Page 27: The Reds at Last!

Unlike the way that his materials are organized at the Smithsonian, the Corning files contain samples of glass packaged in the same envelope as the formula. 

The Corning materials are complete and revealed many variations of the illusive red glass. 

Obviously I was very excited by this find. One of the boxes appeared to contain roundels and rectangular sheets of glass that had been individually wrapped in layers of paper towels. The receding flood waters had turned these into tightly fitted paper-mâché cocoons. From my research I was aware that the Saint factory produced all of their colors in the form of roundels with the exception of the striated reds which were made in the muff method and flattened into rectangular sheets. Tantalizingly, there were rectangular shapes in the box. Immediately I knew that I was looking at complete sheets of Saint’s red glass and I asked if they could be unwrapped. As the items did not obviously bear accession numbers, the Registrar was willing to soak them in the Conservator’s sink and the paper wrappings gradually came away. The beautiful sheets of Saint’s striated ruby glass were at last revealed.