Topic: Vase - ID = Maure Vieille, France

[Daniels_Glass_Items]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to identify this one, havent seen anything like it before. It's a blue vase, has white whirled around inside the blue glass and has a maker's stamp on the bottom pressed into the glass with the logo MV. I think its an old piece as it has tiny bubbles trapped in some parts of the glass and looks to be handblown.

Is that the makers mark or is it the year? It's got me stumped! Never seen anything like it before, does anyone know anything about this piece?

Thanking you all in advance for you're assistance.

Dan

Pictue's of this vase can be viewed below. 

Mod: Photo's uploaded to GlassGallery:

http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-8238
http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-8237  Base

[Ivo]

It is from a small glass maker in the south of France called Maure Vieille near La Napoule, somtimes known as Mortevieille. I don't think they're still around - they're not in Le Guide du Verrier.

[Daniels_Glass_Items]

Do you know when they went out of buisness? Thank you for you're prompt help, I really appreciate it!

I like there idea of stamping the glass with there logo, now theres a sticker that wont fall off!!

Is it valuable?

[Ivo]

Valuable is the result of collector's activity and believe me, there are no collectors for what is in essence an obscure maker. So whatever it brings is what it brings. The last time I saw a piece of MV this size was on the antique market in Saint Tropez some years ago and the dealer wanted ca. 50 Euros for it - but he didn't know what it was. 
Not sure what happened to MV, if they went out of business or not - but I believe te main production was 70s and 80s.  Googling brings up nothing...

[Daniels_Glass_Items]

Yes, I noticed that myself when I went to oogle google, that's pretty cool, this is the first piece of glass I've owned that's as you say, obscure, french and by a maker that is now out of buisness. Yet another fine addition for any collection or collector of obscure glass then.. 

And the estimate of 50 euro's is far in excess of what I actually paid for it, if I told you how much I picked it up for in a flea market you'd probably call me a crook.. Haha!

Thank you for your insight it has been music to my ears!

I do so enjoy little obscure bits like these as it gives the eye something to gaze upon. If its as obscure as you say, then  surely that means there arnt that meny of them around thus making it a very rare item to possess and all the more lovely to behold.

We obviously have very differant opinions of what makes something a collectable... I would call something thats obscure and hard to get hold of highly collectable. 

Thanks for your help,

Regards

Danny.

[Pip]

I do so enjoy little obscure bits like these as it gives the eye something to gaze upon. If its as obscure as you say, then  surely that means there arnt that meny of them around thus making it a very rare item to possess and all the more lovely to behold.

We obviously have very differant opinions of what makes something a collectable... I would call something thats obscure and hard to get hold of highly collectable. 

This is an interesting point but I have to agree with Ivo.  Whilst your vase is a pleasant enough piece (although I'd like it much more were it orange  ) the fact that it is from a small and obscure glassmakers means that because they presumably didn't make large quantities, sell over a particularly long period of time or distribute over a large territory it is a rare item - however, rarity itself doesn't equal collectability.  Rare items are scarce but can really only be considered collectable items if there are plenty of people collecting them (obvious I know but true!).  I have a number of rare items which are not particularly collectable - I like them but others don't or perhaps because they're rare haven't come into contact with them in order to want to collect them.  Collectability can of course quite equally apply to mass-produced items (think Ridgway Homemaker plates mass-produced and sold in Woolworths now commanding very high prices as a result of their huge collectability).  Therefore an item's rarity or otherwise has no bearing on it's collectability and/or value.

Just my opinion for what it's worth.

[Pinkspoons]

Also, I don't think Ivo was saying that it was worth 50 Euros - just that someone else had one marked up at that price without knowing what it was and that therefore it was a price that the dealer had selected based on their own criteria, rather than one based on an average value for this glassworks.

And to expand on Pip's point - sometimes rare / unique pieces from VERY collectable glassworks can be worth relatively little. I have a few Holmegaard and Whitefriars friggers - the only known ones in existence of their type - but because they're maybe not big enough, brightly coloured enough, or conventional enough they're worth a fraction of some of the more common and very mass-produced items from said factories.

[Frank]

Thirty years ago, people said the same things about Monart. Obscure unknown, poorly made made gaudy junk with no possible interest for collectors.

When I started putting it out on stalls in the 1980's people were amused, some would come and ask if it was Ruskin (pottery). The professional glass dealers were appalled. It was not French! It was not classic English! It was rubbish.

So what changed? The glass remains obscure, poorly made and lacking in aesthetic appeal to a whole range of people. The answer is information. Some people did some research and started a collectors club... eventually a book was produced. Peces that used to sell for no more than ten pounds fetch hundreds, piece that fetched 50 pounds can now fetch well over one thousand and at list 2 pieces have sold in excess of 5,000 pounds.

It was made part-time, to fill orders, over a period of 30 to 40 years by one team.

At the other extreme Whitefriars bricklayers etc, were hard to sell in the 50p junk box on the pavement outside the shop. Mass produced and now fully documented they even have the added benefit of copies being made to make the collecting more interesting.

So MV is likely to be a full-time production studio/glassworks and lack of information is what hampers it, possibly along with fashion. It takes one person to get interested and arrange their holiday as a research trip.... it could become an important minor maker on the basis of a good article/ book/ website. I doubt it is rare if you take it in the context of similar operations, but due to low information it will be hard to find.

[Mike M]

Frank

I agree with all you said, but,  sorry, for me you've missed one vital extra element -the information has to able to be turned into a compelling story -something for people to latch onto. The Story of the Ysarts and Monart is one of the best - mostly thanks goes to you for telling it.

As a seller of glass I am certain that a compelling story -and someone to tell it -is what makes the difference between so called rare glass and a good investment  -it really engages the collectors -(of course - if the glass is darn right ugly - no story can save it!)

Mind you, for many glass makers there are great stories, so perhaps the only gap is someone to collect the information and relay it as an intersting and enagaging story. 

Cheers