Topic: Jobling Parrot Motif: Unusual Example

[Mosquito]

I bought this a while ago but have only just got around to photographing it. It's a small Jobling parrot that could stand in the centre of an ashtray. While not catalogued as such these figures were apparently also sold as standalone figures too (I have a Kingfisher with a very nicely finished base and a similar kingfisher is also shown on one of the colour plates in Baker & Crowe).

This parrot though is a strange one. While it is the correct design and includes the registration number, it's not very well finished and is also in an odd colour. Looking closely the surface is a little rough suggesting the mould wasn't that new when it was pressed. The base has had some uneven rough grinding to the centre but nothing more (Jobling standalone figures of this type typically have mirror polished bases while the ones for mounting to an ashtray have an even matt grind).

The colour is the most unusual as it's a basically clear glass with a very slight blue tint. It doesn't match the blue used for the other art glass designs, nor does it match the blue used on the smaller rose bowls. Really it looks like it was intended to be clear but the batch got contaminated. When I saw the piece I immediately remembered Adam Dodd's tale of dodgy cheap arsenic contaminated with cobalt being used at Sowerby in the mid 1950s (see here: http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,31163.0.html). Maybe it's a stretch but it did get me wondering if this piece was made at Sowerby's. we do know that the bird and panel mould was used by Sowerby probably in the late 50s and there are also celery vases in non-jobling colours, often with flanged rims and sandblasted interiors, which also look very similar colour and finish wise to the Sowerby versions of the bird vase suggesting that mould too may have ended up there.

Of course another alternative is that Jobling too fell for the cheap arsenic although I've never seen another Jobling piece in this very pale icy-blue before...

[Mosquito]

Here's another picture comparing the colour with the typical blue used in the Art Glass range:

[Paul S.]

very interesting Steven .............    for those of us who are a little short-sighted, and no longer have Baker & Crowe, will you please give the Rd. No. and date of Registration  -  many thanks

sorry, just realized I have the Kew pictures for the parrot - sitting on the ashtray - and the parrot appears to be modelled in ceramic.    Believe the Rd. No. is 796185 from 06.09.1934............     registered at the same time as eight other Jobling designs.
Do I have the No. correct, and do you have any interest in seeing the National Archives image?

[Keencollector]

I was interested to see you suggested that this parrot may have been made by Sowerby because of the colour.  Some years ago I purchased a pair of black Jobling bears from a gentleman in the north of England and he informed me of the how these had come to him from a family estate.   They had been his Great-Aunts and she had worked most of her life at Sowerby where she had purchased them.  I hadn’t  heard of the moulds being purchased by Sowerby but he was adamant that they had been made there.

[Keencollector]

Previous owner identified these as manufactured at Sowerby factory.

[Mosquito]

Nice to see the bears in black, thoughI suspect the seller was mistaken in this case and these are Jobling production. While not catalogued, the bear motif does show up in both jet (black) and pearl (moonstone opal): early art glass colours which were also used for the B1 Lambton vase as well as the Fir Cone and Flower pattern tableware. I've also seen a 2541 figure in jet: again early production as shown by the flowers towards the base.

That said, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that the bears were pressed at Sowerby. We know the smaller Bird and Panel vase mould ended up there, and there are also 11800 celery vases which are sometimes seen in similar colours/ finishes as the Sowerby issued Bird vases. At least one mould (base to the 2598 jazzy cigarette box)  also ended up at Davidson. In the case of this parrot motif, I was speculating Sowerby due to the colour. It does seem similar to that of a Sowerby Dora vase in my collection.

One problem when researching is that there's not much documented regarding Jobling flint  glass production after the war: Indeed different sources give different dates for the end of flint glass production, ranging from 1959-62. If I recall correctly, production was all pyrex when Adam Dodds joined Jobling in tbe early sixties. Presumably it would have been around this time that the moulds were transferred (tbe Davidson version of the cigarette box base was issued in tbe sixties in their Marble (aka Lava) glass.