Brilliant color: glass innovation and design

Abstract

"Explores a glassmaking color revolution and its creators, inspired by nature and chemistry. Between 1880 and 1930, glass designers and manufacturers created vibrant and striking colors inspired by nature, objects from rediscovered cultures, and hues of the new and popular synthetic textile dyes. Glass designers, many of whom identified themselves and studied as chemists, revolutionized the possibilities of glass and its colors through experimentation and endless creativity. Brilliant Color: Glass Innovation and Design records an exhibition at the Corning Museum of Glass, with over 150 vibrant photographs of glass vessels, arranged in a sequence of hues. Included are works by and discussions of glass designers such as Frederick Carder, Émile Gallé, Joseph Locke, Leo Moser, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Arthur Nash, and Harry Northwood. An introductory essay contextualizes glass design and manufacturing in the age of the first World's Fairs. Three more essays explore the popularization of colored glass, the new techniques and colors produced from scientific experiments, and how consumers incorporated these colorful wares into their home"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents

Director's foreword / Karol B. Wight -- Preface and acknowledgments / Amy McHugh -- A spectacular spectacle : colored glass at 19th-century world's fairs / Amy McHugh -- Immigrants and innovations : art and chemistry come to America from England / James Measell -- Every color in the rainbow : table glass marketing of the 1910s and 1920s / Amy McHugh -- Kinetic colors for modern times : Leo Moser's alchemy of art and science / Amy J. Hughes -- Notes -- Plates -- Contributors -- Concordance -- Manufacturers appendix.