Topic: Some confusion Valletta, Phoenician, Mtarfa

[WhatHo!]

Hi guys, can someone help me here please.
I have got conflicting info about who started Valletta and Mtarfa glassworks, I have it that they were both started by Paul Said (Joseph Brother) or did he start both of them about the same time?
Also I think Mtarfa has stopped running, has that been taken over by Phoenician? #confused

[glassobsessed]

I thought Valleta was much more recent than Mtarfa but it seems not: http://vallettaglass.com/sample-page

No idea about Mtarfa current status.

John

[WhatHo!]

Can no one help here?

[Baked_Beans]

Best to speak to Paul Said directly , I think    As Patrick mentioned in another thread, recently , Paul worked at MDG and Valletta was started in 1979, a year after MDG closed . I'm sure he would be pleased to fill you in with the details of the other Maltese companies too ! 

[WhatHo!]

Hi, it has not be confirmed that Paul Said worked at MDG, Patrick has 1 short conversation (which I was party to) with Lizzy at Valletta who we think is Pauls sister. Her English was not the best so the conversation was not easy.
Patrick has emailed Lizzy and she has forward it to Paul but there has been no reply from him.
So at the moment we are not in conversation with Paul to gain any info.

[WhatHo!]

Ok, I have done some research and Mtarfa Glass and Valletta Glass are/were addressed from the same premises. On the Valletta website it suggested that Paul Said started Valletta Glass in 1979 but I think he started Mtarfa then.
Mtarfa are no longer running so at some point the company either changed names or Mtarfa and Valletta joined and they kept the Valletta name?

Was Valletta Glass a separately run business and when was Valletta actually set up? The earliest reference I can find on google  for Valletta Glass is Feb 2007.
Or was Valletta and Mtarfa run from the same building at the same time?

extra info below---

Elizabeth Harris says,
"Mtarfa Glass. A second unit of glass making on Ta Qali run by a brother of Joe Said, the new owner of M’dina.

Phoenician Glass. Owned and run by ex-M’dina workers since Joe Said took over M’dina. This unit is at present on Manoel Island in Sliema, Malta’s leading resort."

[chopin-liszt]

Anything "Valletta" is pretty new to me.
I certainly did not encounter any when I started collecting Maltese glass, not knowing which company made what, and eventually pinning down first Mdina, then Phoenician and Mtarfa and finally, MDG.
Now, Valletta has appeared and needs added to that list.
If it had been going since '79, I'm sure I would have encountered it along the way.

But the images of Valletta glass posted by glass newbie are decidedly contemporary takes on the original Mdina Tiger/Marble designs. (I personally tend to describe the flat execution as being Marble and the deep colourful stuff as Tiger.)

I would imagine you are on the right sort of track, suspecting Mtarfa has become Valletta, Wolfie.
And if Mtarfa had gone under, perhaps going back to original (Mdina) designs of colourways might have been seen as more appealling to the market than the things they had produced themselves. Some of their stuff, I thought, was wonderful and I have a good bit of it, and while the intestine-y bottles and draped/gate sculptures are a bit weird, they are not weird how I like weird.

[Patrick]

Hi Sue,

Some interesting observations there and it will be interesting to find the answers...........

Onwards  >>>>>>>>>>>>> 

[WhatHo!]

Thanks Sue, excellent observations

[WhatHo!]

I found this useful information on the 20th Century Glass website,
'Phoenician Glass was founded in Malta in 1989 by Leonard Sullivan, an ex-worker from the well known Maltese glass factory Mdina Glass. As a result, many of the early Phoenician Glass designs were similar to designs by Michael Harris at Mdina. Phoenician Glass was named after the ancient Phoenician civilisaion, which colonised Malta during the first millenium BC. The company is still in production to this day.'