Topic: Rueven not Reuven

[Glassyone]

Could someone  tell me if all  these three pieces came from the Nouveau Art Glass Company? [The first is the least likely].  Also it is quite hard to find out much about the company as searching the name prodices all sorts of extraneous 'noise'.

Cheers Ruth

http://tinypic.com/imt0kn.jpg
http://tinypic.com/imt0sw.jpg
http://tinypic.com/imt0uw.jpg


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See http://www.ruevenartglass.com/ for more on Rueven.

[Ivo]

Ilanit glass decorating company, Israel.

[butchiedog]

Hello,

I have been selectively collecting  Rueven or Reuven Glass -aka-  Nouveau Art Glass Company since the early 1970s and you are correct,  it is very hard to obtain any useful information about this concern. I know they are located in eastern Pennsylvania, near the city of Philadelphia, for whatever that is worth.

The piece in the first link is the only one you have which comes close to looking like their product.  It is the distribution and over lapping of the colors and how they cover the entire surface of the item.

The similar type of glass from Israel, by the Ilanit glass decorating company and a few others;  more often have a white or pale colored background with spaced darker colored areas, which are even darker in color along the edges.



Here is the rest I have managed to eke out about the Nouveau Art Glass Company over the years.

The main reason for the two spellings Rueven - Reuven was the label maker's fault and nobody caught it for a few years, so there are many items out there with one or the other spelling of the name on their labels, which is why you have to Google & Ebay search by both names to see everything.

http://tinypic.com/in5q2w.jpg

The correct spelling is Rueven and for awhile there was a website at http://www.decora.net/rueven/ but it disappeared a few months ago.

Rueven doesn't make any glass of course, they do the surface treatment\decoration on it only. They purchase clear glass blanks from glass makers like Arc International\Crystal d'Arques\Luminarc..., Indiana Glass and a few others. I have a half dozen Fenton animals they did back in the mid 1970s, which have the Fenton logo on them. I can only assume they quit using Fenton blanks, since I have never seen any more Fenton glass nor any animals offered in their line since the time I got mine.

The first lines of Rueven glass was decorated with the color mauve being the dominating color on the pieces. In the late 1980s they changed from mauve to a rose pink shade and in the 1990s they began doing items with green or yellow as the dominating color. All of these items come in a matte\frosted finish or a satin finish, which is like the other except it still have a bit of a shine to it, just like satin cloth does.

Later they began doing the color decorations on clear, natural glossy glass, plus they also did a treatment using stencils for the decorated areas on plain clear glass item.

There is a good size club\group of quiet collectors, with a private website, who are only after specific items, which weren't offered for very long and those pieces done in the satin finish are among the most sought after.  The reason I say "quiet collectors" is because it is their goal to build their collections anonymously without driving up the prices.

Long post I know, with little useful information, but some information is better than none and in a case like this it takes a good bit of explaining.

Mike

Edited to add: I added the bad link just in case they are only having computer problems and will get around to making it work again.

[Connie]

If the company was in PA why does the one label say Israeli Originals?  What is the tie to Israel?

[Ivo]

i would not be surprised if they just imported Ilanit glass.  Ehrm - isn't a Fenton animal with Fenton marks by Fenton?
I find that most Ilanit glass is machine made and still has the "France" marking from ARC or the "Italy"markings from Bormioli Rocco.  The Romanians who used the same acid splash decorating technique at least make their own glass.
 

[butchiedog]

Hello Connie,

As I stated in my post,

... it is very hard to obtain any useful information about this concern ...

I didn't claim to be the expert on this subject, I am only sharing what I have so far. If I had it and felt sure about any other information;   I would have included it in my post.

The labels photo is to show the spelling differences for the most part, but also just in case someone else knows something about the other "Israeli Originals" label and would be willing share that information.

Up until now I have only been able to speculate that perhaps Reuven, Ilanit, Neker Glass, B.Z.T. Ltd Isreal and the others are related to each other in some way, perhaps family members, with their own operations set up in different locations. One thing that seems logical to me is;  one does not stop being an Israeli, simply because they decide to live and set up shop in another country.

Anyway; after I posted before I did a bit of creative Google searching and I did manage to find another site, which gives the Pensylvania location of Roseta, PA. The rest of the information offered on this site makes it appear that these decorating companies are related in some way and the locations are in the U.S., Canada and Israel.

http://commerce3.forest.net/onlinetrading/detail_link.lasso?&IID=11016

Maybe it's my connection or perhaps this site has a problem, because the images are not showing up for me.

If you want to know more about this glass;  perhaps you too can do a bit of your own searching around the internet. As I said before;  I am only sharing the information I have so far, I'm not claiming responsibility for providing every bit of information on this glass by myself.

Mike

[Glassyone]

That is great information and very generous of you to share it. I will keep on  
researching and post if I find anything worthwhile. I had myself thoroughly confused by the labels on the e-bay items. Cheers Mike.
Ruth

[butchiedog]

Ivo,

Over the years Fenton has made glass items for many different non-glass making firms, who decorated it and sold it under their own name and some of it (after 1976) can have the Fenton logo on it. Of course it is still "Fenton made glass," just not colored and or finished same way that Fenton does those same items for their very own product line and not being a part of Fenton's own product line,  it isn't seen as being "Fenton Glass".

Anyone with the capitol to invest can place a large order with Fenton and then do whatever they want to with those items. Money to be made is money to be made in glass making and Fenton could never survive as a glass company without that outside business.

Other firms like L. G. Wright owned a good number of their own old glass molds, but made no glass themselves. Their products were mainly made for them by Fenton and Westmoreland to name a few. Fenton is also making the new Northwood glass items and who knows what else for whom???

I think I like their business strategies as much or better than I like their glass.

Mike