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Carder Steuben Rare BlownGlass "MossAgate" Numbered Blue Matrix Crackle Vase

Name: Carder Steuben Rare BlownGlass "MossAgate" Numbered Blue Matrix Crackle Vase
Brand: Steuben Glass
Price: 6695 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Antique colorful Steuben blown glass pieces featuring the "Moss Agate" technique designed by its co-founding artistic director Frederick Carder are unsigned and "all rare" according to the 1974-published book, Steuben: Seventy Years of American Glassmaking, by Praeger Publishers, New York/Washington, which includes only museum-quality examples. Like this distinct vase with a "netlike crackle pattern" described on the book's page 44, its accompanying photo of a minimalist 1920s vase featuring "moss agate: rare blue matrix with crackle" shows that "the blue matrix of this vase with its variegated blue, purple, black and green shadings indicates a most unusual and perhaps unique piece". In one-of-a-kind pattens, "the majority of these pieces are predominantly in shades of red, brown and yellow", which makes this primarily cool-tone color palette even more rare. Some of the requisite powdered-glass inclusions for the twisted Moss Agate pattern in our vase have satiny iridescence that includes flakes of one of Carder's most popular metallic colors "Aurene" and/or a surface treatment. Please note that in at least one of our photos some parts of the crackled texture of the vase reflected a few colors only found in the surrounding area, such as the pink skin of the photographer's hands. After reheating the water-shattered pieces of the unfinished vase in the Steuben glory-hole to fuse the intentional cracks, its sole mark was added to the bottom, which notes in etched script the glass-shape "6709". This is among the up to four-digit numbers until at least 1932 that were assigned for the Corning Glass Works records (after it acquired Steuben in 1917) to multiple forms "made in sets with similar characteristics", according to the Carder Steuben Glass Association that aims to document for its online shape-index all Steuben works designed by Carder. Among the thousands of Carder-Steuben pieces published to date with number gaps, it has only been able to post pages about a scant 18 Moss Agate pieces, of which only four have a "Primary Blue" matrix while three of these are vases. Weighing 328 grams, our vase with its asymmetrical rim that is atypical for Carder-Steuben works suggests that it is not only one-of-a-kind in color and pattern but also in form, as similar non-symmetrical rims can be found among published "Intarsia" technique vases (such as glass-shape 7041), which are likewise rare because an estimated 50 to 100 pieces were produced that are all unique and which "Carder considered his finest achievements in artistic glassmaking." Notably, at least Intarsia works did not match the Steuben-assigned shape numbers because they were all one-offs like our vase most likely is. From the 6000-series that seems to have been produced with consecutive numbers, the Association-documented "Amber Moss Agate" vase shape-number 6390 most closely resembles our vase in form with its symmetrical single curve and footless base. In comparison to the Moss Agate pieces, Carder signed all Intarsia works in the early 1930s just before his 30 years of directing glassmaking with the Steuben Division of Corning came to an end. At that point in 1933, Steuben Glass Inc was founded by a young great-grandson of Corning's other co-founder with the sole shareholder as Corning Glass Works, whose board strove to keep up with retail trends based on a much narrower design focus using only progressive optical glass with brilliant colorless qualities. For comparative U.S. auction-prices to our vase published in Antiques & The Arts Weekly, a Carder-Steuben blue Moss Agate vase with "a rounded flat-sided shape and narrow cylindrical neck with a satin finish" sold for $9.375 in December 2021 via Florida-based Akiba Antiques, while other Carder vases in that sale nearly doubled high estimates to peak at $46,875. As ours numbered piece lacks significant sales provenance, we price the vase on the low end for rare Carder-Steuben pieces.

Designer:

Steuben Glass

Brand:

Steuben Glass

Dimensions:

Width: 4 in (10.16 cm)Depth: 2.5 in (6.35 cm)Length: 6 in (15.24 cm)

Style:

art glass (In the Style Of)

Place of Origin:

United States

Period:

1920-1929

Condition:

Wear consistent with age and use.

Seller Location:

Chicago, IL

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU3244221295492

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Shop All Steuben Glass

Steuben Glass

Steuben Glass Works is the most illustrious name in American art glass. Its vividly colored Art Nouveau and Asian-style wares produced in the early 20th century as well as later modernist works rendered in flawlessly clear crystal are objects of striking beauty and delicacy.

The Steuben Glass Works was cofounded in 1903 in the town of Corning, New York, by Frederick Carder, an alum of celebrated British glassmaker Stevens & Williams and a self-taught English chemist and glassmaker. Carder was a restless experimenter, constantly creating new color formulas that resulted in a wide array of hues, from milky jades to his iridescent Aurene shades. A favorite Carder technique was to acid-etch decorative patterns into pieces made of glass layered in different colors. The forms of his vessels were relatively conservative. Most are based on classic Chinese pottery; many display the flowing, naturalistic lines of the Art Nouveau period.

The larger local firm Corning Glass acquired Steuben in 1918. The company’s approach to art glass changed radically in the early 1930s, when Corning chemists devised a new type of crystal known as 10M, with perfect clarity and brilliant refractive powers. Corning decided that, henceforth, all Steuben decorative objects, vases, sculptures and other wares would be made from the crystal.

Art glass was made in two formats: molded and polished abstract sculptures and figurines, or pieces for which artists used Steuben crystal as a sort of canvas. The first such artwork was sculptor Stanley Waugh’s 1935 Gazelle Bowl, a vessel etched with brawny Art Deco animal forms. In later years, Steuben would invite artists that included Henri Matisse, Georgia O’Keeffe and Isamu Noguchi to “paint” in the firm’s crystal.

Steuben glass comes in myriad forms and is available in a broad range of price points. Jewel-toned glasses and tableware from the Carder era include candlesticks marked at $300 and full dinner services for more than $10,000. Small crystal figurines bring around $1,000, while larger sculptures are priced in the neighborhood of $7,000.

Steuben glass, with its impeccable artistry and timeless grace, deserves a place in any collection.

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