09-033.

Found on November 30, 2009 in Minneapolis, MN.

Russel Wright

American Modern sherbets
Old Morgantown Glassware Guild, Inc.
USA, 1951
3.75 x 3.75 x 2.75"
Glass
Unsigned

The last time Kate and I took a trip to Minnesota, we came home with a single piece of Russel Wright American Modern glassware. A sherbet.

Last night we returned home from another visit to family and friends in Minneapolis and St. Paul, and this time around we brought back two pieces of Wright glass ... and again they were sherbets. I think the thrift angels are trying to tell us we need to make the trip back to MN more often.

Since this visit was a little longer than most, I had a good amount of time to go back and visit some of my MCM collecting and selling friends in town. On one stop, I was shown a set of glasses that has left me perplexed. Ann Kerr pictures one of them in the third edition of her Collector's Encyclopedia of Russel Wright on page 227, where they are described as being the extremely rare "Old Fashioned" shape. On that same page, she pictures a different shape which she also calls an "Old Fashioned" ... but which we now know is actually Wright's "Double Old Fashioned." Since these two shapes are distinctly different, I am confused about this "Old Fashioned" shape and Kerr's attribution of it to Wright. The color looked correct, but the shape seemed quite dissimilar to other Old Morgantown glassware we know Wright designed. This dissimilarity is especially evident in the foot of Kerr's "Old Fashioned," which doesn't have the distinctive flare all the other known and documented American Modern shapes exhibit. If you have the Kerr book, I'd be interested to hear what you have to say about this topic.