Topic: IOW -Meadow garden Michaell Harris signature.

[PaulFitz]

Hi,  I just need some help on this 10cms tall vase  .
Which looks to be Meadow Garden- Dog Rose .
The thing I don`t understand is that if it is designed by Elizabeth Harris why does  it have Michael Harris`s signature on the bottom.
If some one could shed some light on this i would appreciate it.
Thanks

[Lustrousstone]

It probably means he made it.

[chopin-liszt]

Elizabeth did not make glass, but she is a designer - quite famous in her own right.
Remember all the union flag tea towels, tea cosies, oven mitts, coffee mugs, waistcoats, miniskirts, minicars, tophats and general unionflaggishness of Carnaby Street? That was Elizabeth. 

I'm afraid I'm not convinced by the signature on the base of this globe at all. It does not look right to me.

[PaulFitz]

Hi,thank you both for your replies.
I did think it odd that a Elizabeth designed vase would have a Michael signature on and not being sure if this normally occurred.Obviously i don`t know about signatures being genuine or not as well.The seller did not sell it has a Michael Harris piece,just that it was signed(maybe that was the bait) and the price was for around 26 pounds so was not trying to get a premium price for it.It is a learning experience but not too costly,financially anyway.
Cheers Paul.

[chopin-liszt]

Isle of Wight Studio Glass was pretty much a family business - Elizabeth did have considerable artistic input, although not when they were at Mdina - she was too busy trying to raise their children then, as they were quite young.

It's the tool used to write the name that concerns me. Normally, Michael Harris would use a diamond engraver - but this looks done with a vibrating sort of tool. The difference in tool might account for the different look of the writing, as the letters are thicker.

This isn't normally the sort of piece that would be signed. Meadow Garden was a "bread and butter" sort of range, so perhpas it was originally purchesed at the studio and the buyer asked for it to be signed and only a vibrating tool was available?

I'd be interested in Glassobsessed's opinion. He's better at signatures than I am.
I'm pleased to hear you did not fork out a large extra amount of cash for the sake of some scribbles on the bottom.
(I'm a bit of an oddity - I don't personally rate a signature as adding any value, just to the cost. )

[chilternhills]

The signature looks OK to me. It is very similar to the signature on a Seascape bowl here:

http://iowstudioglass.wikidot.com/labels

Sue is right, though, that Meadow Garden was a bread and butter design and woundn't normally be signed. I think this piece must be the only one I have seen. However, a surprising number of rather plain and uninteresting (to me anyway) paperweights were signed by MH. I guess he signed what he liked.

Anton

[brewster]

I showed a Seascape perfume bottle bearing Michael Harris's signature in an earlier thread:
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,47518.msg267419.html#msg267419

The question remains why MH signed some standard production items like my bottle and the original piece that started this thread. One hint may be the other annotation on my bottle that looks to me like a limited edition number of 50 out of 500 (even if 500 stretches the concept of 'limited edition'). The Seascape bowl referred to in Reply #5 above has a similar annotation of 39.500.

Perhaps more intriguing is why a piece like my bottle that is so obviously not quite right can qualify for inclusion in a limited edition, let alone deserves a signature from one so sparing in his provision of autographs.

The thread spawned by my bottle dissolved into a discussion about the technology of engraving that might or might not have been used by MH.

Trevor

[chopin-liszt]

Conventional wisdom has it that Michael Harris hated signing anything, he thought the glass should stand on its own as art, without a signature, and was always reluctant to sign anything.
He made an exception for the pieces exported to America, because the stores selling it demanded that it should be signed, and I think they did try signing a few bits at Mdina, to see if they sold better. The Japanese globes are very often found signed.

I would suspect the most likely reason for a "bread and butter" piece being signed was at the customer's request on purchase.

[chilternhills]

There are some possible reasons that come to mind for signing some pieces and not others: 1) the item was for export; 2) it was a very early example of a new design; 3) MH liked it and was proud to sign it; 4) the customer requested it. If the vase in question here was bought in New Zealand then reason 1) might explain it. Tim Harris seems to sign early examples of new designs and once established tends not to. Maybe his father did the same. Special bits tend to be signed, like graal and one-offs, but some MH designs seemed to be more signed than not, like Landscape. Reason 4 explains itself and perhaps can make a few bob more. Perhaps I'll ask the Harrises when I am next in the studio.

By the way, Elizabeth Harris was mentioned earlier in this conversation. Here is a cheery picture of her in the new Arreton Barns studio (bottom of the page): http://iowstudioglass.wikidot.com/arretonbarns

Anton

[PaulFitz]

Hi to everyone and thanks again for your replies.
It seems i have opened a can of worms on a MH signature on a piece.My apologies but i should have mentioned from the start that i bought this on Ebay from Canada of which the seller bought it at an antique fair.That is as much info i can gather from the seller.I didn`t think this was important with my 1st post but from some of the replies maybe is.
Thanks again everyone.