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Author Topic: cameo (I think) paperweight - fish and seaweed iridescent finish. ID = Okra  (Read 5356 times)

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Offline flying free

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I've searched quite extensively on line and through my books and found it difficult to find any comparable.  Any ideas who may have made this gratefully received.  Thanks
m

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Offline scimiman

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Hi m
Your paperweight is Okra 1999 during the Moorcroft period of ownership (1999 - 2001) called 'Cairns'
Designed by Sarah Cowans.
If yours is not signed then it is probably a second.
Regards Mike www.abfabglass.co.uk

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Offline flying free

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thanks Mike, did Sarah Cowans actually make it?  
I can't see any reason why it would be a second and no it isn't signed.  I was told it was Okra because apparently the owners had the matching pair that stood up on it's end and was signed.  So did they come as as two piece set with one signed?  
Edited to add, with your info Mike I've found another one, not as detailed as mine ( :P) but also id'd as by Sarah and Cairns and also unsigned and it seems to stand on it'e end...and the kind person has included a pic from the catalogue showing a vase as well.  It's all gorgeous.  She says Sarah was a student at Okra at this time?
m

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Offline scimiman

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Sorry I havent got back to you before but have been away.

thanks Mike, did Sarah Cowans actually make it?  Probobly not. These are not hand carved in the strict sense of cameo work but acid etched.I can't see any reason why it would be a second and no it isn't signed.   I was told it was Okra because apparently the owners had the matching pair that stood up on it's end and was signed.  So did they come as as two piece set with one signed?   No. They were single weights. It is possible it was one that was stolen as some pieces did go missing during this period and sold to unsuspecting collectors. All Okra pieces are signed in various ways depending on what the piece is.
Edited to add, with your info Mike I've found another one, not as detailed as mine ( :P) but also id'd as by Sarah and Cairns and also unsigned and it seems to stand on it'e end...and the kind person has included a pic from the catalogue showing a vase as well.  It's all gorgeous.  She says Sarah was a student at Okra at this time? Sarah was never a student at Okra but a fully fledged designer who had worked for Moorcroft for many years before.

Hope this is of help.
Regards Mike www.abfabglass.co.uk

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Offline flying free

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Thanks Mike and  eek - I don't want to think I have a stolen piece!!!  Mind you the owner was quite insistent they had the other one that stood on end and it was signed, so hopefully in that scenario mine is a second then.   They seemed just normal kinda people, so I hope they paid for them in the first place.   And thanks for the info on Sarah... wrong information on that listing  >:( and I was suspect about it, but I did also get to see a copy of the catalogue page so I shall now be on the lookout for a vase.
thanks so much for taking the time to reply.  Much appreciated.
m

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Offline scimiman

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Thanks Mike and  eek - I don't want to think I have a stolen piece!!!  Mind you the owner was quite insistent they had the other one that stood on end and it was signed, so hopefully in that scenario mine is a second then. I did not for one minute think the people you brought it from were part of the stolen story, they were just unsuspecting collectors who brought in all innocence.  They seemed just normal kinda people, so I hope they paid for them in the first place.   And thanks for the info on Sarah... wrong information on that listing  >:( and I was suspect about it, but I did also get to see a copy of the catalogue page so I shall now be on the lookout for a vase.
thanks so much for taking the time to reply.  Much appreciated.
m

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Offline flying free

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question about cameo versus acid etched.
I've been pondering this for a long while since this post.  If this isn't cameo work in the strictest sense of cameo, i.e. hand carved, then why would many antique cameo pieces be called cameo, since as far as I can see there was an awful lot of them that were acid etched as well (obviously some not, the ones that were hand carved lol).  It seems that acid etching the glass layers back, became a much more useable and faster process in turn of the century glass, and was used quite extensively, therefore many pieces that I have found that are called Cameo glass were in fact not hand carved but were acid etched.  Does this make my paperweight acid etched cameo glass? but still Cameo Glass?
m

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Offline chopin-liszt

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I'm curious too!

(and I can't help thinking those poor fish have been put on the griddle...)
Cheers, Sue M. (she/her)

‘For every problem there is a solution: neat, plausible and wrong’. H.L.Mencken

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Offline KevinH

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My understanding ...

"Cameo" means a low relief image.

"Cameo carved" means a relief image produced by carving to reveal two or more colours, but in later years the process was often assisted by the use of acid.

Strictly speaking, if no hand carving was used, then the process should be called "acid relief" or "acid etched".

But I suppose it really comes down to the maker's description - if an item was made or marketed as "cameo" work, then that's what it is.

But note also that ...

"cameo" is sometimes used in the paperweight world to describe "intaglio cutting" such as with Bohemian and Baccarat weights with horses, stags, dogs and so forth cut into the underside of the base.

And, of course, "cameo incrustation" was the initial English term for what is now more generally called a "sulphide" fully embedded within clear glass!
KevinH

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Offline flying free

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ok, a good explanation Kev, thank you.
If for the sake of this thread, we just stick to Cameo work as in the 'traditional' sense of the word with regard to glass cut back to reveal other layers, there is an awful lot of glass from the turn of the century classed as 'cameo' but with the cut back done by acid etching rather than hand carved, but still called Cameo glass. To me it is still cameo glass i.e it reveals a relief image and at least two colours of glass where the image is cut through at least one layer of colour to reveal another.  It's just that the technique used to reveal the relief image is not hand carved (most desirable and obviously the hardest technique of them all).
Therefore in my eyes it should perhaps properly be described as Acid Etched Cameo rather than just Cameo. 
I guess with Hand Carved Cameo, there is no need to discuss any further as that is unlikely to be improperly described, given the sums of money the good pieces would change hands for.
I'm interested not just because of this paperweight, which started me thinking, but also because of all the 'tip galle' and other similar type pieces around where the process of making them are not described in any detail and which I presume are also acid etched rather than carved.
m

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