1996.23, Champagne glass with Courtney shape stem, c. 1928, designer: George Dougherty, manufacturer: Morgantown Glass works

George Dougherty applied for a patent on this stem profile in 1928 and was granted design patent no. 77,942 the next year. However, the use of a rectangular motif like this one was likely derived from a French crystal shape called Hagueneau. Designed in 1924 by René Lalique, that pattern's stem features a square superimposed over a rectangle. Dorothy C. Thorpe is known to have sold the American version with a frosted stem, which was achieved through sandblasting. Morgantown advertised that it produced glass in "scores of colors" and praised its craftsmen as "specialists in delicately blown stemware [that could be manufactured in] 500 distinct combinations of Morgantown stems and patterns." The company was well known for its distinctive "open stems" as seen here in the Courtney champagne glass, and as well as the Paragon (1996.24), also in the Dallas Museum of Art's collection. 

Until 1996: Collection of Bert and Donna Kennedy, Blue Dart, Mesquite, Texas [1]

From 1996: Dallas Museum of Art, purchased from above

[1] See check #5001 in Collections Records Object File (1996.23).

Apply to objects where number equals 1996.23