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Author Topic: ROYO - not there quite yet but getting closer  (Read 9592 times)

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Offline Mike M

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« Reply #10 on: June 27, 2006, 10:30:19 AM »
Yes I've often seen the 'Made in Spain' labels on Royo etc  recently and probably going back 10-20 years. (and yes they look modern). But does that make them actually Spanish?

One other crucial point is that there is in fact a very large volume of this stuff - the producer must be (or have been) quite large (actually thinking about it - its about as common as say Mdina)

I've never doubted that they were made for the spanish tourist market, some of the shapes and enamelled images are a dead give away. Baldiwin says: -

'probably produced for spanish market.... Based on present Knowledge those articles ... can be safely attributed to Moser'  ----

I'd dearly love to know what his 'present knowledge' was. Most of the rest of his book is pretty accurate (except maybe the pricing).

Surely any enterprising manufacturer of such things, or, if not the maker then any industrious importer, would want to stick a 'Made in Spain' sticker on them! Basic touristware to entice the English/American speaking tourist.

In fact its not hard the believe a big player in the Spanish touristware market, in the 1920s or even as late as 1970/80s, wanting some large volume glass tourisware to flog to tourists in Spain, would probably go to either Italy or Czechoslovakia for such a product - if it wasn't being made locally. They would have been the cheapest  source.

I'm not saying this stuff is MOSER! -only Baldwin says that- I'm just saying that a labels saying 'Made in Spain' on them is only another piece to the jigsaw, and neither new nor conclusive!

In fact the only other vague link between Moser and Royo to my eye is that in the 1880-90s. Moser did some enamelling which draws on similar iconography. BUT that is not original iconography it too draws from various european traditions -now that's a tenous link if there ever was one.

Mr Gary D .Baldwin where ever you are -  please tell us about your 'present knowledge'!

Cheers

Mike

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Offline BSevern

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ROYO - not there quite yet but getting closer
« Reply #11 on: June 27, 2006, 04:29:57 PM »
Actually Gary is on the Tias art glass discussion group (art-glass@tias.com), which you can join and ask, it would definitely be a an interesting discussion topic.

When he joined the group earlier this year, someone sent a nice and PC post asking if he felt that all of the information in his book was still valid, and he responded that he would not change anything.  

Don't get me wrong, he's a well intended guy, and knowledgeable, but I believe there to be some fallacies in the book (Moser jaded perhaps :-)

Without some evidence I don't believe the Royo attribution, but I do believe that Moser made glass for some of the other markets, such as the glass sold to the Italian market as shown in his book.    Almost any glass house would be happy to sell blanks under contract to a foreign customer (I believe it happened a lot more then is currently thought).

His information for the book is mainly based on the archives that Leo Moser donated to the Corning Museum of Glass when he and his daughter fled from the Nazi's to the U.S. (that story is truly fit for a great movie IMO).

Brian

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Offline Frank

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ROYO - not there quite yet but getting closer
« Reply #12 on: June 28, 2006, 09:35:39 AM »
There is also a possibility that the name Royo hd been used in the past by one company and adopted later by another company. Possibly with no knowledge of or connection to the first. That the styles involved are similare could be coincidence. Far fetched but it is important to keep an open mind with all unresolved questions or you run the risk of creating your 'own' answer.

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Offline Ron

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ROYO - not there quite yet but getting closer
« Reply #13 on: June 28, 2006, 11:57:44 AM »
According to www.repronews.com the Royo and Cire marked pieces started appearing in the US market in the mid 1980's and continued through the mid 1990's with an Ardalt Made in Spain label. Ardalt was a US importer that has since gone out of business.

Here's a partial quote from that site:
Quote
Although some pre-1938 Moser decorations occasionally
used an Islamic theme, the modern Spanish pieces are quite crude
and nothing like authentic Moser quality. All the Spanish pieces
we’ve examined, for example, have very rough scarred pontils.
Virtually all Moser products have polished pontils. Authentic Moser
glass bodies are almost always virtually flawless. There are rarely
any bubbles, unmelted grains (seeds) or pitting. All the modern
Spanish pieces have numerous bubbles. Most pieces, but not all pieces,
also have at least some unmelted lumps and some pitting. Almost all
pre-1938 Moser, regardless of how well its been cared for, shows at
least some wear to the gold trim. The Spanish pieces show bright gold
throughout with no wear. Likewise, most pre-1938 pieces will show some
minimal scratching on their glass bases.The Spanish pieces are perfectly
smooth with no signs of normal wear. Another less obvious clue is the
shape. All the modern Spanish pieces are in traditional shapes unique to
Spanish glass making.

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Sklounion

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ROYO - not there quite yet but getting closer
« Reply #14 on: June 29, 2006, 10:11:51 PM »
Hi this in a very interesting topic.
I have to say that from personal experience, far from Moser supplying blanks, others seem to have supplied Moser.
This is very irksome. Lets face it, if you are one of Europe's premier marks, do you sell blanks that could discredit the company, by association....
Royo is Spanish, the design Mor-esque, and sure, some similarities exist.
BUT Moser deny it, the Spanish are proud of a home-produced product.
One has to ask, is this a collecting ploy?
As with the Reuben Ruthven items recently, is this merely a group of alleged cognoscenti, being too cognisant and au fait, for the truth to survive???
JMHO,
Marcus

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Offline Frank

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ROYO - not there quite yet but getting closer
« Reply #15 on: June 30, 2006, 07:06:08 AM »
Perhaps Royo were handled by the same wholesaler that handled Moser and the misattribution resulted from that?

Speculation, speculation. Hopefully Ivo finds the answer in Spain and rounds the thread off.

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Offline Mike M

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ROYO - not there quite yet but getting closer
« Reply #16 on: June 30, 2006, 11:31:33 PM »
I've been looking long and hard at a couple of bits of Royo I have to hand at the moment -comparing them to the Repronews comments

strangely quite a few do not agree

-nice ground pontil on one

-no pitting etc

-few bubbles

BUT the wear on the bottom, the gold and other enamelling -I've been over them with a fine loupe:

I'd say one might be 40 years old max (being very generous here) and the other isn't 20 years old.

Pretty damning!

Lets just say whoever made these ones did it quite recently, definetely not around 1925!

Cheers

Mike

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Offline Max

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ROYO - not there quite yet but getting closer
« Reply #17 on: July 01, 2006, 06:20:09 AM »
Mine is rather lovely with butterflies and has no discernable wear to the base and no defects in the glass.  There's a 'T' shape where the pontil rod would have been, I assume caused by cold shears.
I am not a man

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Offline Tigerchips

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ROYO - not there quite yet but getting closer
« Reply #18 on: July 01, 2006, 07:04:35 AM »
My green Royo vase has very dull gilding and it's worn in places. There are a few tiny bubbles inside the glass but that's it.
One day I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine. William Hartnell

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Offline Ivo

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ROYO - not there quite yet but getting closer
« Reply #19 on: July 05, 2006, 11:45:55 AM »
The "Arte Catalan" sticker -provided it is not a retail label - at least limits it down to Cataluña - so Royo is probably not made in Toledo but in Barcelona.
I managed to stay away from all the tourist traps and have seen NO GLASS AT ALL while in Spain.

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