gill x steubenin 1940, steuben glass, nyc, issued a catalog accompanying their exhibition Designs in

gill x steuben

in 1940, steuben glass, nyc, issued a catalog accompanying their exhibition Designs in Glass by Twenty-seven Contemporary Artists—period gem, set throughout in bodoni. in the introduction, john m. gates, then director of steuben, tells us: «Greatly encouraged  by Matisse’s interest, and confident that crystal could be the medium of high artistic expression, I then set about with Steuben’s liberal and whole-hearted backing to gather the greatest contemporary artists in Europe and in America into a single group for the purpose of proving that conviction.». steuben executed an edition of six of each creation, retaining one of each for its permanent collection.
 from eric gill steuben selected a pair of border decorations from the large set he had engraved for the golden cockerel press edition of geoffrey chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde [arundell del re (ed.), waltham st. lawrence, 1927]; & used these to decorate a pair of flutes (1st illustration). i am, however, amazed that the catalog fails to name the glass engraver responsible for emblazoning gill’s, or indeed any other, designs. this particular border pair, entitled Naked Youth & Naked Girl Looking Back (2nd illustration), we may imagine depict troilus & criseyde themselves with cupid clinging above in criseyde’s stalk. apparently, the unnamed steuben engraver took some license with gill’s designs, shifting the stalks & making slight adjustments to postures—presumably better to adapt the contour of the vessels, & optimise translucence.

2nd illustration: facsimile of the pair printed on a single sheet (from an edition of 10) in the wolseley fine arts catalogue Eric Gill | 1882-1940 | Drawings and Engravings from the state of Mrs. Petra Tegetmeier | Part 1 1913-1928 | 28 March — 28 April 2001 [wolseley fine arts, london, 2001, p17].