Surprise !
by Bud Walker
Issue No. 327 - July 2000
This past winter we received letter from the curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In her letter she asked if we could provide any information and pictures of Mr. W.L Orme that could be used in a display that was being planned for the spring of 2000. We sent what information we had including copies of several patents that ware in Mr. Orme's name. In addition, we sent several pictures and news articles about the Cambridge Glass Company and Mr. Orme.
You can imagine the shock and surprise when we received an R.S.V.P. Invitation to attend a preview and reception to celebrate the opening of the exhibition, which was titled "American Modern 1925-1940: Design for a New Age." The preview was Monday, May 15, 6:00 to 8:00 pm. We had hoped to spend the day visitng the museum only to find it was closed on Mondays and would only be open to invited guests for the preview and reception to celebrate the opening of the exhibition.
In viewing the beautiful exhibit we were again surprised to see Cambridge's Pristine candleholders featured, in a separate case. As we were admiring them, a gentleman came over and told us he was the owner of the beautiful set. We talked about Cambridge glass and some of the pieces they made. I remarked that I had been collecting for about 20 years and had never found a complete set of Architecture Series candleholders. He then took us over to meet the man in charge of fundraising for the museum. They informed us that they had had a mold made and plan on issuing a clearly marked reproduction of these lovely candleholders and we would be able to get them through their gift shop in a few months.
At first I was shockced and a little disturbed that someone was copying the Pristine candleholders, but after thinking it over for a while, I realized what an honor it was to have one of the most prestigious museums in the countryy deem the Cambridge candleholders worthy of reproducing as a fundralser for their museum. The workers of the Cambridge Glass Company should be proud that much of what they produced has become highly desirable to the extent that a premier museum would be interested in reproducing a piece that Cambridge produced.
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