People’s Vase collection gets elegant new display at Millersburg Glass Museum

While the quartet of Millersburg Glass People’s Vases will still reside comfortably at the Chris Sieverdes Millersburg Glass Museum, thanks to one major donation and the ingenuity and creativity of a local craftsman, the four vases received a beautiful new look recently.

On Thursday, Nov. 6, George Laurence, owner of Museum Acrylics Company in New Philadelphia, stopped by the museum to deliver and assemble the new display case that was specifically designed to enhance the glamorous vase collection that was made by John Fenton around 1910.

The People’s Vase collection is currently known to have nine vases that were designed for Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands in honor of her daughter, Juliana.

The People’s Vase collection is perhaps the singular most highly sought carnival glass in the world, and Sieverdes’ collection has four of the nine known pieces to exist, so creating an encasement that would properly highlight the four pieces was long overdue, according to Sieverdes.

Prior to this, the four vases resided in a former jewelry store case designed to showcase rings and necklaces — not ideal for tall glass vases.

“I’m very pleased,” Sieverdes said of the new home for the collection. “This is probably something that should have been done long before this.”

Mark Boley, director of the Holmes County Historical Society, agreed.

“This is extremely important because those are the Holy Grail of the collection and the most highly sought and valuable pieces of glass anywhere,” Boley said. “These pieces should be in something worthy to showcase them, and George is an expert who has designed things like this for items all over the world.”

Sieverdes secured three of the vases in relatively close timeline between 2010 and 2012, but it wasn’t until he snagged the rare fluted cobalt vase this year that the collection really took the collectible world by storm. That particular People’s Vase had been in the home of a hoarder who had passed away and was an unknown relic until its discovery when the auction house team began going through the home.

With the museum being closed for a couple weeks to prepare for the Christmas season, the timing to introduce a new home for the vases was perfect, and it also coincided with a donation of $4,000 that nearly covered the cost of the new case.

“We were blessed by a community member who made an anonymous donation,” Sieverdes said. “Their donation is really going to enhance the display and the overall appeal of the museum.”

Laurence, who has designed cases for many important artifacts worldwide, said the process of building a fitting resting spot for the glass began with visiting the museum to see what he would be working with in terms of both the vases and the surrounding furniture.

“I’ve got to understand the needs of the museum and the desires of both Chris and Mark Boley, to know exactly what they are trying to achieve,” said Laurence, who has been doing work like this for close to five decades. “It’s very intuitive, and you want to make the client comfortable with what we’re trying to achieve.”

He said not only is there the idea of creating something aesthetically pleasing to the eye, but also because of the rarity and delicacy of the pieces, there are safety issues to factor into the process.

He chose to use a cherry wood, stained to match the cases already in the museum. With acrylic protective glass around the case, mirrors both below and behind the vases, and LED lighting to help the iridescent glass shine, it all came together to help create a stunning appeal, something deserving of what has become the focal point of the museum.

Laurence developed rough sketches of the case and spelled out in detail what it would entail, and throughout the process he gave Sieverdes and Boley every opportunity to add their thoughts on what they would like to see.

An aluminum frame welded to the inside of the case helps keep it stable and deters any sagging of the top of the case.

“We go through the process of creating the proper wood, the proper stain and the minute details of creating exactly what they want,” Laurence said.

He also is willing to alter on the fly, something they did once they had the vases in the case. Initially, Laurence had designed two risers to showcase the two cobalt vases that are the center of the display. However, he and Sieverdes agreed the display would look better without the risers, so he removed them.

“They simply didn’t enhance the situation at all,” Laurence said.