FBS mark (French, Scottish, Italian & Czech glass... US retailer?

[Max]

Patti, as I mentioned to you in my email, I'll swap this over to the main glass board for you once you've seen this message and agreed.   

Edit:  Just realised that someone's done it already, what great teamwork! 

[Patti]

Gosh,  thank you all for the help.  I truly appreciate it and am amazed that you all are so active and helpful....not all Boards are as active.

According to records my mother kept, the vase was a wedding present to her in 1936...so I'm fairly certain it's from that era and not from the 50's.

I've checked through a lot of books at the local library and even shelf books at Barnes and Noble but I haven't been able to find anything that looks like this vase. 

My most recent attempt to identify it came from the "what's it worth 2 you" website and I paid to have an appraisal and the appraiser ID'd it as possibly a Monart...which led me to you all.

I seem to be back to square one....I have this really interesting Art Deco vase that I can't identify.

If you might have any suggestions as to where I need to turn next, I'd certainly appreciate any help I could get.

Patti

[Della]

It seems as though an importers mark is the most likely explanation as I have also found these, which are made of porcelain. In the description # 1681 it states that they are also signed FBS France.
I also found this vase again, maker seems to be unknown.

 ???
Della

[Frank]

I want try and get this vases maker identified and this might take a few weeks... I think it is possible with this one. Your date is helpful.

At some point I will merge it with the other discussion on FBS. That thread is now close to this one in the list so you can see how the mark appears on Monart.

I am fairly certain that no such importer existed after 1950 in the US. Canada is another possibility. As far as I can tell it is quite unusual to insist on this type of mark from producers so it must be an important company even if it did not survive WWII.

We might be active but as you can see the other thread stated in 2004.  http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,183

[aa]

am amazed that you all are so active and helpful....not all Boards are as active.
Patti

As a matter of interest, how did you hear about this board?

[Mosquito]

Hello Patti,

Not a great deal to add, other than to agree with Frank's observation that the FBS mark is almost certainly a retailer's mark. It is certainly seen on a variety of French glass, I had a smoke coloured glass vase with this mark some time ago. It had acid cut decoration and was most likely to have been made by Daum, though I couldn't say with absolute certainty.

On my vase the mark was an acid stamp with the divided circle similar to that shown on the Monart vase on Frank's site, however, mine differed in that there was a second, outer circle, containing the words 'TRADE MARK'.

Interestingly another example of your vase has turned up for sale, see here: http://www.stylefrenchantiques.com/pages/accessories.html
The seller has attributed it to Muller Freres, though I woud question this attribution as firstly the vase is unsigned and secondly the vase appears to have a coloured casing over a white core while the (admittedly few) Muller Freres mould blown opaline vases which I have handled have always been in solid uncased colours.

[Della]

I have found another one here Maker unknown.  I am not giving up!

[Frank]

Excellent Della. What is now needed is a US trade directory for Pottery and Glass c1934-36. There were at least two produced.

I have digitised a 1951 Edition of China & Glass Red Book in the Glass Study. (Excluding pottery entries)

[Patti]

I'll be darned....the shape of the Muller Freres vase is identical to my green mottled one.  That's impressive!  I've never seen anything like mine before so I'm pleased that it has a pink 'twin'!  I'm just sorry there wasn't a price listed for the pink vase.  Just curious, you understand!

I stumbled on your board through a google search on Monart.  I had seen so much information but no one really to contact so this looked like a nice place to search for answers.

I appreciate the input you all have sent.  I'm not a collector of much of anything unless it's Greyhound (dog-not bus) related and then I turn around and sell it on Ebay to raise funds for adoption groups.  So, while I think the vase is interesting, I don't plan to keep it.

Are you all in England/Scotland?  I'm in Springfield, Missouri USA

Patti

[Lustrousstone]

The US trademarks database reveals this for FBS, but note the first use. Probably a red herring
G & S: RETAIL DEPARTMENT STORE SERVICES AND MAIL ORDER SERVICES OF SAME. FIRST USE: 19540802. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19540803

but it wasn't filed until 1971 and is now dead.

[Frank]

It might not be a red herring, do you have a link to that db?

But then we have to assume wrong date info above. Trade mark information is usually more reliable than memory.

[Pat]

Hi Patti, we are worldwide family not just the UK. The members of this board spread from US across the globe to Australia and New Zealand!

[Lustrousstone]

Here's thelink If it doesn't stay valid go to the root then search trademarks, basic search. It's on the last page of answers or search for regd no 0964411

[Frank]

Thanks,

I could not find a specific note about the coverage, but it appears to be from around 1970. thus earlier registrations that have not been renewed since are not shown. Same problem with EU searches. The only solution is a physical visit to one of the US search facilities, any one in Arlington VA?

Remarkable though, how many FBS registrations there have been!

[Patti]

On one of the posts on this thread, there was a link to the "StyleFrench" store in West Hollywood, California.  On their website, they have a picture of a pink vase that is identical in shape to my green vase.  The site indicated that the vase is a Muller Freres.
I called the shop and asked  where they found the information that is is a Muller Freres since the vase isn't marked.  I was told that the style of vase was fairly common in France in the 30's and that the information could be found if I just Googled "Muller Freres".
I did that last night and couldn't find a thing that resembled my vase.  I didn't have the pages translated that were not in English, so that may have been why I couldn't find it.

Not sure if that is any help to you all or not.  I don't speak French and the gentleman with whom I spoke had more to say, but I just couldn't understand what he was saying.