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Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => British & Irish Glass => Topic started by: BJB on November 29, 2005, 03:13:15 PM

Title: Is this a Selkirk glass letter opener or is it older?
Post by: BJB on November 29, 2005, 03:13:15 PM
I have just re discovered this as I have had to clean around the house before Christmas, as my Mum is coming over and she will poke her nose EVERYWHERE :(

Its 6" long with a blue swirl end and its been fixed on with a plaster like substance. I wonder if it might be Selkirk glass or if its older, maybe 1970's rather than 1990's.

I can't remember where it came from and its been under the stairs at least  nearly a year, because that was the last time it was sorted out, Christmas again :wink:
Barbara,

(Who has emptied the airing cupboard and can't get it all back in again :evil: )


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Title: Is this a Selkirk glass letter opener or is it older?
Post by: BJB on November 29, 2005, 04:41:22 PM
Hi Ivo,

She would tell me I was a disgrace to have mice in the house, and when she was my age, she would wash, scrub, clean and cook and still have time to run up some clothes and knit a jumper! Funny, I can never remember this, but its true :?

Barbara.
Title: Is this a Selkirk glass letter opener or is it older?
Post by: Max on November 29, 2005, 05:12:24 PM
My Mum used to make all my clothes.  Trouble was, she fancied me either as a Spanish flamenco dancer or Leisel von Trapp, and would dress me accordingly.  :shock: Oooh the shame!

She used to threaten me with buying my clothes from Marks & Spencers...it took me many years to realise that that would have been FAR preferable!  :lol:
Title: Is this a Selkirk glass letter opener or is it older?
Post by: BJB on November 29, 2005, 05:29:39 PM
My Mum did used to knit, but by the time it was finished we had outgrown it!!

She knitted my middle daughter a poncho for her birthday in Febuary, and its now going to be her Christmas pressie!

I wouldn't mind, but its not as though it her house its mine. It's not dirty just messy, 3 teenage girls, husband, dog,cat 2 rabbits and a goldfish, don't make a tidy house, noisy but not tidy!

There are two rooms I refuse to enter though, the eldests, who thinks her wardrode is the floor, and the other two's who wont pick any mess up incase its not theirs! I have deposited two refuse bags at the doors and told them they need to be full by tonight or else I will fill them :twisted:

Barbara

(Who has just stuffed everything back in the airing cupboard, and put the linen box in front of the door :oops: )
Title: Is this a Selkirk glass letter opener or is it older?
Post by: Tigerchips on November 29, 2005, 09:40:17 PM
The only firm that I can think of that does letter openers is Caithness. I guess there are many other firms that do the same. Is that a mexican wave decoration in the glass or is it my eyes?

I remember owning a Selkirk vase with this blue Mexican wave decoration.
Title: Is this a Selkirk glass letter opener or is it older?
Post by: Leni on November 29, 2005, 09:54:42 PM
:shock: I thought a Mexican Wave was where everyone stood up and sat down in turn.  I can't see any little people standing up and sitting down in the glass!   :?  

Any chance of a picture of the glass from a different angle, Barbara?  (BTW, It looks quite Caithness-ey to me!)
Title: Is this a Selkirk glass letter opener or is it older?
Post by: chopin-liszt on November 30, 2005, 10:43:33 AM
:D:roll::D
Getting a little cafe-ish,  :oops: sorry!
How well I remember the home-made clothes! Particularly a ghastly suit of tunic and poncho in beige (shudder) and turquoise hog's-tooth check.
My sympathies to those with mothers that do not respect the privacy of our homes. Point out to the mother that poking noses where they are not invited is very bad manners indeed. Then be grateful you still have your mother.
Title: Is this a Selkirk glass letter opener or is it older?
Post by: Anne on November 30, 2005, 06:35:48 PM
My Mother doesn't poke anywhere, bless her, she just has an attack of the sneezes if anything is dusty! :roll:  :lol:
Title: Is this a Selkirk glass letter opener or is it older?
Post by: BJB on November 30, 2005, 06:49:15 PM
I know I should be grateful for my mum, and I am really,as I lost my Dad 20 years ago next year, and I was a daddy's girl :wink:

But the knitted jumpers and matching kilt skirts and tights ( no trousers in those days) still make me shudder, green on Mondays, red Tuesdays, amd yellow on Wenesday and back to green newly washed!

Cold winter mornings and the boys knees a lovely shade of blue below the shorts, and hoping the outside toilets were frozen so you would be sent home from school, frozen milk thawing around the furnace in the classroom, the only choice in school dinners being eat it or starve, I think we did have it better than my kids :lol:

Anyway, back to the letter opener quickly before we're sent off to the cafe :oops:
 
 The glass has a swirl of a darker blue running all the way through it, but there is nothing on the blade to say where it might have been made, but I do think it might be Caithness, now I've had a better look. If I can get the camera, I'll take a closer picture of the end for you all to see.


Barbara
Title: Is this a Selkirk glass letter opener or is it older?
Post by: Tigerchips on November 30, 2005, 08:33:33 PM
The closest thing that I can find is this.
eBay (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CAITHNESS-GLASS-Engraved-Commemorative-paper-knife_W0QQitemZ7725618818QQcategoryZ39633QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

It doesn't say if it has Caithness stamped on it though.

I saw two Selkirk letter openers on ebay earlier today and now a can't find them.  :roll:

The Selkirk one's that I saw had the same handle's as this commemorative one but they had the same blade as BJB's letter opener.  :?
Title: Is this a Selkirk glass letter opener or is it older?
Post by: Max on November 30, 2005, 09:01:22 PM
I loved reading these posts - and I remember the milk at school too...wasn't it awful in the Summer though...eww...lukewarm milk with a thick yellow head on it!   :x

Back to the pretty letter opener, perhaps this could be a piece of Murano glass picked up during a holiday?  Not everything can be pinned down to a maker.   :?
Title: Is this a Selkirk glass letter opener or is it older?
Post by: chopin-liszt on December 01, 2005, 09:56:22 AM
:D:D:D
My best guesstimate for the letter opener would be Selkirk. Selkirk do this swirly sort of pattern in glass colours - I always think it is similar to the sort of swirl in stained glass, if it were flat. Selkirk also make things in this shape - it's very typical.

 :shock: Choice of eat it or starve at school - you lucky thing! I didn't have the starve option.  :cry: I had teachers holding my nose and shoving stuff in my mouth. Ghastly jelly, covered in salt and pepper, in the forlorn hope that I would not be forced to swallow it. (I was). Semolina, forced down my throat. I threw up. (Excused semolina after that!). Fried fish on Wednesdays, smuggled out in my blazer pocket and flushed down the loo. Happy days (not).