Topic: Heavy 'Pumpkin' shaped vase ID. ID = Kirkhill Glass, by John Airlie

[Janet]

What a good idea John!.Your lampbase looks great, i bet it looks lovely lit up. I think i will be paying a visit to the local DIY store myself tomorrow.
Thankyou for going to so much trouble with the photos, thats very kind of you.

Kind regards,
Janet.

[Janet]

Hi David, Yes that may be an idea to check if they were all made with a standard opening size to accomodate the fittings. After looking at the photo's of your lamp bases though i am pretty sure mine is a lamp base also, the rim of the opening also looks to be finished the same.

Back to the suggestion that mine may be Murano, i agree the shape seems to point to Murano. It 'feels' like it could be. There are 16 ribs on mine.

The colour has me baffled also. As seen in the images it is a lovely orange colour that has a greenish tinge to it especially towards the base. The orange colour does seem to have a slight metalic reflective golden 'glow' to it somehow if that makes sense.

Janet.

[Lustrousstone]

Have you got a UV light to shine on it to see if it glows a very bright green. If it is cased, as you say, it may be that the casing is uranium glass. If it is not cased, it may be that it is amber uranium glass, which I suspect would rule out Murano

[langhaugh]

Janet:

Sorry, I should have included the size of mine. They're about to 3 1/2 inches tall, which rules them out as lamp bases, but leads me to think that two of them are candle holders.

Excellent suggestion re UV light from Christine.

David.

[shionaairlie]

Glass obsessed - your lamp is in fact a small bowl, Kirkhill Glass, made by John Airlie in the early 1970s You can find more about him on the Scotland's glass website.

[Lustrousstone]

And Shiona should know! Welcome    :fwr:

[glassobsessed]

Shiona, thank you very much for your help, I have just had a look at some of your fathers work (my ignorance is way broader than my knowledge). I do like the heavily pulled decoration that he used on this and other work.
Are you sure this piece would have been a bowl originally? The neck is quite small (1.5 inches, more like a vase).

Anyway, whatever it was or is, it is lovely.

Many thanks, John.

[shionaairlie]

Dear John, glad to help. Dad usually sold these as posy bowls, so you can just as easily call them vases. They look lovely with a few snowdrops or the like in them, but they are murder to keep clean! The trail decoration is a feature of Kirkhill Glass. Lovely to know it has a good home. Shiona

[glassobsessed]

Thank you Shiona, I tend to ignore dust until it becomes really obvious, then when I have cleaned everything I wonder why I let it build up for so long.

Janet, my apologies for hijacking the thread you started!

In case anyone else is hunting for an item of Kirkhill Glass, I bought this on that well known auction site where it was described as Murano (if you look long enough almost everything is). I have since seen what must have been another Kirkhill Glass item (taller vase in very similar style) also described as Murano. Probably worth looking under Whitefriars too (if you have the time). Sorry if I am stating the obvious.

John.