1881 and 1882

In 1881, James Jackson Jarves wrote an article/editorial in The New York Times attempting to persuade the American rich and museums to convince the Government to relax importation taxes on art. Europeans, digesting the art they've already eaten up for their museums, have left an opening in the market which Americans should take advantage of, he writes. One of the available collections is of Venetian glass.

Marijuana : Cocaine :: Glass : Painting and Sculpture
Venetian glass is "attractive to all classes for its extreme beauty and artistic superiority in many point to anything made in our time of this material, is one which, if placed in America, cannot fail of exciting general interest, and stimulating, I trust, to the procuring of a similar series of objects of all the minor sister arts, and ultimately to those of heavier calibre in painting and sculpture."

One man's dance of cupids is another man's $43,000f.
The monetary value of Venetian glass was based upon collector's appraisal and desire. "I am assured by dealers that not long since there was sold in Paris a single cup of ancient colored glass, with gold decorations and a dance of cupids around its rim in enamel, for 43,000f., and that the choicest genuine specimens of old Venetian work are almost beyond price in collectors’ estimation. But as with all artistic work of the past times, there is no fixed standard of values. Sometimes the most precious objects are bought for trifling sums by chance finders in the possession of those who attach no value to them, and are only glad to get rid of, to them, useless objects at any offer, or exchange them for something more to their taste."

But we'll have to live the second hand knowledge that it rings like a bell
"But the most remarkable piece as a specimen of glass-blowing is a goblet of gold net or ribbed work in fine cross-stripes, standing on a dragon with open mouth, showing the body of a sea-serpent twisted in many folds, forming a most intricate but graceful knot. It has a cover surmounted by a corresponding dragon, and the glass is so strong that it rings when struck like a piece of silver-bell metal, with a clear, vibratory, musical sound. This strangely beautiful piece is 38 inches high, with a well-proportioned base and top, and sparkles as if it were created out of the combined foam of gold and glass by one master-stroke of genius. It is a veritable Arabian Night’s creation, the basilisk eyes and red, fiery tongues of the dragons giving it a warning look of hands off, however tempting the liquor it might have held. Perhaps it was intended to be symbolic of the dangers of the cup, however tempting the liquid within. The opalescent glass leaves little advantage in radiating or changeable colors to the real gem itself. There are also a few vessels so tiny, made as toys or to prove the dexterity of the workmen and purity of glass, that they seem as if from veritable liliputian factories. Some of them are enameled in white and tipped with gold, and in the shape of animals."

Venetian glass is a 'lost art' in 1881 after the fall of the republic.
"It is quite impossible to describe the variety of forms and decoration of these two hundred or more pieces of Venetian glass. To be appreciated they need to been seen and critically examined. This done, we can understand how it was Venice acquired such a reputation in the manufacture of this delightful material, and perceive that it is worth a strong effort to regain her lost art, either on her own part or any other people."

Did Jarves' plee have any effect in reducing the import taxes? Possibly, according to an article in Magazine Antiques (2000, Barr), Jarves gave the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC his personal collection, "amassed in a matter of months," of approximately 280 pieces. "The majority of the objects date from the late nineteenth century, so the dragon pieces furnish datable examples of the first Venetian exotic-animal creations."

In 1882, Harper's New Montly Magazine published "Ancient and Modern Venetian Glass of Murano" by Jarves. In it he writes, "In advocating art museums in America, and pointing out to the public how they might be best formed according to the genius of our popular institutions, I have long urged that individuals of means and knowledge, either directly or by competent agents, would undertake the formation of collections in some special department or art on a systematic plan, which should effectively illustrate it as far as is possible for public benefit, rather than simply to acquire and hoard for private pride or enjoyment. This done, the possessor might place his collection, even if retaining the ownership, where it can do the most good to the country in every sense, by being accessible to all interested in it. [...] Having long preached this doctrine, [...] on finding myself in possession of these specimens of Venetian glass, it occured to me to put it into practice, as far as I was able, as an example in a small way, but of an interesting article, which others with wealth at command might extend to more important branches of fine arts."

The purity of Venetian glass expresses the desire for a better way of living
[...] "Art receives its highest consecration when most free from any mixture of material use or baptism of mere utility. Glass is specially adapted by its flexible nature in its earliest material stage to be shaped into forms of an exuberant fancey, quaint, delicate, lithe, coquettish, and beautiful, with every variety and combination of captivating color suggestive of the spirituel side of artistic invention, of its wit, its jokes and gibes, its merriment, as well as of what comes from the intellectual yearnings toward a higher idealism, a perfect refinement of substance and taste--in short, whatever harmonizes most gracefully and completely with the happiest aspects of humanity, or symbolizes most delicately its better aspirations--without experiencing the common fate of precious things of earthly make. It neither rusts nor decays. Moths cannot consume it, nor time alter its shape or dim its beauty. It is always the same frolicsome, fascinating, suggestive, imperishable object, without drawback of the grosser conditions of material being. But it has one law of existence whose force is in proportion to the perfection of all sublunary matters--it requires consummate care to preserve its daintiness intact. The slightest mishap may crush it as easily as a butterfly's wing or a bright bubble of the air. There is no midway phase of aesthetic picturesqueness in slow decay, as with other art objects; no interval between perfect condition and absolute ruin; for its hold on existence is too slight for any intermediate stage.

"Bind the Material Captive to the Intellectual"
[...] The highest aim of the Venetian artist was to overlook prosaic utility entirely in his glass; to invent something so bizarre, ethereal, light, imaginative, or so splendid, fascinating, and original in combinations of colors and design, as to captivate both the senses and understanding, and lead them rejoicing into far-away regions of the possibilities of an ideal existence; in fine, to bind the material captive to the intellectual in art, even when administering to the vanities of life and grosser calls of nature."

Barr, Sheldon. "Venetian art nouveau glass." Magazine Antiques. February 2, 2000. Accessed November 7, 2009. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1026/is_2_157/ai_59616604/?tag=content;col1

Jarves, James Jackson. The New York Times. February 23, 1881. "Glass-Making in Venice." Accessed pdf file April 26, 2009. Transcribed by ABJ Seattle Glass Online April 26, 2009. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D07E2DD1730EE3ABC4B51DFB466838A699FDE&scp=13&sq=glass%20art&st=cse

Jarves, James Jackson. "Ancient and Modern Venetian Glass of Murano." Harper's New Monthly Magazine. Vol. 64, Issue 380. January 1882. pp. 177-190. http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=harp;cc=harp;idno=harp0064-2;node=harp0064-2%3A2;size=l;frm=frameset;seq=189;view=image;page=root