Topic: Is this WF 9858 ?

[Sue C]

Hi all, i think this is WF 9858, but never having handled one i am not sure, any help would be appreciated, thank you.
http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-7348

[Quackers]

Looks good - what is the height?  Gold FLC will be the colour rather than amber.

[Sue C]

Hi Tim, it's exactly 9in, nice polished pontil, and thank's for the colour 

[Quackers]

It is half an inch too tall but that is not that unusual with WF   See http://www.whitefriars.com/catalogues/contents.php?id=9918 for the full details - as far as I could see it was only produced 1978-80.

as far as heights of WF vases go I have a large collection of 9570 Tricorns which are supposed to be 9.5" but they range by 1/2" either way - see http://whitefriarsorg.org/mf/uploads/post-4-1168470294.jpg  The Sage is nearly an inch taller than the Arctic Blue!

Nice find by the way - Gold FLC is a lovely colour and I've only seen a couple of that shape before.

[Bernard C]

Sue & Tim — Would this be a Tom Hill 5-sided 9090 bowl, finished as a vase before opening out?   I had one myself about three years ago, and it took some selling, as no-one would believe me!   This is the only other example I have seen.    At the time I wondered if this stage in the production was too thin in the body to open out and stretch for a bowl, that they switched to the vase.   It would make sense.

Bernard C.  

[Quackers]

Hi Bernard, I don't know for sure but I wouldn't have thought so.  9090 was a fairly big lump o'glass (11" or 12" diameter) and I can't think that they could produce a vase like this from it   Also 9090 was last catalogued over 20 years before 9858 was introduced.

9858 had a little brother - 9859 which is only 6.5" tall so I would have thought they would share the same ?mould to start with.  All educated presumption of course, perhaps Patrick is about and might know for certain?

[Bernard C]

Tim — I would have thought that for all of these, vases and bowls, the gather was partly split into five by one of those cutters that look like vertical metal plates arranged radially.   There's a photograph of one of these at Fenton in Hajdamach, and I've seen them used on Murano.

Like you, I would welcome an authoritative opinion.

Bernard C. 

[Sue C]

Tim and Bernard, thank you so much for your information and thought's, i will try to take better photo's tomorrow,(i'm not very good).
Another question, how uncommon is this shape? or is it just not recognized as WF?.

[Quackers]

I don't know how many were made but I have only seen two before, both Gold FLC - one had its stickers on to make life easy   Compare that to something really rare and desirable like a Lilac 9691 bark vase (maybe 1 or 2 a year on ebay), I suspect that it simply isn't noticed as much as the popular textured ranges.  I'm now collecting the 1960s optic rib vases they made and they don't fetch anything like the money that bark vases of the same era do...but I think they have just as much character and interest...only about 17 variations to find as well

[Chris Harrison]

Yes, this is correct.
I have both sizes in Gold and Aqua FLC.  I've also seen versions in Sky Blue, but they're few and far between.