Steuben Glass

By Robert Reed

As seen in The Antique Shoppe Newspaper, March 2009                                          

Perhaps the most brilliant and deeply toned glassware in history appeared in the early 20th century through the genius of Frederick Carder at the Steuben Glass Works.

It was turn of the century art glass where free-spirit creation met technical inventiveness, and it was Steuben glass which may have simplified it best.

Carder was a native of England, and, according to Robyn Peterson the curator of collections at Rockwell Museum, "his experience lay in the production of flamboyant and colorful decorative glassware appealing to the tastes of the English middle class of the Victorian era."

In 1903 he established the Steuben factory at Corning, New York and name it after the county in which it was located.  The plant had the financing of T.G. Hawkes, and one of its main purposes was to provide cutting blanks for the Hawkes Company.

Beyond that however Carder began experimenting with the new effects of art glass using then untapped technology of the 20th century.

Carder's most famous result was Aurene glass, made in iridescent blue or iridescent gold, its brilliant surface came from the use of glass containing metallic salts which were hurled to the surface when heated in a special manner.  The glassware later sprayed with a metal chloride solution which drew the surface into fine, reflective lines.

As with fabled Tiffany glass, the base was transparent, since opaque would not have allowed the wondrous bending of light through the different layers of density.

Steuben's Aurene glass, for example, was used in the lavish DeVilbiss perfumizers, usually in gold or blues.  According to Jean Sloan in Perfume and Scent Bottle Collecting, "they were blown into simple shapes and left undecorated because the beautiful glass truly needed no other adornment." Most of the perfume containers were marked on the base with Devilbiss in gold script.

The craftsman artist also provided singled pieces of brilliant cut glass ranging from those individual pieces with matching pairs of pheasants to decanters with special wheel motifs.

"Carder tried his hand at an astonishing variety of techniques," notes Emma Papert the author of An Illustrated Guide to American Glass, "including hand-treated glass, shaded glass, and acid-etched wares known as acid cutback, which often resembled Chinese lapidary cutting."

Besides Aurene, his other specialties included Verre De Soie which was a transparent glass with a delicate, shifting rainbow of colors, the pinkish Rosaline, and various other iridized glassware.  His products included lamps, vases, and candlesticks as well as tableware and perfume bottles.

In 1918 the Corning Glass Company acquired the firm and there after it became the Steuben Division of that company, moving into more extensive production of fine handmade glass.  Beautiful Aurene glass continued to be made into the early 1930s at the plant.

In 1931 the Philadelphia Museum of Art was in the process of restoring a lovely 19th century house known as Strawberry Mansion.  They set about in search of suitable tableware for display and found it at the Steuben Glass Works.  By the following year the Strawberry pattern glassware was included in Steuben's catalog.

       Steuben came under the direction of Arthur Amory Houghton, Jr., the great-grandson of the founder of Corning Glass Works, in 1933.  Together with architect John Monteith Gates and sculptor Sidney Waught, Houghton led the firm into very extensive production of fine free-blown lead glass.

"Their efforts resulted in some of the finest pieces of American glass ever made," confirms author Papert, "distinguished by strength and simplicity of line, elegance of shape, and undeviating high quality of glass metal."

Steuben provided both two-handled vases for flowers and dining room tableware for the United States building at the New York World's Fair in 1939.  After the fair closed the glass and china, including an urn in the Strawberry Mansion pattern, were given to the White House.

The firm's growingly refined copper-wheel engraving and the use of international recognized artists endeared Steuben to the country and it was even the choice of American presidents as gifts of state.  In 1947 a bas-relief decorated Merry-Go-Round bowl was presented by the U.S. to Princess Elizabeth on the occasion of her wedding.

Today the Rockwell Museum in Corning has what is billed as the largest collection of Steuben glass on public view with more than 2,000 brilliantly colored varieties, particularly from early 1900 to 1930s period.

In 1994 the highly acclaimed museum published a resource book on Steuben glass, Collector's Choice Review.  It was based on the reoccurring exhibition at the museum, which showcases single examples of Steuben glass from both private and museum collections.

Skinner's Inc., one of the nation's leading auction galleries, has featured examples of fine Steuben works in recent years.  In 1994 they sold a group of 40 pieces including a bust of Ross Coffin Purdy by Carder.  Purdy was associated with Steuben and Corning in his own work, and was a friend of Carder.  The piece which was presented to the American Ceramic Society in 1942 by Carder in honor of his friend brought a record price.

Meanwhile a highlight of the White House dining service continues to be water goblets, wine glasses, champagne glasses, cordial glasses, sherry glasses, and matching finger bowl, all in the Strawberry Mansion pattern that Steuben made famous. .

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