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Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass Paperweights => Topic started by: valjk on October 28, 2012, 12:10:44 AM

Title: Help please - identify signature?
Post by: valjk on October 28, 2012, 12:10:44 AM
This is my only paperweight, which I've had for a couple of years.  I liked the organic look to it.  I've not been able to identify the signature on the base.  It looks to me like "McLaughlin 1957", but I haven't been able to find a likely artist.  Does anyone recognise the signature or style?
Thanks.
Valerie
Title: Re: Help please - identify signature?
Post by: chopin-liszt on October 28, 2012, 12:00:24 PM
That's Peter Layton too.
I even recognise the design - quite a desirable one, I think. The Ulster Museum of Belfast has 3 vases.
Title: Re: Help please - identify signature?
Post by: valjk on October 28, 2012, 09:34:48 PM
By golly you're right, how weird is that!  I've had this paperweight for about 4 years and had given up on identifying the signature, and didn't realise it was the same as the vase I bought recently.  The pieces looked so different it didn't occur to me that the signature might be the same as my vase.  So now I have the beginnings of a Peter Layton collection, being drawn to his pieces without knowing the artist.  Could you hazard a guess on the date?  I see from Peter Layton's biography on the website that 1957 was too early for glass by him, do you think 1987? It looks like it might belong to the Glacier series.   If I'm ever in Belfast I must visit the museum! 
Many thanks to Chopin-Liszt,
Valerie
Title: Re: Help please - identify signature?
Post by: jamalpa36 on October 28, 2012, 10:32:09 PM
Hi

It looks like 1983


Roy
Title: Re: Help please - identify signature?
Post by: chopin-liszt on October 29, 2012, 10:08:26 AM
If you're ever in Belfast you really MUST visit the Museum! They're really far ahead in their thinking - they have a totally fabulous contemporary collection.

I don't believe Peter Layton has made glass himself for some time. He designs, other glassmakers actually do the making, he signs it.
There are some pieces signed by two artists, examples have been noted of Norman Stuart-Clarke's signature as well as Peter Layton's.
Title: Re: Help please - identify signature?
Post by: valjk on October 31, 2012, 02:16:43 AM
Thanks for your input.  Roy - I agree the third figure must be 8, but the fourth looks like a continental 7 to me.  If Peter Layton uses a plain 7, then 3 is a possibility.  Anyway, I can say "1980's"!
Chopin-Liszt, yes, I accept it probably wasn't made by Peter Layton in person.  I've just been having a look at YouTube, and found a wonderful video featuring the London Glassworks which shows exactly this process, with a glass blower making the the object and Peter Layton supervising at the end:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zaw34IZ1fPY&feature=relmfu

In fact there are lots of very interesting glassblowing videos on YouTube, I have discovered, so I will be able to get an insight into how all these wonderful objects are created.  More late nights in prospect!
Valerie
Title: Re: Help please - identify signature?
Post by: antiquerose123 on October 31, 2012, 02:20:40 AM
That's Peter Layton too.
I even recognise the design - quite a desirable one, I think. The Ulster Museum of Belfast has 3 vases.

Good Eyes There Chopin-liszt!!   :o
Title: Re: Help please - identify signature?
Post by: chopin-liszt on October 31, 2012, 09:23:58 AM
Way back in 2000, I was in the Studio Gallery in London, where there was a fabulous exhibiton of contemporary glass, "The Japanese Connection" on. There was some amazing Czech glass there, including a massive piece called "The Green Eye of the Pyramid", by Stanislav Libensky, which was bought by the Ulster Museum at the time.

I had to wait until last year to get to the museum to see it "in situ", but I was aware they were clearly ahead of everybody else in the uk when it comes to rating contemporary work. I was allowed to photograph it too, so it wasn't too easy to forget!

There is also the thrill of seeing work in a museum by artists whose work you have surrounding you at home!