Glass Message Board

Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass Paperweights => Topic started by: zidori on July 16, 2006, 01:51:51 PM

Title: Help with identification, please?
Post by: zidori on July 16, 2006, 01:51:51 PM
I have just returned from a wonderful week exploring Norfolk, Suffolk and South Cambridgeshire. I returned with lots of glass but am stumped with one or two pieces which I do not think are what I originally thought they were. Can anyone help, please?

This paperweight I hoped was an Ysart Harlequin but the base is absolutely flat.

http://i1.tinypic.com/205ys01.jpg
http://i1.tinypic.com/205ytr4.jpg

The next two vases I thought might be Vasart, but closer inspection makes me doubtful. Are they Nazeing, perhaps?

http://i1.tinypic.com/205yv5t.jpg
http://i1.tinypic.com/205yxki.jpg
http://i2.tinypic.com/205yxx0.jpg
http://i2.tinypic.com/205yy4w.jpg

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Ronnie
Title: Help with identification, please?
Post by: Frank on July 16, 2006, 02:56:45 PM
I have a Paul Ysart Harlequin sitting next to me and it has 6 not 8 outer bubbles. The centre bubble on yours also has a tail of bubbles so for me this is dubious for Paul. But Kevin has better knlowledge on the weights.

The first vase is Nazeing 45/1 should be about 8.5 inches high.

The second vase despite similarity, is not shown in Geoff's book and has some differences - it might not be Nazeing.

Hopefully, Geoff or Nigel will take a peek soon.

Great photos!
Title: Help with identification, please?
Post by: Frank on July 16, 2006, 03:04:42 PM
Kevin shows a 8 bubble harlequin on his site.
Title: Help with identification, please?
Post by: KevinH on July 16, 2006, 04:46:47 PM
Hi Ronnie,

The weight looks like a regular Paul Ysart Harlequin to me. The canes seem to be ok and that thin yellow-white ground is known in his weights. A perfectly flat, polished base is quite normal for lots of Paul's work throughout all his years, but particularly for the 1970s.

The one shown in my web pages (not the clearest of images) has an "H" cane in the underside and this is not visible from the top. One day, I will get around to updating my pages such that details of weights signed with an "H" cane, or just a label, are shown. But like many of my good intentions ... it's already been a while and it might be a while longer.

Willie Manson told me something about the number of bubbles in those weights. Paul made them with either 6 or 8 bubbles but Willie, when he was with Paul, only made them with 8. So, on that basis, a weight without a "PY" cane, but with 6 bubbles, and canes that check out correctly, can be attributed to Paul. Weights with 8 bubbles may have been by Paul or Willie. And I imagine some may also have been made by other assistants after Willie had left.

But take a close look at the canes, both from the top and the bottom. Is there somewhere an "H" cane? Sometimes the cane is hard to see. If it definitely has no "H" cane, then perhaps it simply had a "py" label, whcih is now lost.

Or maybe it's a weight from an earlier period - although to me it does look like 1970s.
Title: Help with identification, please?
Post by: zidori on July 16, 2006, 06:11:14 PM
Thank you Kevin and Frank for your information. I am really pleased to find that the paperweight is a Harlequin, I am a great admirer of Paul Ysart paperweights but they are out of my reach budget-wise. Fortunately this one cost me only £4 at the Antique and Collectors' Fair in Norwich on Saturday. It will now join my small collection of Caithness, Strathearn, Vasart and now Ysart paperweights and bar tools. I also have a Paul Ysart fountain paperweight with an H cane.
Here is my limited collection:

http://photos-by-ronnie.fotopic.net/c1023693_1.html

P.S. The first vase is 8.5 inches, Frank.

Regards
Ronnie
Title: Help with identification, please?
Post by: Frank on July 17, 2006, 07:30:57 AM
My Harlequin has a blue/white PY label that includes the design name. At 40 mm diameter it is clear that he intended a flat base for all of this period of production.
(http://www.ysartglass.com/BaseLabel/Labelimage/PYlabel02.jpg)

Has been added to the labels page http://www.ysartglass.com/BaseLabel/Labels.htm#Paul
Title: Help with identification, please?
Post by: Frank on July 18, 2006, 05:05:10 AM
Kevin,

Have you come across more of these labels with the design name?
Title: Help with identification, please?
Post by: KevinH on July 18, 2006, 02:15:16 PM
Yes, Frank, I have. But I don't have an example, though.

For some reason that escapes me now, I did not even mention this type of label in my article for Angela's Glass Museum. Perhaps I was unaware of them at that time??

In John Simmonds book, Paperweights From Great Britain 1930-2000, he shows an example on page 18, for the "Flower" version. Unfortunately, a top view of the weight was not shown, but from what can be seen of the weight, it is of the same type as the last item shown in my own pages at:
http://www.btinternet.com/~kevh.glass/pages/catalog/py-flower.htm

I agree with what John said about those labels - they are 1977 to 1979, being the last period of Paul's working at the Harland studio.

I don't know what the full range of these labels was.
Title: Help with identification, please?
Post by: Frank on July 18, 2006, 03:15:20 PM
Probably at least covering the range shown in the Highland weights leaflets. It is nice to get something new out!

Thanks for your post Ronnie.