lovesglass — I am intrigued by your assertions, and would welcome more information on how they came about. Glass is an interesting collectable as it generates a huge number of misconceptions which can be quite difficult to correct. I will give you two examples:-
... the state of glass knowledge when Manley wrote his book. At that time Walsh was not considered a possible attribution for unmarked and undocumented handmade fancy glass, in the same way as Smart Bros, Molineaux Webb, and Kempton still aren't today. ...
I wrote this rather cynical comment only recently, and it shows how the glass community still has a long way to go to achieve reality. Click on the quote heading for the context.
The second came about at the recent Dulwich fair. A dealer asked me if there was anything about glass we could assume. I replied "No, nothing at all." I then went on to explain that you cannot even assume that the glassworks were in it to make money, as, certainly at Joblings and Bagleys there was an element of fancy glass production being motivated by the requirement of keeping their mouldmakers occupied at times when they weren't needed for the production of Pyrex or bottle moulds. The requirement to make money, or, possibly more realistically, not to lose too much money, may have been secondary.
As a dealer, I've probably handled more Davidson glass than most on this message board, probably something like 500 items. I started before Chris Stewart showed any interest and initially I had to work it out as I went along with the help of some original Davidson documentation. Our knowledge has improved dramatically since then.
A large proportion of Davidson glass is frosted — and much of this is cloud glass, which is part-frosted, usually on the inside. If you look at the boundary between the frosted and unfrosted parts, you will see that it is always quite sharp, a definitive characteristic of acid-matting, as the glass was either matted where it was exposed or not matted where the wax resist was applied. In contrast sandblasting gives you a soft boundary line as very little of the sand gets right up to the edge of the resist. You can also tell the two techniques apart by feel. Acid-matting gives you a soft, silky surface, whereas fine sandblasting gives you a good grip with no silkiness, quite different.
Steve's two 10" 279s are standard Davidson items without any doubt whatsoever.
VASES
No. 279 10" — Amber and Emerald / Matt or Matt Polished Per Dozen 27/-
Finally I would be happier if you used Davidson terminology. The three sizes were 6", 8", and 10" whether 279s or 279Ds (with the rim turned over), whatever their actual measurements. Davidson never used metric measures in their British Empire and American literature. Unfortunately some museum-trained professionals who should know better use metric measures in these circumstances and can come up with statements as ludicrous as "Telford had milestones placed at intervals of 1,609 metres along all his turnpikes."
Bernard C.
Topic: Davidson 279 vases query (Read 2995 times)
