Errors in the Forward by Taylor Abernathy. The Forward consists of four paragraphs:
Paragraph 2: "The above paragraph [i.e., paragraph 1] was taken from the previously published T. G. Hawkes catalogue by The American Cut Glass Association and was written by the late Norman L. Corah." Paragraph 1 contains erroneously information concerning the Russian pattern. Correct information, which began to be disseminated in 1997, was not known to Corah at the time (1989) he wrote his introduction to the previously published Hawkes catalog, but it should have been known to Abernathy.
Paragraph 3: "The Rakow Library of the Corning Museum of Glass has dated this catalogue as published in 1890. . . ." The catalog could not have been "published in 1890" because it contains the following patented patterns: Coronet (1892), Valencian (1893), Nautilus (1896), Aberdeen (1896), Festoon (1897), and Nelson (1897). In addition, several non-patented patterns are included that were not introduced until after 1895 (Spillman 1996, pp. 187-8). It is difficult to believe that the Rakow Library would have made such an obvious error. In any case Abernathy should have known how to date an assembled catalog.
COMMENT: Seven catalogs of high quality -- several enhanced with features that make them especially useful today -- were published by the ACGA between 1996 and 2000. Since then the association's catalog program has experienced less productivity: recent catalogs have fewer enhancements, and the catalogs themselves are less carefully prepared, as exemplified by Abernathy's Forward.
Abernathy's brief remarks in this publication follow his Introduction in a second J. D. Bergen Company catalog, reprinted by the ACGA in 2002, in which he writes: "When compared to the previously published Berger (sic) catalogue reprint, there are only three [patterns] that appear in both, Prism, Princeton, and Star Dia & Fan." The problem is that Prism is cut differently in the two catalogs; the name Princeton is used for two entirely different patterns in the two catalogs; and the Star Dia & Fan pattern does not exist in either catalog (The pattern should be Straw. Dia. & Fan, of course.) Further, "In total there are one hundred seventy-six patterns identified. One hundred fifty-eight named and thirty-eight numbered". But, 158 plus 38 equals 196, not 176. Additionally, we are still looking for "North Forth Street" in Minneapolis. All this in half a page of text!
The decline in the ACGA's catalog program in terms of usefulness and quality can be dated from January 2001 when two prominent members of the catalog committee resigned. It has long been recognized that these individuals were largely responsible for the high quality of the catalogs issued between 1996 and 2000.
While a chairman is not an editor, Abernathy's ignorance -- especially as indicated by his Forward in this Hawkes photographic folio -- is disturbing. A committee chairman should, after all, be familiar with the basic facts of his subject. In addition, Abernathy's attempt to shift responsibility to others (namely, Norman Corah and the Rakow Library) can only be described as reprehensible.
Updated 10 Sep 2004