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Author Topic: Help ID the pattern on the Hawkes brilliant cut glass bowl  (Read 9677 times)

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Offline KarenR

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Re: Help ID the pattern on the Hawkes brilliant cut glass bowl
« Reply #10 on: May 05, 2008, 02:21:16 AM »
Roy, I thought you might like to see an example of the Hawkes Lorraine pattern on another piece, a lamp.  It's interesting to see how they chose to adapt a pattern to different shapes.  

I also found an advertisement for Niagara's Buffalo pattern, again so you can see (hopefully) adaptation of the pattern on different shaped pieces.  I also took a close up of the bowl as it is most pertinent to your own piece.  Sometimes the ads are all there is to go on.  Buffalo is not in my Niagara catalog reprint, but Warren Biden has a reference library that far exceeds my own.  

Offline krsilber

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Re: Help ID the pattern on the Hawkes brilliant cut glass bowl
« Reply #11 on: May 05, 2008, 06:05:22 PM »
I was just reading a bit about Canadian cut glass in Swan's American Cut and Engraved Glass.  Evidently they didn't have anything in the way of good blank makers, so the good cut glass made there is on American or high-quality European blanks.  The cut glass industry was small, and many of the patterns were copied from American ones.

In connection with Gowans, Kent and Co. it talks a fair bit about Harry Clapperton, who moved from Stourbridge when he was 12, apprenticed with Libbey from ages 17-27, then began at Gowans, Kent in 1900; "It is said that he originated glass cutting in Canada at this firm."  By 1905 he started his own firm.  It doesn't say whether Gowans, Kent kept cutting after that.

Since you invited comments on the pitcher - I personally wouldn't class it with most of the other glass you've shown us.  The design isn't very difficult to execute, or very inspired.  Is the crosshatching polished?  It doesn't appear to be.  Most American cut glass aficionados would point to that alone and conclude it probably wasn't American, and I suspect they would also point to the jug as evidence for the Americans' rich cut glass superiority.  BUT it's an entirely different thing seeing a piece in a single photo, and seeing it in person!  I guess I just find your other pieces more interesting/impressive.

...(EDIT)  I just possibly found the pattern of your jug.  The general motif is called Harvard.  Swan shows a few pieces by Gundy-Clapperton (where Clapperton went after Gowan, Kent) called Hob Star.  Two of them have a hobstar border, but there's also a cologne shown (pg. 155) that doesn't have the border, it's all Harvard, and still called Hob Star.  See Leni's thread - she has a bowl that may be the same pattern.
Kristi


"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science."

- Albert Einstein

Offline mhgcgolfclub

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Re: Help ID the pattern on the Hawkes brilliant cut glass bowl
« Reply #12 on: May 05, 2008, 06:50:53 PM »
Thanks Kristi and Karen

I do sort of agree with you about the jug, I think one of the reason we like it is that it is at least signed, as far as I can see at present only a very small percentage which is found in the UK is signed, after speaking to one of your experts on ABP  via email last year he had his own idea on why this may have been , he believed that there may have been British retailers like webb who bought some ABP to retail in there own shops and did not want items marked or signed so they could be passed off as there own.

My last 2 items are footed Comports, the first one is 8" in height and weighs 4.9 lbs , while the second is 6.2" and weighs 3.2 lbs, the second one does a have a little impurities within the glass, these 2 comports both have hollow open concaved bases not solid flat bases

Roy


Offline krsilber

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Re: Help ID the pattern on the Hawkes brilliant cut glass bowl
« Reply #13 on: May 05, 2008, 07:17:06 PM »
Wait to see what Karen says, but I suspect these are good candidates for being non-American, especially the last one.

There is plenty of ABP here that isn't signed, either!  The same theory might apply - it was made for retailers who asked for it not to be signed.
Kristi


"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science."

- Albert Einstein

Offline Sid

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Re: Help ID the pattern on the Hawkes brilliant cut glass bowl
« Reply #14 on: May 06, 2008, 01:26:46 AM »
Hello Roy:

Of these pieces I quite prefer the Canadian cut glass piece, but then again I'm Canadian. 

Harry Clapperton with his mother and siblings emigrated from Stourbridge in 1884 to the United States. His father Walter, a glass cutter, apparently having already emigrated to Corning, NY earlier.  Corning was an absolute hot bed of glass cutting in that time frame.  Sometime before 1889, the family moved to Toledo to work at W. L Libbey & Son. In 1900, Gowans & Kent started their cutting operations with Harry Clapperton in charge and operated up to about 1918.  Harry Clapperton started his own company about 1904/5 and formed a partnership with Nathaniel Gundy to form Gundy-Clapperton & Co. Ltd in November 1906.  This firm and it's successors operated until 1974 when Clapperton's was purchased by Val St. Lambert.  Like most of the cut glass companies in North America, the Canadian factories were cold glass shops that purchased their blanks from glass manufacturers like Libbey, Dorflingers, Val St. Lambert, Baccarat etc.   I think, in general, Gundy-Clapperton has the better reputation of these two firms but that may be due to the longevity of the firm and the larger volume of signed product.

Offline krsilber

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Re: Help ID the pattern on the Hawkes brilliant cut glass bowl
« Reply #15 on: May 06, 2008, 02:09:46 AM »
Do you know if Gowan, Kent & Co. continued to cut glass after Clapperton left?  It sounds like they didn't before he came.

" I think, in general, Gundy-Clapperton has the better reputation of these two firms but that may be due to the longevity of the firm and the larger volume of signed product."

That makes sense.  It sounds like Clapperton was the best designer in Canada, and he was only with Gowan 4 years at the beginning of his career, when cut glass at the company was just starting.

It would be interesting to see close-up photos of your jug and Leni's Hob Star bowl together to compare the patterns and execution.  In fact, I was going to ask one of you for a close-up of the pattern to use in an illustrated index of cut glass motifs I'm working on for Frank's Glass Catalogue.  And maybe other motifs.  There are a few I don't have yet.
Kristi


"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science."

- Albert Einstein

Offline Sid

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Re: Help ID the pattern on the Hawkes brilliant cut glass bowl
« Reply #16 on: May 06, 2008, 02:47:19 AM »
Kristi:

I am told, by a good researcher, that there is a 1914 ad for Gowans, Kent that states "..manufacturers of cut glass" so apparently they survived the loss of Clapperton.

Offline krsilber

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Re: Help ID the pattern on the Hawkes brilliant cut glass bowl
« Reply #17 on: May 06, 2008, 07:55:12 PM »
Cheers, Sid.  Thank heavens for advertising!

I must have been dreaming when I thought the pitcher was the same as Leni's bowl.  I've changed my mind, no longer think it's Hob Star.  Sorry!

Identifying ABP is very difficult for many reasons.  There are thousands of patterns, many of them poorly documented, if at all.  They're often very complex, but all draw from a limited set of motifs, so there aren't really unique patterns to look for.  Many appear alike, some look almost exactly alike.  Often a pattern is a bit different depending on the object it's found on.

...which means don't expect any quickie answers!
Kristi


"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science."

- Albert Einstein

 

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