Every form, size and color
In 1981, the year we were married, my wife found a cranberry swan
bowl in an antique store and decided it would make a wonderful birthday
gift for me. We had been collecting cranberry glass forms and so when
I opened the present I was thrilled. She thought that the swan might
have been created in the small coastal New England town where she
was born, New Bedford, Massachusetts. It didn't take much research
to varify that. A call to her mother, whose family is generations in
New Bedford, confirmed that our swan was indeed a Pairpoint crystal swan created during the Gundersen era,1938-1952, the later year being
the year my wife was born. Her mother recalled being in homes where they would have a large swan bowl filled with fruit as a dining table centerpiece.
A few years later on a trip to South Florida, we found another, this time a
clear version. Over the years we have collected quite a number of these swans and have sought information about the artist who created them for
the Gundersen-Pairpoint Glass Works.
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My grandfather, a serious collector of art, taught me about collecting.
He believed that we have a responsibility to tell a story using the things
we collect. That is what we are attempting to do, and our goal is to have
in our collection one of every form, size and color of these extraordinary swans Gundersen-Pairpoint master gaffer Gilly Gulbransen created.
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FROM THE COLLECTION: The rosaria and clear, 12" swan bowl to the left
is the first swan my wife bought for me so many years ago.