foam green” which is a color name found only in the Ericson books and was probably an Ericson invention.

So where does this leave us. As collectors we would like to know as much about the glass as possible but the resources we have are very limited. Up until a few weeks ago many people were calling a moderately common light green glass “window glass green” but X-ray florescent tests have confirmed that that color is actually Celadon. Since we have no formula for Carder’s Window Glass Green that kind of test may not be useful. Similar tests on a purple candlestick confirm that that color is Canterbury, a color that has gone unrecognized for almost 100 years. When Greg Merkel’s new book is published we will learn what the factory name is for the color that collectors now call Blue-gray. There is always hope that advances in technology well improve our ability to learn more about the glass. Another possibility is material in the Rakow Library. The Library has many boxes of material from the Carder era that are uncataloged. There may be information there that will help collectors in their quest.

Marshall

www.cardersteubenclub.org

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