Designed by Eric Hilton in July 1975, this necklace with “Seed Engraving” was one of the first items of jewelry developed by Steuben Glass. It was offered for sale in Steuben’s 1975 catalog. Two years later, Steuben opened a jewelry gallery at its New York City showroom, which displayed necklaces, bracelets, rings, pins, and cuff links designed by Eric Hilton, Lloyd Atkins, Donald Pollard, Paul Schulze, Earl Stampp, and Bernard X. Wolff. The pendant consists of a solid, truncated glass cone attached by one edge to a trilateral arc with sprouting seed motifs engraved on the reverse. The motifs are magnified, distorted, and reflected through the front surface of the highly polished, lenslike pendant. The pendant is mounted on a bent and hinged 18-karat gold wire neckpiece. It was not until after April 1977 that Steuben jewelry began to be numbered and signed with the designer’s mark in addition to Steuben’s diamond-point engraved signature “S.” Born in northern Scotland, Hilton studied ceramics, glass, photography, and silver from 1955 to 1960 at the Edinburgh College of Art, where he later taught. He immigrated to the United States in 1971 and began designing sculptures and objects for Steuben Glass in 1972. His designs are inspired by the natural world. “Art is one of the foundations of the life experience,” he wrote. “It echoes through all human history. We decipher it like a code to communicate with our ancestral memory.”* Signed: “S,” engraved on top of one facet of arch on pendant. Published: Madigan 2003, p. 314 (necklace), p. 164 (jewelry); and Steuben Glass: Christmas 1975, trade catalog, New York: Steuben Glass, 1975, p. 65. * Tina Oldknow, Voices of Contemporary Glass: The Heineman Collection, Corning: The Corning Museum of Glass, 2009, p. 143.