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Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => British & Irish Glass => Topic started by: Paul S. on June 22, 2012, 07:15:16 PM

Title: Walsh 'Pompeian' grapefruit dish.
Post by: Paul S. on June 22, 2012, 07:15:16 PM
just to share really, and from a bunch of assorted bits earlier today.          Has a stunning ring which goes on forever (reminds me of the sound from some of the W/Fs bowls), and although the mark is very feint, it can just be seen simply as WALSH only  -  so I'm assuming around the late 1920's.    There are grapefruit bowls in Reynolds, and although he doesn't show one in Pompeian, they don't seem to have been an uncommon product.                       The backstamp is centred in the nicely ground/polished pontil depression  -  height is 3", and maximum width is about 4.75"
Title: Re: Walsh 'Pompeian' grapefruit dish.
Post by: Lustrousstone on June 23, 2012, 03:34:55 PM
Nice one Paul
Title: Re: Walsh 'Pompeian' grapefruit dish.
Post by: JOK on June 23, 2012, 04:21:38 PM
How funny, I was just about to post photos of a Pompeian vase in the same colour I found today. The book says they are marked, but I haven't found the mark yet, although the base is quite rubbed.
Title: Re: Walsh 'Pompeian' grapefruit dish.
Post by: Paul S. on June 23, 2012, 05:04:44 PM
now I'm worried............there seems to be only one 'blue' in Reynolds book - which the grapefuit dish appears to agree with, and there's no doubt because the piece is marked.         However, I do have this vase which looks quite like yours, but a completely different blue from the book, and no mark that I can find.       No pontil depression on my vase either.            Was there more than one 'blue' in Pompeian, do we know. :)
Title: Re: Walsh 'Pompeian' grapefruit dish.
Post by: Ivo on June 23, 2012, 05:33:06 PM
Not wishing to throw a spanner in these works, but here are two small glasses in the electric blue colour at issue. One was produced at Braine-le-Comte in Belgium (Verre Antique, Gobbe Hocquemiller), the other which is a bit less sophisticated was produced by Boom, Belgium for Dutch importer Rimac. So an alternative attribution is possible....
Title: Re: Walsh 'Pompeian' grapefruit dish.
Post by: JOK on June 23, 2012, 05:59:27 PM
My vase is exactly the same colour as the blue vases in pls.20 and 21 in the Reynolds book and is also the same shape and size as the vase shown in plate 216 of the Hajdamach book, just a 'bad' photo/bad light. I know that Walsh marks are difficult to find even on pieces which aren't as worn on the base, so I'm sure it would have been marked at some point.
Here are a couple more photos which show it being a slightly different colour, in natural light, although the natural light is fading now.
Title: Re: Walsh 'Pompeian' grapefruit dish.
Post by: Paul S. on June 23, 2012, 10:48:19 PM
thanks for the additional worry Ivo ;)         the colour of your images does certainly match my grapefruit dish, although I don't have a problem with attribution for my dish since it most definitely carries the WALSH backstamp.         However, bubbly glass, similar to 'Pompeian' does seem to have been produced quite commonly in the first three or four decades of the C20 by a number of factories (and may have been produced in much more recent times  -  but we're speaking here of pieces that are believed to be 'period').
Obviously, the thicker the glass, then presumably the darker the appearance of the glass (for a given colour) - and as some of these vases are quite thick walled, then they will look a darker shade.
JOK's vase appears to have a good quality pontil depression, and if he says the colour matches Reynolds, then he may be on safe ground in saying Pompeian.
Unfortunately, now I look more at my vase, it appears a bit too dark, and the absence of a pontil depression (it seems to have a flattened base with a hint of where the pontil was snapped), may well mean it's not Pompeian.     I know almost nothing about making comparisons of this type of product, although I see many in antiques venues  -  so will play safe and say mine is of unknown provenance for the time being.
Pompeian is possibly the most common of the 'bubbled' glass, and it seems to have become a habit for us to say of any bubbled glass that it's from Walsh  -  saves having to consider the other makers. 
I no longer collect this bubbled glass, it's too much like hard work to id  -  I picked up this small dish only because it was less than Sterling £1.00, and came with some other interesting old bits. ;)

Yes, I know this is too long winded ;)
Title: Re: Walsh 'Pompeian' grapefruit dish.
Post by: rosieposie on June 24, 2012, 10:40:54 AM
There is a blank box on the screen for your reply Paul...can you re write please so we can see what you have to say?
Title: Re: Walsh 'Pompeian' grapefruit dish.
Post by: Paul S. on June 24, 2012, 03:56:00 PM
when at school, the 'precis' was a most hated excercise, and although I didn't appreciate its value for teaching how to cut superfluous verbiage (obviously I'm a lapsed precisist) it does force the mind to be succinct, so just for rosie here goes:

"My dish is marked WALSH and in view of the colour, so is JOK's I suspect, therefore I consider both are 'Pompeian'.       However, I remain uncertain about my vase, as there were many factories that produced bubbled glass in the early C20, and attribution is not an exact science.    I no longer collect 'Pompeian', but since the individual cost of my dish was c. £0.70, and formed part of a larger purchase, I made an exception". 
QED.
But the downside seems to be that I can't add smileys?  :) :)   
Title: Re: Walsh 'Pompeian' grapefruit dish.
Post by: rosieposie on June 24, 2012, 04:01:36 PM
still blank!!  What can I do to my pooter to fix this, please can someone help?
Title: Re: Walsh 'Pompeian' grapefruit dish.
Post by: Paul S. on June 24, 2012, 04:16:59 PM
apologies rosie, had thought you were joking - in view of phone call now understand you have genuine tech. glitch.         Hope it gets sorted soon.:)
Title: Re: Walsh 'Pompeian' grapefruit dish.
Post by: Bernard C on June 27, 2012, 08:39:09 AM
Paul et al — See two early topics:
  • 3 ID's : Walsh Walsh Pompeian (http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,167.0.html)
  • Bubbled glass & trailed glass for ID please (http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,1072.0.html)
  • Grateful thanks to Anne (I think) for a valiant attempt to save what she could from posts missing their images.

    My apologies for an element of sloppiness in what I wrote.   For example I noted Walsh marks using lower case, when they are all upper case, now a punishment mat offence.  ;D

    For some time I've known that Walsh regarded the Pompeian and Iridescent range patterns as interchangeable.   It may be that all coloured patterns were regarded as interchangeable, including Primrose and the one example of "Butterfly Blue".   This mirrors the way Walsh used the cut patterns, as I've seen several examples of blanks cut with different patterns to the one shown.   My signature range "Rainsford" atomiser is a particularly noteworthy example.

    Finally, please pencil the caption correction noted into your copy of Reynolds.

    Bernard C.  8)
    Title: Re: Walsh 'Pompeian' grapefruit dish.
    Post by: Paul S. on June 29, 2012, 12:18:10 PM
    Bernard - many thanks for reproducing these past notes on bubbled material.       I do have one or two pieces of known Pompeian, but my deeper blue vase in this thread (unlike the blue of my grapefruit dish wich is marked) is still giving me some doubts.    It is without any depression where the pontil would have been detached, although it seems to have the remnants of of the pontil outline, plus much wear.   
    I have another purple bowl which may also be Pompeian, although I'm not sure.

    Bearing in mind your earlier comments............."If you can't find a mark, it is probably best to take it to a glass fair and ask for an opinion.   I doubt whether you will find anyone prepared to attribute it over the Internet"  ;)  -  you might care to take a look at both for me in September, at Cambridge  -  that is if you are going. :)