Glass Message Board

Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => Scandinavian Glass => Topic started by: chrisffc on March 16, 2010, 06:39:08 PM

Title: Help identify please:)
Post by: chrisffc on March 16, 2010, 06:39:08 PM
Hi there. I found these at an antique fair and thought they looked interesting. Any ideas chaps? I'm leaning towards Danish but i dunno. Thanks Chris :)
Title: Re: Help identify please:)
Post by: Ivo on March 16, 2010, 07:17:15 PM
Erik Höglund - nice ones!
Title: Re: Help identify please:)
Post by: chrisffc on March 16, 2010, 07:27:53 PM
Thank you :) They were on a table stuffed under some bits and bobs. Only paid £3 the pair so i was chuffed!!
Title: Re: Help identify please:)
Post by: glassobsessed on March 16, 2010, 11:56:03 PM
Older brother? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250592578801&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

No idea about the attribution.

John
Title: Re: Help identify please:)
Post by: Ivo on March 17, 2010, 07:20:45 AM
That attribution is most believable. It is also much larger than the Höglund pieces.
Title: Re: Help identify please:)
Post by: glassobsessed on March 17, 2010, 08:44:19 AM
Ivo, do you have a reference for the smaller bowls as Höglund? The designs lack the subtlety I associate with Erik Höglund's work. They remind me more of the small blue fish bowls you posted a while back.

John
Title: Re: Help identify please:)
Post by: Ivo on March 17, 2010, 09:46:51 AM
google images "Hoglund Boda Ashtray" and take your pick.
Title: Re: Help identify please:)
Post by: glassobsessed on March 17, 2010, 11:04:24 AM
Many of those are not by Hoglund. All the 'Zoo' animals for a start.

John
Title: Re: Help identify please:)
Post by: glassobsessed on March 17, 2010, 05:36:50 PM
Here is the thread I mentioned earlier (it was me who posted the blue bowls...): http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,27440.0.html

Googling "Hoglund Boda Ashtray" brings up this page: http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=Hoglund%20Boda%20Ashtray&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

The first three images are not E.H. designs, though they may have been 'inspired by' his work, neither are the lions.

Hopefully Daniel S will swing by and comment, at any rate the bowls in question don't look to be Hoglund to me.

John
Title: Re: Help identify please:)
Post by: chrisffc on March 17, 2010, 06:50:30 PM
They do have a striking similarity to mine the blue ones that is.
Title: Re: Help identify please:)
Post by: Daniel S on March 22, 2010, 01:48:29 PM
HI

I can confirm that these are NOT designed by EH.

Daniel
Title: Re: Help identify please:)
Post by: horochar on March 28, 2010, 10:40:53 AM
I also do not think that these are Hoglund pieces, but in the style of.  I have seen glass by other Swedish and Norwegian manufacturers that bears a strong resemblance to E.H. The Viking to my mind is too cartoon-like.  Hoglunds has a more "naive" or primitive style.
Title: Re: Help identify please:)
Post by: mbmb on April 04, 2010, 12:53:14 PM
These small ashtrays are Norwegian, designed by Richard Duborgh (1932-2007), and made by the arts and crafts commune PLUS in the 1960’s and 70’s. They were meant to accompany each place setting at the dinner table, in an era when most people smoked. They were also popular gifts, and corporations, town councils and others often ordered these ashtrays with their own logos imprinted on them, which explains the wide variety of images to be found.

Designer Richard Duborgh’s original craft was pottery, but he designed some nice if uncomplicated glass while at PLUS. He was in charge of glass design and production there from 1960 until 1970, when Benny Motzfeldt took over. Duborgh returned to pottery, setting up his own workshop.

PLUS was situated in the town of Fredrikstad, in southeastern Norway. It started in 1957 and was active for exactly 20 years. They made glass, pottery, furniture, textiles and other objects created by some of Norway’s leading designers. The idea was to refine public taste through offering good, modern design at affordable prices. In the 1960’s and early 1970’s PLUS was a huge success. But as the 1970’s became increasingly politicized, PLUS gradually broke up, as the artists associated with the movement engaged in the heated debate over whether their skills should be used to create political art, or merely fill bougouise homes with pleasant objects. By 1978, PLUS disintegrated totally, and officially came to an end. 1500 choice and/or representative objects (glass, textiles, pottery etc.) were donated to Fredrikstad Museum.

In their time, PLUS was an influential movement in Norway, producing some very good arts and crafts objects, improving people's tastes and homes, and it was a very good school for up-and-coming artists and designers. After its demise, PLUS was long forgotten, but recently, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its birth (and the 30th anniversary of its death), there was a large exhibition here in Norway, with an accompanying book published.

Yes, Swedish glass artist Erik Höglund made similar but somewhat larger ashtrays, and I can see why the confusion arises. But the ashtrays in question are definitely from PLUS in Norway. They pop up at every flea market here, and even if they’re truly inexpensive, I’ve stopped buying them. Who has twenty smokers at the table these days?

Best wishes
mbmb
Title: Re: Help identify please:)
Post by: chrisffc on April 04, 2010, 03:09:43 PM
That is fantastic info!! Thank you so much. I think there pretty cool and they sit nicely on the side. :)
Title: Re: Help identify please:)
Post by: glassobsessed on April 04, 2010, 03:23:39 PM
Mbmb, thank you so much for your time and effort in posting the information about Plus and Richard Duborgh. This really is very helpful, thankyou! :hiclp:

John
Title: Re: Help identify please:)
Post by: Ivo on April 09, 2010, 06:21:10 AM
GREAT information, thank you so much!