Culver Ltd was founded in Brooklyn, New York in 1939 by Irving Rothenberg.  Culver Glass features real 22-karat gold decoration used effusively and magnificently especially from the late 1950’s on through the 1970’s.  The company gained notoriety and its products became highly collectible and were only sold at high-end department stores.  In the late 1950’s, Culver Ltd started the application of the 22-karat gold to their glassware.  The super heated, roll on process of gold application remains a secret today.  Culver glass from the 1940’s through the ’50s are signed with a script Culver.  The Culver mark changed to block lettering in the late 1960’s through the 1970’s.  Culver glass products manufactured after the 1970's are unmarked because the company changed to paper labels attached to the glass.

Irving Rothenberg passed away in 1987 and his son, Mark "Mickey" Rothenberg, ran the company until he sold Culver Ltd. in 1996 to Moderne Glass Company, Inc.  Mickey Rothenberg continued in the glass manufacturing business by running another glass company until his death as one of the heroes of 9/11.   He was one of the first passengers to die on flight 93 after confronting the hijackers prior to the passengers deciding to take back the plane that crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.