Topic: Davidson and Dogs!

[Frank]

.. is the quote from Claud Frasers 1948 booklet.

Was wondering if that was going to be mentioned, Fraser is clearly a first class source but could still be wrong. Yet it does suggest some other information being available on the subject.

[ChrisStewart]

Fraser is clearly a first class source but could still be wrong. Yet it does suggest some other information being available on the subject.

I think his comment came from his nearly 50 years working and running Davidson. He may remember Davidson making dogs or alternatively remembers being told they were made in the 1880s. Also as Adam pointed out Dog could just be refering to a Victorian glass oddity.

Davidson did make a lion ornament, this is documented in the Pricing Committee records, so they could have made a dog ornament as well. But unless some documentary evidence is available, we can only say they may have been made by Davidson.

The Claude Fraser booklet also contains a typo which has been copied by many people in articles and web pages. He got the dates of the Davidson fire wrong, suggesting they factory was closed for over a year, when in fact it was closed for just 3 months.

Chris

[nicola]

Hi Chris
What sort of lions did Davidson make - From what I know there is the one with straight paws which is made by Derbyshire with all the makers marks etc, the smaller ones which are attributed to Greener and another which has *crossed* paws and is smaller than the Derbyshire one - is this one a Davidson lion instead?  I checked mine and he doesn't have a makers mark.
This is so exciting
Nicola

[ChrisStewart]

Hi Nicola,
Very good question. The only evidence that Davidson made a Lion is from the Pricing Committe records. There are no other documentary sources. So we cannot say for certain what the Lion looked like.

We have suggested that the Lion illustrated here http://www.cloudglass.com/other.htm (towards the bottom of the page) maybe made by Davidson as it appears in cloud glass. As davidson were not the only company to make cloud glass .....

Regards

Chris

[nicola]

Crikey, I hadn't noticed that on your site! I had always thought that they were made by Greener because of the shocking quality.  Back when I first started 10+ years ago I'd see them all the time in junk shop and rarely was there one that didn't have fins on the back etc!

Damn, scratch the theory of the crossed paws lion, I have just checked again and found a faint JD anchor on the base.  Although there is a lion sitting up with a large shield isn't there which I have seen attributed to everyone under the sun, maybe he is Davidson instead.  It doesn't look like Derbyshire because it has little circular bumps around the top of the base.
Or maybe there is a new lion out there!