NEWSLETTER - The New Bedford Museum of Glass

The New Bedford Museum of Glass
NEWSLETTER
VOLUME 3, NUMBER 1
Summer 2010
Cut Glass Armchair
Acquired
The glass armchair shown below
and dramatically installed at the entryway to the Museum’s new galleries (see
photo to left) is an exciting recent addition to NBMOG’s permanent collection. Its acquisition was made possible
by a generous gift from Trustee Gene
DesLandes. The armchair creates an
absolutely spectacular first impression
for visitors to the Museum. It dates to
the 20th-century and is cut in the style
of the famous Birmingham, England
firm of F. & C. Osler. Osler produced
glass furniture and fountains for display
at international exhibitions, beginning
with the 1851 (continued on page 4)
Museum Galleries
Nearing Completion!
Renovation work on the Museum’s new space at 61 Wamsutta Street
is progressing nicely. NBMOG member
and volunteer Bret Morey, with help
from his cousin Bob Vogan, has finished
painting the 4,000 square foot ceiling
and has built a spacious room to house
the Museum’s growing library. Bret
also donated and installed a beautiful
mahogany door for the Museum’s new
second-floor office. Meanwhile, back
in the newly-painted galleries, Museum director Kirk Nelson and contractor
Brian Gunnison have built fifty monumental display cases (each measuring
8 feet tall!). Thanks to a generous gift
from Trustee Gene DesLandes these
cases have been professionally painted
and are now filled with sparkling glass!
Gene has been a great help
to the Museum throughout this extraordinary undertaking and deserves
special mention. With help from his
friend George Lebeau he assembled
the lighting panels for each of the
fifty cases, and with help from fellow
Trustee Bill Pitt and another friend and
recruit, Brian Wicherski, he helped facilitate the labor-intensive move of
books, glass and filing cabinets from
our old office location. Our sincere
thanks to each of these volunteers.
As part of the move and expansion, the Museum has purchased ten
additional 4-drawer filing cabinets,
bringing our total up to 18. These cabinets have been almost completely filled
with the extensive glass subject files
transferred in 2008 to NBMOG by member Dianne Gregg from the Potomac Library of Potomac, MD. The files originally were gathered by local chapters
of the National American Glass Club in
honor of glass scholars Helen N. Barger,
Ruth M. Suppes and Demmie & Harriet
Blackistone. They now constitute a significant resource for study at NBMOG.
Throughout
the
renovation,
architect Eric Nelson, AIA, has volunteered his time to oversee the
creative (continued on page 2)
Figure 1 (left). Entrance to the Museum’s
new galleries in space shared with the
New Bedford Antiques Center at 61 Wamsutta Street, New Bedford, MA. The Museum’s glass press can be seen in the background through the display case to the
right, while centered in the entryway is the
Museum’s spectacular cut glass armchair.
Figure 2 (below). Armchair, colorless cut
glass with metal fittings and red upholstery; maker unknown, 20th Century,
H: 48 1/8”, L: 29 1/2”, W: 25 1/4”; Purchase Fund acquisition in memory of Delmas & Marie DesLandes, acc. 2010.062
(Museum Galleries cont. from p. 1)
installation plan he formulated in collaboration with Museum director (and
brother!) Kirk. We also have received
generous volunteer help from President
Karen Petraglia, Trustees Bill Pitt and
Peggy Hooper, Antiques Center owner
Jeff Costa, members Andrea Natsios
and Ross and David Nelson, and Antiques Center employees Donald Roderick, Maria Leger and Kris Fleurent. One feature of the new galleries
that will not be apparent to casual visitors is the storage capacity represented
by the enclosed lower compartment of
each display case. Three years ago the
Museum acquired several tons (literally!) of colorful glass shards excavated
at the Pairpoint factory site in New Bedford in the 1960s. Bill Pitt assisted with
the transportation of the glass (three
cargo van loads!) to a “temporary” storage area in his garage. Then, following
the construction and placement of the
new display cases this June, Bill helped
move the shards to their new home in
the lower storage compartments. In this
way the Museum has saved an extraordinary resource from the local landfill, where it was otherwise heading!
We expect to complete work on
the galleries over the summer, with a
Grand Opening celebration scheduled
for the weekend of September 11th. Details about special opening events will be
sent to members later this summer and
will be available online at www.nbmog.
org. Please join us for the festivities!
Figure 3 (top right). Gallery installation showing some of the Museum’s fifty
new display cases together with pedestals that will soon house NBMOG’s table
fountain and Pairpoint lamp collection.
Figure 4 (right). Museum member Robert Cox
admires the new display of Tiffany and Steuben
glass on loan from The Bennington Museum.
Volunteers Needed!
As the Museum prepares to occupy its new space, volunteers are still
sought to help in the shop, research library and galleries. Kirk Nelson will offer volunteers a “hands-on” glass appreciation course covering the history
of glass using treasures from the Museum’s permanent collection and research library. This will be a fun learning experience for you and will provide
a vital service for the Museum. We also
need a volunteer coordinator and volunteers to help with curatorial research
and membership. Please join the team!
Figure 5 (below). Distinctive “Functional
Modern” glass by Gundersen-Pairpoint,
New Bedford, MA, c. 1953, part of an extensive gift just received from Karilon
Babbitt-Grainger, daughter of company
general manager James M. Babbitt, Sr.
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Figure 6 (below). Some of the 400+ antique glass marbles recently donated to
NBMOG by member Jean Wilson. This gift
will attract an important new group of glass
collectors to the Museum, thereby significantly expanding our audience and appeal.
Gift Shop Open for
Business!
The Meyer Lamp
NBMOG member Abbie Meyer
has donated this magnificent cobalt
overlay lamp in memory of her late
husband Ed, a distinguished collector
of American lighting and a long-time
NBMOG trustee. Ed passed away last
January at age 75. His knowledge, enthusiasm and gentle humor sparkled
like the beautiful antique lamps that
he and Abbie collected for more than
fifty years. Ed was a constant source of
encouragement and helpful information for the Museum. His contributions
were particularly important in an area
such as lighting, where dating and attribution depend on an encyclopedic
knowledge of patents, trade catalogs,
manufacturing technology, etc. On the
basis of catalog illustrations now at
the Corning Museum of Glass, Ed was
able to attribute his stunning cobalt
lamp to the Mt. Washington Glass Co.,
c.1861-1874. The lamp was a favorite
of the Meyers since they purchased it
many years ago in New Bedford, and
its cut cobalt shade, which they found
separately, is an extreme rarity. Ed will
be greatly missed at NBMOG, and we
are honored to celebrate his memory
through the display of the beautiful Mt. Washington “Meyer” lamp.
The Museum welcomes new employee Laura Coffin, a native of nearby Nantucket Island, to help with the
running of the gift shop and to assist
Director Kirk Nelson with a variety of
curatorial and administrative tasks.
Although the shop cases are not yet
lighted, the shop has enjoyed a steady
flow of casual visitors from the Antiques Center since early July and sales
have been brisk! Shop inventory consists of glass items, both old and new,
that have been donated or consigned
for sale by Museum members. We are
grateful to everyone who has helped to
get the shop up and running so quickly,
and particularly to Bill Pitt for the gift
of three attractive jewelry display cases
and to Karen Petraglia for helping to organize record-keeping and operational
procedures. Karen and Museum mem-
Library Gifts!
Museum member Al Trinidad, an
active member of the Westchester Glass
Club and author of three authoritative
books about glass bells, has answered
our call for the donation of glass reference books in magnificent style! Al
has donated more then 400 books,
many of them in categories that were
poorly represented here until now. Of
special interest are the studies of rich
cut glass, which were helpful to Al during his glass bell research. Included
are numerous trade catalog reprints
and also the massive and seldom seen
two-volume Tuthill Research Scrapbooks and the four-volume Ameri-
can Brilliant Period Cut Glass Adver3
ber Jim Lessig have been extremely
generous with gifts and consignments
of inventory to help stock our shelves!
We invite you to please contact the Museum if you have glass you
would like to sell through the shop (either as gifts for the shop or on consignment). Items currently available range
from beautiful Steuben Gold Aurene
and Verre de Soie to work by studio
glass pioneer Dominick Labino to the
products of such contemporary makers as Lalique, Waterford, Baccarat and
many others. We also have an extensive selection of glass reference books
in stock, both new and out-of-print.
Shop hours are from 10 AM to
5 PM Monday through Saturday and
from noon to 5 PM on Sunday. Please
stop by for a look, and remember that
Museum members enjoy a 10% discount on all items! During your visit
we will be happy to give you a special preview tour of the new galleries!
tisements, by Rob and Valerie Smith.
Other recent gifts to the library include
89 back issues of The Hobstar, the informative newsletter of the American
Cut Glass Association, gratefully received from Phillip Roberts, and a nice
group of books about contemporary
glass from member Lasse Antonsen.
DesLandes
Memorial Gifts
About 1958, shortly before the
closing of the Gundersen-Pairpoint
company store on William Street in
downtown New Bedford, area resident
Delmas DesLandes purchased a number of items from the store inventory.
He was a friend of the last store manager, George Geer, and had started to
develop an interest in collecting glass.
Among the items he purchased were
five curious examples of dark ruby
glass embedded with colored glass
chips and pieces of paperweight cane
(see Fig. 9). Today this glass is recognized by collectors as a great rarity and
one of the last products of the local
industry. It was made under the direction of Robert Bryden, either just before the closing of the factory in New
Bedford or during a final short period
of operation in nearby Wareham, MA.
Delmas’ interest in glass continued to develop, and in the 1970s
he served as a trustee on the Board
of the first glass museum established
in New Bedford. Sadly, that organization closed in 1992. Fortunately, Delmas’ son Gene shares both his strong
interest in glass and his sense of civic
responsibility. Gene now serves on
the Board of NBMOG, and in the fall of
2009 he donated all five examples of
his father’s so-called “Bryden Enam(Glass Chair cont. from p. 1) Crystal Palace Exhibition in London. Jane
Shadel Spillman, Curator of American
Glass at the Corning Museum of Glass,
researched the subject extensively for
her 2006 special exhibition catalog
European Glass Furnishings for Eastern Palaces. Imagine our delight to
find that she has chosen an armchair
nearly identical to NBMOG’s recent
acquisition for her cover illustration!
elware” to the Museum’s collection in
memory of his parents. His donation
also included examples of the rare
Gundersen-Pairpoint “Cubistic Pyramid” candlestick design in Peach Blow,
amethyst and blue (see Fig. 11). We are
extremely grateful to Gene for the energy and enthusiasm he has brought
to the founding of the new museum.
The glass collection, and our organization as a whole, are much stronger thanks to his active participation!
Paperweight Study
Center at NBMOG!
The Museum is working closely
with members of the New England Paperweight Collectors’ Association to
dramatically expand our collection of
glass paperweights and related research
materials. Museum members Ben Drabeck, Bill Pitt, Roger Jacobsen, Richard
Schimmelpfeng, Andrea Natsios, Allan
Port and Doris & Harvey Robinson have
each been extremely helpful in this endeavor. We also are grateful to collector and author Andy Dohan for the gift
of his excellent study The Dictionary of
Paperweight Signature Canes, and to
John & Linda Walsh for their gift of back
issues of the informative Paperweight
Collectors’ Association Annual Journal.
Most recently, from Ben Drabeck we
have received a group of six important
early weights by the legendary maker
Charles Kaziun, Jr., who led the American revival of paperweightmaking in
the 1940s (see Fig. 12 to left). Several
exciting paperweight initiatives are in
the works - stay tuned for updates!
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Figures 9-11 (clockwise, above). Five examples of “Bryden Enamelware,” c. 1957,
Gundersen-Pairpoint, New Bedford, MA,
or Pairpoint Glass Co., E. Wareham, MA,
acc. 2009.015-019; portrait photograph
of Delmas & Marie DesLandes; Peach Blow
candlesticks in the Cubistic Pyramid design, Gundersen-Pairpoint, New Bedford, MA, c. 1955, acc. 2009.020.1-2.
New Bedford Museum of Glass
Newsletter Vol. 3, #1
© Summer 2010
Museum & Shop
61 Wamsutta St.
New Bedford, MA 02740
(tel.) 508-984-1666
(web) www.nbmog.org
Exec. Director & Newsletter Editor
Kirk J. Nelson
[email protected]
NBMOG is a 501 (c) (3)
not-for-profit
educational organization