Vase

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Object Name: 
Vase
Accession Number: 
93.4.9
Dimensions: 
Overall H: 43.9 cm; Rim Diam: 14.8 cm
Location: 
On Display
Date: 
about 1848-1858
Web Description: 
Appearances can be deceiving. This cut and gilded vase blown from four layers of glass - colorless, red, green, and opaque white - is very Bohemian in appearance. However, it was made by William Leighton at the New England Glass Company between 1848 and about 1858. Leighton, son of the factory’s manager, was a very skillful blower and a self-taught glass chemist. About 1848, he developed a formula for ruby glass. Before that time, ruby glass was imported from Europe in the form of ingots and remelted for use in the United States. Because the vase is elaborately decorated, it was probably made for display, possibly at the 1853 New York world’s fair, where the New England glassworks had an extensive display. The Corning Museum of Glass acquired the vase from one of Leighton’s descendants.
Department: 
Provenance: 
Leighton, William (American, 1808-1891), Former Collection
Leighton, George William, Former Collection
Category: 
Primary Description: 
Colorless, ruby, opaque white, green lead glasses; blown, cut, gilded. Ovoid body with flaring top cut into ten scalloped petals, spreading hollow foot flat on the bottom. Vase is blown of colorless glass with overlays of ruby, opaque white and opaque green, in that order; the ruby glass covers the entire surface except for the neck; the lower two thirds of the body have the green over white petals extending up from the base and the foot has green over white petals extending down and white ones which project to edge of foot; the base has six green and white scallops showing on the ruby surface with a ground pontil mark in the center. The surface has been completely cut and polished due to the cutting of the top layers and there is additional gilt decoration on the top rim and all over the neck, body and foot.
The Fragile Art: Extraordinary Objects from The Corning Museum of Glass
Venue(s)
Park Avenue Armory 2009-01-23 through 2009-02-01
The 55th Annual Winter Antiques Show
Splitting the Rainbow: Cut Glass in Color
Venue(s)
Corning Museum of Glass 2006-04-11 through 2006-11-01
West Bridge Show
 
200 Years of Glass: A History of Libbey Glass (2019) illustrated, p. 10 (fig. 1-5);
Glass: A Short History (Smithsonian Books edition) (2012) illustrated, pp. 94-95; BIB# 130360
Glass: A Short History (The British Museum edition) (2012) illustrated, pp. 94-95; BIB# 135965
Cut and Gilded Vase (2011)BIB# 134357
CURRENT and coming (2009-01) illustrated, p. 22;
The Fancy Paperweights of the New England Glass Company (2006-10) illustrated, pp. 132-139, esp. p. 134;
Splitting the Rainbow: Cut Glass in Color (2006) illustrated, p. 5; BIB# AI69867
Il Corning Museum (2005-06) illustrated, p. 21, second from top; BIB# AI98014
The Corning Museum of Glass: A Decade of Glass Collecting 1990-1999 (2000) illustrated, pp. 41, 44, #57; BIB# 65446
The Corning Museum of Glass, Curators' Choice (1995) illustrated, #16; BIB# 36655
Recent Important Acquisitions, 36 (1994) illustrated, pp. 112-113, #16; BIB# AI33896
The Corning Museum of Glass Annual Report 1993 (1994) p. 17, ill.; BIB# AI95182