Topic: Caithness Glasses

[ageconcernbury]

Hello,

I am posting on behalf of Age Concern in Bury, Lancashire.  We have received as a donation at one of our charity shops of 4 Caithness glasses.  Following an email to Caithness Glass they were able to find the shape in their archives, but not the specific engravings (copperwheel engravings I'm told).  Apparently in 1977 this type of product was retailing for anything between £35 and £50 so we would love to get an up to date valuation before we attempt to sell them.

Two of the glasses do not match and are engraved with leaves.  The matching pair engraved with birds have the following inscription to the base "Caithness Glass, No. 26/50 M575 Swallow" as well as what appears to be a personal inscription "Denis' Mam".

Any information about the history and/or value of these items would be hugely appreciated as I'm a bit stuck at the moment.  I've attached some pictures to help identify the glasses-many thanks!

Caitlin

[Lustrousstone]

Denis Mann is the engraver of the swallows.

[ageconcernbury]

Thank you that is a helpful start! It did seem an odd inscription-silly me!

[chopin-liszt]

And his work is very, very highly regarded indeed - he engraved the BBC Mastermind Trophy, which he designed in conjunction with Colin Terris, who sadly died in 2006. Denis is currently deeply involved with Northlands Creative Glass in Lybster.
This is a very attractive and desirable shape of glass.  Checking Frank's site, Andy MacConnell has attributed these to Charles Orr.

Info.from "Scotland's Glass: 400 Years of Glassmaking" by Shiona Airlie and Brian J.R. Blench", published by Cortex design.

Not engraved by somebody as prestigeous as Denis Mann, these are still very desirable glasses. They are more often seen with coloured bowls. See the link here, to Frank's site.

http://www.scotlandsglass.co.uk/cms/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=88&Itemid=6

[ageconcernbury]

Thank you that sounds really interesting.  The engraving of the birds is particularly lovely and your information helps to explain this.  Does anyone have any idea what we should sell them for in our charity shop? Our would it be better to sell them on ebay or this site?  Sorry to be so clueless glass really isn't something I know about although I'm beginning to see these glasses might be very special indeed  Thanks again you're very helpful people!

[chopin-liszt]

That's a bit more difficult!
We don't really "do" valuations here, they're very subjective.
How much you can raise in your shop depends very much on the area you're in and the sorts of customer you have.
If you have rich and generous customers, you might be able to put a good price on and get it, particularly if you can provide this information about them. I'm really not too sure how they would do on ebay, but if you take that route, be sure to include the American market - Caithness is very popular there. However, the worry of ebay is that they may crash.

Perhaps try the shop first?


Putting on my own "bric-a-brac-person" hat, I might try £25-30 for each of the leafy ones.
I've honestly not a clue about the Denis Mann ones. You've got good information about them, they're engraved by one of the very top engravers, they're signed and you have a pair. Think of a nice number and try it out on your customers, maybe £200 - 250 for the pair?

Display them nicely!

If that doesn't work, you could try ebay - but be sure to have GOOD close-up images of the engraving and the signature marks.
Rubbing a tiny amount of talcum powder over them helps, and take pictures against a black background. Somebody here recently said that using auctivia means you can put in lots of images without incurring loads of charges - sorry, I can't remember who said it, and I don't sell things myself.

[chopin-liszt]

Here's a link to Denis Mann's own site.

http://www.denismann.com/index.html

and a couple of links to items other sellers have for sale.

http://www.iauctionshop.co.uk/denis-f-mann-boxed-pr-engraved-caithness-glass-goblets-p-291.html

http://www.stylendesign.co.uk/modern/G847b.html

However, you have to remember they may not sell at this price, there are differences in the complexity of the engraving and the amount of work involved.
Personally, I like the shape of your goblets better then the ordinary shape there.

Good luck.

[David E]

This is a very attractive and desirable shape of glass.  Checking Frank's site, Andy MacConnell has attributed these to Charles Orr.

Do you mean Norman Orr, Sue? I wasn't aware of a Charles Orr. Again, another highly regarded engraver.

[chopin-liszt]

Only quoting from Frank's site David, and Frank was quoting Andy....

http://www.scotlandsglass.co.uk/cms/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=408&category_id=88&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=6

  So I don't know what/who Andy meant, but we're referring to the designer of this chunky and elegant goblet, not engraving - though there is no reason an engraver could not design a shape.

[David E]

... and Andy was quoting...?  

Interesting that Max has these - that's two different Orr inspired pieces she has - see p.67