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.