Victor Durand operated a successful glassworks in Vineland, New Jersey, from 1897 until his death in 1931. The company made lamp chimneys, tubing, laboratory wares, linings for thermos bottles, and other practical types of glass. Durand was fascinated, however, by the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany and by other art glasses that were then popular. In 1924, Durand Art Glass was established as a division of the Vineland firm in order to make artistic glassware. Only one crew of glassblowers was assigned to produce this glass, which was made only from 1924 to 1928. The team was led by Emil Larsen, a Swedish glassblower who came to the United States at the age of 13 and blew glass for several companies in his lengthy career. This vase is probably unfinished because the pontil mark is not polished and the piece is not signed. Perhaps the glassblower or some other employee of the company took it home as a gift. For more on the Durand glassworks, see Gay LeCleire Taylor, Distinctively Durand: The Art Glass of Vineland, New Jersey, Millville, New Jersey: Museum of American Glass at Wheaton Village, 1988.