Steuben has been one of the nation’s leading producers of art glass and decorative tableware for over a century. From its founding in 1903 until 1932, Steuben—under the direction of its co-founder and manager Frederick C. Carder—produced 7,000 different shapes in 140 colors. However, the Great Depression profoundly limited Steuben’s sales and public interest in colored glass began to wane. In February 1932, John MacKay replaced Carder as manager of Steuben and shifted its focus to producing colorless art glass in simple, elegant designs. That same year, scientists at the Corning Glass Works developed a new lead glass known as G10M, which was prized for its high optical clarity. Steuben employed Walter Dorwin Teague, one of the nation’s leading industrial designers, to make use of this new material. Teague promoted a clean and simple design aesthetic, influenced by contemporary trends in art and architecture. This parabola-shaped vase, decorated only with deeply cut parallel lines, must have seemed profoundly new and modern in contrast with the more fanciful pieces produced under Carder’s watch.
