Cooper Hewitt says...
Dorothy Thorpe was a glass designer active in the mid-twentieth century. Thorpe was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1901 and graduated from Bringham Young University and the University of Utah. Thorpe had no formal design training. She settled in southern California following her marriage to George A.Thorpe in 1923. Thorpe started experimenting with glass as a hobby, making tumblers from beer bottles and wrapping wine bottles in raffia. She distributed her first pieces through a small Hollywood gift shop and her client list grew to include movie stars and Princess Grace of Monaco. Her brother worked for MGM Studios, where he took some of her early designs, seen by Clark Gable who purportedly ordered six dozen. The designer found commercial success through purchasing glass blanks – tumblers, drinking glasses, vases, and other tablewares – from a variety of manufacturers including Heisey and Cambridge and experimented with various techniques, including sandblasting, etching, hand-painting, and silver overlay. In 1932, George Thorpe established a business, incorporated in 1939, to distribute her designs. She also worked for ceramics manufacturers, designing dinner services and tea sets for American companies including Royal China Co. and for manufacturers in Japan. Thorpe also designed linens, silver, and lucite accessories for the domestic market. By 1940, her company was well-known for its abstracted floral designs. By the time of her husband’s death in 1953, Dorothy C. Thorpe "Originals" were being sold in most high-end department stores across the US. Thorpe passed away at age 88 in Carlsbad, California.
