Glass Message Board

Hi TimelessGlass

I have heard back from Allan Scott - its a complicated
story but in essence all the designers at Caithness were
allowed to submit two pieces to something called the
Scottish Glass Society exhibition which was held annually
to showcase the talent of all the glassmakers in Scotland
not just Caithness Glass.

It seem that Shona made Kaleidoscope for the 1995
exhibition  and the design was "adapted" by Caithness
and released the following year as "Hall of Mirrors".
Allan says this was a common practice but at least
they had the courtesy to show Shona as the designer.

Amazingly Allan still has the catalogue for the 1995
Glass exhibition and as you can see the 4th entry in
the 6th showcase is your weight.   He also has a
picture of the "Hall of Mirrors weight that yours
became in 1996. I've also posted this.

Hope this all helps

Derek

Hi TimelessGlass 

Stuart Drysdale was the owner of Perthshire paperweights, he was NOT a glassworker.
He set Perthshire up in 1967 with Jack Allan as the chief glassworker together with
apprentices  John Deacons, Roy McDonald, Peter McDougall and glasscutter Tony Moravec.
You will probably have examples of weights by John Deacons and Peter McDougall!

Stuart died in 1990 and the firm was taken over by his son Neil. Again Neil was NOT a
glassworker just a manager Neil dies in April 2001 and after struggling on for a few
months the firm closed in January 2002.

Your weight was made in 1995 - it was one of the Perthshire Annual collection
for 1995 and is designated 1995F - the edition size was 300 of which 228 were made.
This information should be engraved on the base or low down on the side, there also
should be a scratch signed "P".  All this will be in VERY small script.

It is not possible to say who made your weight as only a few Perthshire paperweights are
identified to a specific maker. There were many "chairs" in the Perthshire factory each
making weights and your weight could have been made at any of them. Perthshire
Paperweights made many 100's of weights each week of different designs.

The lampwork -  that's the butterflies and  flowers/leaves would have been made in house
by one of the lampwork team led by Duncan Smith then encased in glass which would then
have been overlaid with two overlay cups of different colours, a complex and skilled operation

Hope this helps

Derek

Thanks again; You are the best!

Please add a base shot (always essential for any glass ID) and height and diameter

Definitely no uranium there (and uranium doesn't glow in the dark, as it's not phosphorescent. It does glow under UV light though). Your vase looks like a studio piece to me