Decorators

When they opened their own decorating studio, Abels, Wasserberg & Company
purchased undecorated items (blanks), from various glass and ceramic
manufacturers and then hand decorated the pieces with designs of flowers, fruit,
landscapes, abstract, and geometric patterns. These designs were produced
bearing a Charleton label and, at times, several different ink stamps. There has
never been any evidence found that Abels produced any trademarked line of
wares other than the Charleton line.

We have a strong suspicion that Abels did not develop the Charleton label until
they began decorating items in their own studio in February 1942. This supposition
is based on the absence of any mention of the Charleton name in their
advertisements or industry publications prior to this date.

The decorating department was under the supervision of Mr. Ralph De Felice who
was not only the factory supervisor but was also a highly skilled artist and was
directly responsible for the beautiful designs that bear the Charleton label.

It was reported in the December 1945 issue of The Gift and Art Buyer that Abels
had 55 employees solely engaged in the task of hand decorating. It is now known
that the make-up of this group of artisans consisted of a few men, but mostly were
women from many other countries whom had gained American citizenship.

It is also a fact that these artists had acquired their skills in the great establishments
of Europe prior to their employment by Abels. This last statement will become self-
evident as you examine the photographs of the artists' superb designs and their
professional decorating skills.

The rites of passage required to become a "Charleton" artist involved a year and a
half apprenticeship of supervised training in the decorating department. Painting on
a curved surface involves considerably more skill than depicting ideas on a flat
two-dimensional canvas. Geometric designs that surround the circumference must
be in proportion from beginning to end and seamlessly connect with the starting
point. Economy of design was important as well, as sometimes the artist painted
objects with very small surface areas such as pin trays and cigarette boxes.

It is fairly obvious that, in some cases, two different artists decorated the same
item. This suspicion was brought about by the presence of two sets of hand
painted initials on the same item. These initials are usually separated in placement,
and found painted in different colors, usually one in gold leaf, and the other in one
of the colors found in the decoration. Logically this would indicate that one artist
would do the gold leaf and another the china or enamel paint. The items most
commonly found with the artist's initials are decorated Cambridge pieces.

This co-operative effort would make good business sense, as it would streamline
the production of the decoration. We can only speculate that certain artists were
better suited to different decorations or materials and that these skills were
capitalized upon by this arrangement.

The application of mixed media such as sprayed blushes, hand painting, gold leaf,
slip trailing, etc., may have required several firings, performed after each type of
decoration was applied. The decorators used china and enamel paint for
permanence, and the testimony to the durability of this is that many decorated items
have suffered little or no paint loss over a period of 50 years or more.

This china paint was a special formulation that contains finely ground silica, which
fused with the base glass when fired. Once a decoration was fired there was no
easy way to correct mistakes due to this fused bond between the paint and glass.
Each decorating stage increased the labor investment in the item, and a mistake
made in the later stages of production was expensive indeed. Occasionally, there
can be found some decorated items employing enameled paint, but these are less
common.