Bottle-Shaped Vase

This small vase, made of copper ruby glass tinted with silver oxide, was donated to the Museum after the death of Littleton's father. After the success of the glass workshops in Toledo, Littleton began a course in glassmaking at the University of Wisconsin in 1963. A critical element of Littleton's goal to bring glass to artists in their studios was the introduction of glassblowing into American art-school and university curricula. This ensured that glass would gain acceptance as a medium for art, rather than as a material suited only to industry. In 1998, William Warmus, a former Corning Museum curator who was involved in the early years of American studio glass, wrote that "the founding of studio glass may today seem obvious, even conservative, but almost everything about glassmaking is risky and difficult, and in 1962 the outcome was far from assured."