Topic: Hadeland - the poor relation?

[catshome]

Hi All,

The more I find out about Scandinavian Glass, the more I wonder why some pieces are so sought after and others don't seem to have the same "pulling power".

I'm guessing the name of the designer may mean more than the name of the factory?  But Hadeland Glass seems to have had quite a few well-known designers and yet there's relatively little of it around and it doesn't seem to command very high prices.  It also doesn't seem to crop up on the GMB very much!

Today I saw a stunning bottle decanter in blue glass with a white spiral, signed Hadeland 1960 and also with initials - I've trashed my glasses and it looked like KM..........but I could only find a BM (Benny Motzfeld[t]) when I started looking for more information.  It was £68 so sadly I couldn't afford to buy it just to be able to share it with you all.

So is Hadeland one to pick up for the pension?  Or always destined to be the poor relation compared to Kosta, Holmegaard, Riihimaki, Orrefors, etc?

Please polish those crystal balls and share your predictions..........

Thank you
Cat

[alexander]

Ooo - Hadeland, some of my favorite designers worked there 

Why HG doesn't pop up so much outside Norway I'm not sure, I suspect tho that very little of the
artglass was exported.

HG artglass is quite popular in Norway, some of the more famous designers pieces go for anything between
£10 and £6000, the latter a recent cameo vase by Axel Boman. Nice HG pieces that go up on online auctions here
will usually sell without problem, signed pieces are more popular of course.

Anything hand signed by Benny Motzfeldt is very popular, altho almost anything that has a BM Plus,
B.M. or Designed by BM label will be picked up by collectors right quick. Her hand signature is an easily
readable B.M followed usually by the last two digits of the year of make.

BM was a prolific designer and glassblower at Randsfjord Glassverk, Hadeland, Plus and Hallingglass.
Her designs from Randsfjord and Plus are especially popular.

Other very popular HG designers are the above mentioned Boman, Jon Wilhelm Johansson,
his son Willy Johansson, Jonas Hidle, Arne Jon Jutrem, Hermann Bongard and Severin Brørby.

Hadeland artglass is always signed, not counting seconds and trial pieces.
Usually it will have "Hadeland" engraved along with the artists initials, if it was blown by that artist,
or it may have the artists number, and a year.
Some glass is signed by the designer, the glassblower, the engraver etc.   

This is one of my favorites by Willy Johansson, the picture does not do it justice.
It's a tall sommerso with deep purple inside clear glass and a transparent green on the bottom.
It is a second as it's not signed, there are airbubbles inside and that would cause WJ not to sign it.
Both WJ and JWJ were very strict and if a piece wasn't perfect it would not get a signature.

WJ Vase 1
WJ Vase - natural light

Here are two small vases in a series by Benny Motzfeldt called "groups in glass", designed to be displayed in
windowsills and the like where light will make them light up in different colors. A very popular series,
which was made at Randsfjord and is usually not signed. They come in variations of green and blue,
all sizes and shapes and no two are identical.

Small six sided BM vase
Small round BM vase

What's in store for HG in the future? I think, and hope, that the great glass made there prior to 1980 or thereabouts
will remain popular and will become increasingly valuable. Anything by Axel Boman is a good bet but
horrendously expensive. I am personally very fond of their early art glass period, some of the creations
made in the 1940-1970'ies were totally amazing.

This is an ongoing auction for a three layered unsigned bowl by WJ, these are very popular, bids are at approx. £50
with three days to go. Bowl

As to who signed the blue decanter I'm not sure, I'm not aware of anyone matching those initials in 1960.
It could be that the 1960 refers to a series, if so it would be by Hermann Bongard.

HG also makes a series of blue urns, these are usually signed with the full year and no artists signature. They are very popular.

Hope this adds something, I'm working on a website for my glass, but it's gotta be done inbetween
a million other things so it's not coming along very fast at the moment.

Another problem is that I started collecting HG and Murano, added Randsfjord and Plus, added
paperweights, then added excentricities ( like my decanter with a hollow swan inside ) etc 
So now I have a gazillion categories to research and enjoy, it's great fun but somewhat time consuming 

This board has taught me a lot tho and I am forever grateful to you all for sharing.

[catshome]

Hi Alexander,

That is an amazing amount of information - I really appreciate you sharing it.  I may be popping back to the place I saw it and might be cheeky and ask to take a picture to add to the information for your site.  I'll also take a better magnifier and double check the initials - they were on the stopper too so at least one set should be readable.

Kind regards
Cat

[josordoni]

Thank you so much Alexander!

I have a little group of animals that were lotted as Norwegian.  I assumed Hadeland (no pics at present as they are in the bottom of a box somewhere) but they are not signed.

Do you know if anyone else in Norway made chunky glass animals very similar to Hadeland ones?  Or are some Hadeland ones unsigned?

[alexander]

Thanks - always nice to see HG is in shops in other countries, I have pondered why HG doesn't have the same
international name as Holmegaard anc the others, apart from the lower export output I'd say it might be related to the
fact that Iittala, Rihimaki, and Holmegaard all have some timeless classics that have carried their names
far and wide.

The Gulvase for example which some see as a signature series for Holmegaard, Iittala have the beautiful tulip vases by Ivar Aalto
and a huge range of other nice glass and they export all they can. I know here in Norway the Iittala glass has
for a long time been considered top notch finnish quality and design.

Norway is not most famous for her designers  but I hope that improves, we have a good crop of young designers
making their marks at the moment and interest in them should rub off on older designers.

I've found the Bongard vase I mentioned above, the price realised was around £6000.
This is a link to the item on the auction site

Was the decanter you saw anything like this? (link to auction site)
This is by an earlier glassworks called Gjøvik, dated to around 1810-20. Hadeland have continued some of these popular
old designs as Hadeland Glass gobbeled up most of the smaller glassworks as it grew. These are quite popular, the older ones
can sell for around £1000+

About glass animals, Hadeland has made lots of glass animals, usually "chunky" and stylized rather than with great detail,
their polar bears are especially popular. Other popular animals include minks/otters, seals etc. There is a musk oxen by another
glassworks that's very popular but the maker escapes me at the moment, could be HG or RG but I'm drawing a blank.

I'm not sure how much of the animal production is signed, today anything except
seconds and trials is signed, but I have a nice polar bear that's not. It has an "x" scratched in on the base.
If you get pics I should be able to tell you the designer. I think the other glassworks have also made animals,
but I mostly see Hadeland.

[catshome]

Was the decanter you saw anything like this? (link to auction site)
This is by an earlier glassworks called Gjøvik, dated to around 1810-20. Hadeland have continued some of these popular
old designs as Hadeland Glass gobbeled up most of the smaller glassworks as it grew. These are quite popular, the older ones
can sell for around £1000+

Alexander - the decanter was exactly like that but with the stopper.  When you say "older ones" I expect you mean much older than 1960.  I can see why I didn't find it when I searched - I need to learn Norwegian, or find an online translation site Norwegian-English so that I can search in Norwegian!

Thank you (again)
Cat

PS I'm looking forward to seeing the animals some time.....

[alexander]

Very cool - with a stopper and in perfect condition that's not a horrendous price
but I don't know what these later decanters go for. They don't come up very regularly
and seem to be snapped up in auctions. The signature could give an indication.

The auction that the one i linked to sold at also had a stopper sold separately for approx £230,
they had four of them at that auction.  All of those from early 18xx
Auction page


This is the current line of animals from Hadeland Glassverk.
Animals

Their official site is at hadeland-glassverk.no
It's in English and Norwegian.

I couldn't find the blue decanter there, that doesn't mean it's discontinued as their webpage only
has a little sampler of their products.

[alexander]

I have found more information on the blue decanter marked 1960

It was made to commemorate the city of Gjøvik's 100th anniversary,
these were made 1959-61 and marked "hadeland" and full year.

Hadeland Glassverk made a series of 12 blue pieces based on the old Gjøvik Glassverk designs.

So the one you saw is somewhat rare it would appear.

Source: Antikvitetsleksikon by Ellen Ørnes 2004, ISBN 82 7201 367 3

[catshome]

ummmm...............suddenly £68 doesn't seem so much............

Astonishing that you've found out so much Alexander..........."thank you" doesn't seem adequate  .

Cat

[alexander]

You're very welcome - I'm happy to be able to contribute 

I'm a bit in the dark as far as valuation as I haven't got any sales of these later
decanters to go on - this style of glass is very popular in Norway tho.
Identifying the artist would help.

Edit: Valuing these newer ones is tricky without more data, it could be
that the price asked is high'ish for that location, up here it could
go for anywhere from £30-200 based on what i've seen of the cobalt blue
from that period. 
 
Value aside - it is a beautiful decanter.