Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => British & Irish Glass => Topic started by: Patrick Hogan on September 11, 2005, 01:31:35 PM
-
Hi, On Thursday 8th September I visited the Museum of London and was able to take pictures of the workbooks of Vincente Boffo.......... He worked as a glassblower at Whitefriars in the early 60,s. One of the pieces he designed and made was a 6 inch high Penguin......... http://tinypic.com/dmtnuo.jpg These appeared in the company catalogue in various colours.
After my visit I asked the question on the Forum of Whitefriars.com ........ http://www.whitefriars.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=341
What was the total number that he made? I have now closed the competition but will not give the answer until 19.00 hrs. on Monday. Perhaps members of this forum would care to hazard a guess.................. No prize but you may have the honour of being the nearest. You can answer on here or on...... Best wishes and good luck. Patrick Hogan.
-
Hi, I forgot to mention the wonderfull beak and the fact that they sell for about £150.00 with beak intact!!!!! Regards Patrick
-
My guess is ......... 250.
I love the penguin. He is so life-like :P
Regards - Anne E.B. :wink:
-
Emmi here Patrick.....895.
-
I think it might be 720, but if my guessing this is anything like the numbers I pick for the lottery, then I am wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy out :wink:
Barbara,
-
1,483.25
-
43 :)
( I'm hopeless at the lottery as well Barbara! :lol: )
-
Frank said:
1,483.25
What was the .25? A spare beak? :lol: :lol:
-
What was the .25? A spare beak?
A rough guess 8)
-
18 .......just to be different!
-
:D:D:D
444
Hello Patrick,
Have you any idea when he left Whitefriars and went to Malta?
Lesley Jackson's book says that the Boffos (father and son) went with Michael Harris, but the Mdina website has them going over after Michael Harris left.
:?:?:? This has been bothering me for some time now!
-
:shock: Sorry, that was me, not logged in. I didn't check. (Excuse:- Michael's home and has been "doing" things with the computer.) I normally manage to be logged in automatically.
(Just in case somebody else came in inbetween, my guess was 444.)
-
2,863
Ruth
-
535.
xxx!
-
Hmm...don't know. Very few, judging by how often they turn up!
Erm.... 376 ?
-
Hi SUE....... Have a look at http://www.historyofglass.org.uk/glassnews/glass%20news13b.htm
You will have to scrool down till you get to " A brief history of M'dina" . Will let you know later when his workbook finished.... Maybe that is when he left Whitefriars......... Regards Patrick
-
:D:D:D
Thanks very much indeed Patrick! I still don't know the exact dates, but this makes it clear that the Boffos' presence was a Harris initiative anyway.
I LOVE the penguin, and I WANT one!
-
Hi, I have just posted this on Whitefriars.com
" Hi All, Steve Leslie is the WINNER !!!!!! " Who is Boffo" was his comment and 650 was his estimate of the number made. Here is the number made....... But just one final twist.
If Brian had reduced his estimate of 11,826 by 4039 he would have triumphed. Do the maths and you will have the ANSWER... In 30mins I will post the totals for each of the 6 colours. I can reveal that Golden Amber is the rarest followed by Twighlight, Flint, Ruby, Ocean Green and finally Arctic Blue. The first ones made ( Qty. 41) were on Monday W/E 9.1.60 and the last batch (Qty. 102) on Friday 24.11.62 .
I would like to add that I would have been way out with my estimate, even Ray Annenburg (Ex. Whitefriars Gaffer) only guessed half the amount Boffo made. Ray pointed out to me that Boffo was the "Gaffer" of a team known as a "Chair". He would have had a " Footmaker" who gathers the glass. A " Servitor" who does the initial shape and then passes the iron to Boffo, who works his magic !!....... and a "Boy who takes the finished piece to the Lehr. See http://www.whitefriars.com/my_photo.php?Id=2702 for a typical week.
The total made however was probably solely due to the demand from the retail outlets selling at the time. Perhaps the fact that his final batch was made at the end of 1962 and his final workbook entry was end of May 1964 probably means that the Whitefriars sales Team did a good job selling to the shops but the public demand was not there. I think the retail price was quite high.
Regards Patrick... Ps. Get those calculators out and find the total."
PLEASE NOTE THE WINNER HERE IS xxxxx RUTH BRADWELL xxxxxxx for a while I thaught Frank was going to be the winner.....
-
Well done Ruth :P and thank you Patrick for a bit of fun :lol:
Anne E.B. :wink:
-
Hi Guys, Sorry I did not realize you are an hour behind BST.... Regars Patrick
-
Hi, WHERE HAVE THEY ALL GONE...........
YES 4,219 was the number made!!!!!!!
The breakdown as follows Golden amber 253
Twighlight 342
Flint 496
Ruby 803
Ocean green 934
Arctic Blue 1391
______
TOTAL 4219
_______
I hope you all enjoyed the competition and well done again Steve L , Prize to follow.
was the winner on the "Glassmessages" site, with an estimate of
All the best Patrick.
-
:D:D:D
Thanks for the fun, Patrick
Totally typical that the winner did not know who Boffo is! :twisted:
-
Hi, There is one just been listed on Ebay....... This is the link :///ws/?ViewItem&item=7350548297&ru=://search.ebay.co.uk:80/7350548297_W0QQfltZ9QQfromZR8QQfviZ1 By the way I am NOT the seller. Golden Amber is the rarest , so it will be interesting to see what it sells for? Regards Patrick..
-
Oh he's a fat little chap isn't he? You can see his features really well in this pic, thanks for the link. :D
-
Link corrected: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7350548297
-
Hi, The Amber Penguin made £187 which was CHEEP concidering that they only made some 250 of them. Over 1300 of the Artic Blue were made....
-
Hi, The Amber Penguin made £187 which was CHEEP concidering that they only made some 250 of them. Over 1300 of the Artic Blue were made....
A penguin going cheep? I reckon that is rare :shock:
Leni (in a silly mood this morning :wink: )
-
Hi,
Yes, indeed both Boffo Snr and Jnr went to Mdina to work with Michael Harris. I'd be very interested in knowing if the books you saw had anything connected to Mdina too? I'm in the process of preparing a book on Mdina Glass (1968-1972, when Michael Harris was there) and am very keen on finding out more first hand information as there isn't really much there!!
Thanks in advance,
Mark
-
Hi Mark, The only books I saw were his production workbooks whilst he worked for Whitefriars..... Regards Patrick
-
Thanks very much for replying Patrick, I may have another lead, but let's see. I think I have some idea of the pieces they designed and introduced, simply from the forms. I may drop by and see if any of his experimental sketches (if there are any) match or resemble any of the forms he ended up making for Mdina. You never know ...
-
Hi Mark, Here is another thread to Michael Harris........
http://www.whitefriars.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=379
If you also go to Pinky,s members gallery page you can see the glass she refers to...... Regards Patrick.