Cut glass objects that include color are rare finds, but visitors to The Corning Museum of Glass will be able to view exceptional examples of colored cut glass in a new temporary exhibition opening Tuesday, April 11.

“Splitting the Rainbow: Cut Glass in Color” will showcase some of the most beautiful and unusual examples of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century European and American colored cut glass vases, drinking glasses, and other decorative and functional pieces.

Most of the more than 75 objects in the exhibition will be drawn from the collection of The Corning Museum of Glass and will be on view until November 1.

Some of the pieces on display were made of one layer of transparent colored glass, but most were created using two or three layers of glass – casing or layering colored glass over high quality clear glass to create a “blank.” Using revolving stone and/or steel wheels, glass craftsmen then cut patterns in the colored top layer or layers of the blank to reveal the colorless glass beneath.

Claret jug, circa 1889-1899. Glass: T.G. Hawkes & Co.; silver mount: Gorham Mfg Co. Collection of The Corning Museum of Glass, gift of Cliff and Ruth Jordan.

In Nineteenth and Twentieth Century America, glassblowers inlarge glass factories like Corning Glass Works or the Libbey GlassCompany created the blanks of colored glass. Some companies such asLibbey or Dorflinger cut a number of the blanks in-house, but mostblanks were sold to cutting shops like T.G. Hawkes & Company orT.B. Clark & Company, who then merchandised the final productsto exclusive retailers.

Colored cut glass pieces are rare because they were not made in large quantities. The blanks were costly and complex to create, the cutting and polishing technically demanding, and the finished products were sold mainly as high-end products.

The show is a companion show to the museum’s major summer exhibition, “Glass of the Maharajahs: European Cut Glass Furniture for Indian Royalty.” The museum’s curator of American glass, Jane Shadel Spillman, is organizing both shows.

The Corning Museum of Glass, at One Museum Way, is home to the world’s most comprehensive and celebrated collection of glass, with more than 40,000 objects reflecting 3,500 years of glassmaking history. The museum is open from 9 am to 5 pm every day and from 9 am to 8 pm in the summer, children 17 and under admitted free.

For information, 800-732-6845 or www.cmog.org.