Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => British & Irish Glass => Topic started by: josordoni on August 28, 2006, 09:55:05 AM
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Does anyone know if her work is collectable yet?
I am trying to price a piece at an auction, and can't find anything about her work. This is an astract sculpture about 8 ins tall, best described as three blobs on top of a cage of glass sitting on another blob.... no pic I am afraid - it didn;t come out :cry:
it is signed just with her name, no other attribution.
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Oh! message from The Beloved (who is at the auction with my shopping list...) that we have got the blobby glass sculpture. So pics shortly!
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Hi Lynne
Yes she is collecable I sold a decanter and 4 glasses by her a couple of months ago after Adam A helped me ID them. If you want to sell your blobbies let me know as I'm trying to collect more sculptural pieces at present, hence all my sales.
Paul
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Hi Paul - don't suppose you are planning to go to Reemans tomorrow are you? I could bring Mr Blobby with me...
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Ooooh yes I'll be there with all that glass going under the hammer, not arf. Some interesting attributions in the catalogue thoughand a lot of the stuff with damage as well but should still be a good sale.
I'd love to take a look at it as it sounds just the type of piece I'm into at present.
Paul
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Sounds like quite an early piece by the description.
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:lol:
being round the corner I just couldn't imagine you keeping away....
Hope we won't end up bidding each other up!
I was very disappointed with a lot of the damage I have to say. But there are still a lot of ceramics there too, and it is well worth the trip for me (she says with fingers and lots of other body parts crossed....)
I am a very plump lady of indeterminate age ( :roll: ) and I'll be wearing black trousers and a purple jacket. I could hold a red gardenia in my teeth, but it might be a bit showy.
If you stick a rough description on here, we can go round asking everyone one if they are us....
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Oh you won't miss me Lynne 6'2" built like a brick out house with very short hair. I'll have a blue shirt (see Max not just the famous pink shirt) and brown trousers on. Looking forward to it, see you there.
Paul
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Lynne, this might help: http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-1547 ;)
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You beat me to it, Anne.
I was just about to post a link to the Glass Rogues Gallery. :lol: :lol:
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:lol: Della! Now all we need is Lynne is the Rogues and they'll be all set up to meet! ;)
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here we go
http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-3031
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No problems then, I'll soon spot ya!
Paul
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that IS the last photo I will allow to be viewed in public though Paul - I wear glasses now so add those mentally. :roll:
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Well the deal was duly done and I have to say I love it and certainly one of the most unusual pieces even I've ever had. What do you reckon then folks, and bye the way Lynne is lovely.
http://i3.tinypic.com/25znz0y.jpg
Paul
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It's certainly your type of glass I think. I don't know whether I like it or not but it's not something I would buy for myself. But it's a striking piece.
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The sort of thing that appeals to me as well :)
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Gosh! It looks like an alien life form as seen in the movies! Quite amazing. How's it made - blown, lampworked or what?
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Appears to be all blown and very tactile. I'm afraid SWMBO describes it as a mutant giraffe with it's mates head and half it's neck inserted where the sun won't reach......philistine!!!!
Paul
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Gosh! It looks like an alien life form as seen in the movies! Quite amazing. How's it made - blown, lampworked or what?
:shock: Exactly what I thought too, Anne. It actually looks like "Alien"
Definitely different and destined to be a talking point.
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I'm in the SWMBO camp - again :lol:
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Awwwwwww gee tanks Paul, and you is purty neat too! :lol:
I am so glad you like the little Mr Blobby..... (if you ask Paul nicely, he might let you all see a little pic, I didn't get to take a picture before I left for the auction - then you can see just HOW blobby he is! And why I believe he must be male....)
I think we both got some nice glass! I got a load of Victorian opalescent/vaseline vases - fair bit of damage but not expensive so should be ok, a load of lovely carnival glass (I had to fight a bit for that, so it wasn;t cheap) and a batch of art vases, including two signed ones by Norman Stuart Clarke, that I really do love. And a few bits of ceramics too. And some cigarette cards...20 lots in total!!! A good day's haul.
(Off Topic: there was a box of football programmes, all stuck together with sellotape, grubby as anything, with staples missing. Terrible condition. But
they dated from the 1930s and 40s, and went for £4,500.......)
These boys and their toys. Who'd want to pay that for some scaggy footy programmes?
I am not sure what you got Paul, I was too busy trying to keep up with my next lot.
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Oh ! I missed that you had already posted a pic! I didn;t see the thread went onto page 2...
So you can see why it is MR Blobby now can't you :twisted:
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Paul, have you found out roughly when it was made? Was it an early piece?
and excuse my ignorance, what is SWMBO?
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SWMBO is She who must be obeyed also known as Joyce.
I'm hoping Adam A will be able to help on production time but I would guess at late 1970's early 80's.
I bought the 2 large Strombergshytten sommerso vases, the big Mdina axe or fish vase, the lot of Scandi glass that included a Vicke Lindstrand fish, and a large Hadeland Atlantic vase plus 8 other pieces, and finally 4 Murano pieces, so all in all a jolly good day.
Paul
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I'm hoping Adam A will be able to help on production time but I would guess at late 1970's early 80's.
http://www.caa.org.uk/cvs/solven_pauline.htm
http://www.cowdygallery.co.uk/index2.htm
Pauline Solven and her husband Harry (Cowdy) run Cowdy Gallery and for more details about this piece it would be best to contact them directly.
I would guess that this is is a very early piece and likely to be very rare.
Since Pauline was one of the first people to graduate from the RCA after Sam Herman started teaching there, I would consider this a very collectable piece as it probably represents an important date-line in the development of British Studio Glass.
It is possible that its historical value is far in excess of its financial value.
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SWMBO is She who must be obeyed also known as Joyce.
choking on my laughter Would you believe I thought it was a very important Glass publication or something?
I bought the 2 large Strombergshytten sommerso vases, the big Mdina axe or fish vase, the lot of Scandi glass that included a Vicke Lindstrand fish, and a large Hadeland Atlantic vase plus 8 other pieces, and finally 4 Murano pieces, so all in all a jolly good day.
Paul
Yup, we both did nicely thank you!
Since Pauline was one of the first people to graduate from the RCA after Sam Herman started teaching there, I would consider this a very collectable piece as it probably represents an important date-line in the development of British Studio Glass.
It is possible that its historical value is far in excess of its financial value
Well, I do hope that it turns out to be astronomical for Paul's sake!
:lol:
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:D :D :D
I was reading this with growing dismay, as I thought I was going to want the piece desperately, but I don't like it at all, thankfully!
I do have a beautiful amethyst pot vase, with 4 bubble features around it in the shape of the yin-yang symbol, coloured with silver oxides, to give irridesence in them. It is signed Pauline Solven, RCA '67. It is really beautiful. I think this is of historical significance myself, and shows considerable skill.
According to my Shire guide on Studio Glass, Pauline Solven was one of the few glassmakers who learned to WORK ALONE.
:shock::shock::shock:
There is a picture of her doing this in the book. :shock:
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Hi Sue, I'd forgotten about this book and you're right: several excellent pictures of her. Plenty of admiration for someone who can work glass single-handedly :shock: :P
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I've had another lok at this and it's an abstract portrayal of someome sitting on seat isn't it?
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:D 8) :D
I think you've all got it upsidedown and that it's a stirrup cup. :lol:
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Fraid not Sue it's on a solid base, and not someone sitting on a chair unless they have 3 legs (Jake the Peg) possibly, right sort of time frame. I've sent an e-mail to Pauline Solven, so hopefully all may be revealed.
Paul
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I still see two legs and feet, a hand on a knee and a very long neck with a ball for a head on it. But isn't that the meaning of abstract art? We all see what we see and everyone sees something different?
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:D :D :D
I still think it's upside down.
A triffid?
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This is a nice clean board, so I am not going to say what I see when I look at it.
:oops:
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I can see that too Lynne!
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The mesh like bit at the bottom has to be his thong.....
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Looks like a failed top for a coatstand.
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I don't know about failed, I reckon a top hat would sit nicely on the top blob.
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The coats would fall off though :wink:
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You could tie the arms together through the loops....
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I noticed that Paul hasn't posted since March, but if he's still about... do you have a photograph of the Solven piece in question? It's vanished from the thread.
I acquired my second of her vases today, an early piece from 1968 (my first is from 1979, so it's as old as I am), and I'm really quite taken by the divergence of style during that time - so I would love to see other examples of her work.
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;D
Here's my lovely little piece of history, Nic.
Pauline Solven, R.C.A. 1967
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/chopin-liszt/PaulineSolvenRCA67.jpg
Did Paul not emigrate somewhere, although that shouldn't prevent him access to a computer and the web, surely?
Sue.x
ps, I've shown you mine, can I see yours? >:D
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Oh, that's really nice - I was expecting it to be something lumpy, like my 1968 vase (which looks like a bizarre tri-finned fish - photos to follow ASAP).
This is my 1979 piece - Pauline Solven RH 195 - 1979.
(I've not yet managed to find out what/where 'RH' is. My early piece is helpfully marked 'London', so I assume it was executed just after she graduated at RCA that same year, and before her tenure at Glasshouse the following year.)
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I just took a couple of speedy snapshots of my latest buy - without studio lighting, so they're not the best.
I'm not sure that I actually like this vase, as it is decidedly lumpy and bizarre - but it is interesting and the design is quite fun.
Pauline Solven, London, 1968:
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I think mine must be pretty early - the hot glass facitities at the RCA only became into being in late '66. I'm not a good photographer, and it's a difficult piece to show properly - there are 4 sets of "double-bubbles" around it, formed into yin-yang shapes, with silver salts which give rise to the bluey-yellowy irridescent appearance in reflected light, while turning the amethyst to amber when the light comes through it.
There are quite a few unintentional bubbles - it's a wonderful combination of a sophisticated idea appearing through a struggle to master the metal.
According to Pauline's statement in the booklet which accompanied "The Glasshouse and it's Tree" ( page 10) exhibition last year, she set up a studio in Gloucestershire in 1975, while continuing to show at the Glasshouse, and;-
"Three years later, Harry and I established Cowdy Glass Workshop for which I designed functional work, selected for the Design Centre, and then founded Cowdy Gallery where I have curated numerous glass exhibitions over the years."
According to Graham McLaren, "Studio Glass 1960-2000", p.14, her first studio in 1975 was in Ravenshill. Perhaps that's your RH.
This is a very nice little booklet, published by Shire, loads of lovely pictures.
ISBN 0 7478 0527 X. It cost £4.99. www.shirebooks.co.uk
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:thup:
Thanks!
I can see a real similarity/development between the '67 and the '69 pieces!
(just checked the website for the booklet - it's gone up to £5.99, but still seems to be available.)
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Thanks for the details, Sue. Ravenshill does seem to cover the RH - I'll investigate further!
I didn't realise that Shire books were still on the go - I've one of their older publications on pressed glass. I'll definitely look into acquiring the McLaren title.
There is a similarity of form between our early vases, although, oddly, yours seems a little more accomplished from the photograph. My later piece I -really- like, probably because it reminds me of Per Lütken's glass of the same period.
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;D
I thought yours was slightly more accomplished, mine a bit more ambitious!
It seems to have been worked from the inside, rather than the outside. The "strap" which is on the outside of yours is on the inside of mine, and I'm not even sure it's meant to be there, but is an artifact of producing the effect. The rim of mine is a bit lumpy and uneven, with a biggish dent from a tool mark, the glass iteslf is full of tiny bubbles as well as bigger ones.
Although it's smooth on the outside, it's really lumpy on the inside - tool marks, excess trails of glass....
Given Pauline's incredible instinct as well as talent for working with this metal, I can only assume mine must have been a very early attempt indeed.
Did you know she worked solo? :o :hiclp:
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I read on here that she worked solo - an amazing feat!
Mine's also full of bubbles - thousands of very tiny ones, so much so that I thought it was actually dust on the interior when I first got it, and a couple of very large ones. There are also a few (but not many) tooling marks and excess trail marks where the glass has been too thin or not hot enough to cling to the exterior properly, but has left a kind of scratch-line where it's come away.
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:thup:
Seems our early pieces have even more in common than I thought!
I think these tiny dust-like bubbles are a feature of glass which hasn't been treated to remove them from the metal in the pot.
I am trying to gather together a small collection of these very early Glasshouse and RCA pieces. I find them absolutely fascinating - of more interest often than much later pieces, after the artist beomes established.
I love the incongruity of the art "speaking" through the struggle of the mastering.
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I think Paul moved to Corfu didn't he? Probably sailing around in a boat, not thinking too much about glass...
I had a good look through my pics to see if I kept any pictures of the little sculpture before I sold it, and I don't seem to have kept it - then I remembered that Paul had put her up for sale, so I did an eBay search (I can search back 90 days with Terapeak). Looks like Paul sold her to someone, who then sold her on, he must have been very disappointed with the sale price I must say... :cry:
Here is the sale - it won't be on eBay for long, I have emailed the seller to ask if we may put the picture here for future reference, I'll let you know if I hear from him.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200255642598
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I think I'm the opposite of you, Sue - I usually much prefer work by artists at the peak of their game when they can (hopefully) completely actualise their intent.
Wow - £25 for the sculpture? Someone got a bit of a bargain there! Although I have seen similar pieces in past (bricks and mortar) auctions reach similarly nugatory sums. It seems buyers like colour when it comes to her work.
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;D
I'd remembered it, but thanks ever so much, Lynne! Yup total disappointment about the price, (I haven't ebayed for years).
The glasshouse tree booklet says;- "It was in 1969, a year after I left the Royal College....."
Yours could actually be an RCA piece, do you think? WERE there hot glass facilities OTHER than at the RCA in London at this time?
I have a piece signed "Wayne Filan, 1970, London". He was an American, (over on a sabbatical????) I can see a serious Sam Herman "influence", and cannot imagine it would have been made anywhere else.
Being clear, it doesn't go well from a 3-D to a 2-D image.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b227/chopin-liszt/WayneFilan1.jpg
The colour of the fins on your piece, Nic, looks to me to be very like the colour of a very early fish vase made by Michael Harris at the RCA.
(I missed it on ebay a good while ago :cry: :cry: :cry: it's in America, I think. Ron Wheeler has an image of it.)
So that blue, (if it is that blue) was melted in the RCA pots.
;D ;) ;D But when the pieces are early they're a bit more affordable!
I'm a nitpicker for detail when doing something myself - I improve it and improve it until it's completely destroyed and broken and useless.
I really admire abstract, the fluidity and wildness of it, because I'm a (self-)control freak and can't do it myself!
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I really wouldn't like to speculate on if mine is an RCA piece - I just assumed not with it being marked 'London', rather than specifically for the college, as with yours.
I'm completely new to studio glass, really, owning just these two pieces. But it is an area that's beginning to intrigue me. I did, unfortunately, narrowly miss out on an amazing Sam Herman vase on eBay last month - part of the series illustrated in the bottom left illustration on the first page of this article:
http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/diad/article.php?title=266&year=1971&article=d.266.26
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>:D
I think that this speculation requires validation (or not, obviously!) Nic.
These, as Adam :thup: said earlier, are of serious historical interest and value well beyond the monetary.
(I still need to get my "Sams" photographed.)
Adam :-* pretty please, anything you can tell us?
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I have permission from the seller to use his photograph, and save it here, so here it is in case anyone wants to see it in the future.
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:hiclp: :thup: :hiclp:
Thanks for your trouble, Lynne, and thanks to the seller too!
I'll get pics of Annette Meech and Dillon Clarke from this period too, if they're deemed appropriate. All this will make a very nice little historical archive indeed. (IMNSHO)
:chky: Golly-Gosh, I've really enjoyed this today. :chky: Thanks to all of you. :fwr:
Sue.xxx
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(just checked the website for the booklet - it's gone up to £5.99, but still seems to be available.)
Available from Amazon at £4.79 +postage http://www.amazon.co.uk/Studio-Glass-1960-2000-Shire-Album/dp/074780527X :)
I think Paul moved to Corfu didn't he?
Crete I think, Lynne... still warmer and sunnier than England, (said she, shivering!!!) whichever it was! >:D ;D
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I think Paul moved to Corfu didn't he?
Crete I think, Lynne... still warmer and sunnier than England, (said she, shivering!!!) whichever it was! >:D ;D
Ah, probably, senior wise I got as far as the first letter, then my brain gave out... :ac1:
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I think that Pauline and her husband, Harry Cowdy, can tell you far more than I can!
http://www.cowdygallery.co.uk/ click on contact and you will find the correct email address.
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;D
Good idea, Adam :clap: - whoops now to deal with the business of "cold-calling"!
I have not been able to find much out about Wayne Filan at all. I bought the piece from Alison Snelgrove :thup: , who had done research on him, but the trail had gone completely cold. The only mention she could find was in a house move, a long time ago, (through a land register).
I have found a small mention on p.59 of Martha Drexler Lynn's "American Studio Glass 1960-1990".
"One year later, (than 1969) the Philadelphia College of Art included glass in its ceramics department curriculum, and the future glass artists William Bernstein, Dan Dailey and Wayne Filan built their first glass furnace."
(book Ref. "Roland Jahn, "Future of Education", The Glass Art Society Journal (1987): 82.)
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My latest Solven piece - signed for Ravenshill, 1976.
I'm not a HUGE fan of this vase - it's a little too brown for my taste - but I do like the opaline 'swag' decoration
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I found this Pauline Solven piece recently, I believe this is her early work but am not sure - could anyone tell me more about it please?
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Very early.
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Thanks, Adam, for your comment. I am quite intrigued by this piece.