Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => British & Irish Glass => Topic started by: chuggy on February 25, 2007, 12:44:43 PM
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I've got a very interesting collection here of glass fish a number of which are signed by Guy Underwood which sit in a couple of bronze and glass stands. I'll post some piccys later, but I've always thought these were art deco in look, but having started to look more into them it appears that they are earlier and the only references I've been able to find for Guy Underwood link him to Bermondsey glass in the period pre first war. Any further ifo on either him of the company much appreciated, and as I say piccys to follow.
Paul
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As promised piccys, i have 9 fish in total, though just the 2 stands, 4 of the fish carry the Guy Underwood signature, though 2 of them are clear glass, the other 5 are unsigned and are varying greens in colour. The 2 pictured almost have a pate de verre feel to them.
http://i19.tinypic.com/4i61c9x.jpg
http://i19.tinypic.com/2q3nl90.jpg
http://i13.tinypic.com/2rqd6rd.jpg
http://i13.tinypic.com/2hgh4qt.jpg
http://i12.tinypic.com/4dwyqrn.jpg
Paul
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Hi Paul,
Nigel Benson is one of the best people to help you with these fish, maybe you could drop him a line and ask if he could look at the thread.
Barbara
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Anyone got Nigels e-mail address please?
I'm also wondering if this is the same Guy Underwood who was a famous dowser, the dates seem about right.
Paul
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A stunning silence on these so far, I'm sure that someone who can produce work as nice as these must be known somewhere!
Paul
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The glass that the stands are on looks like float glass, which would make the stands, at least, post 2nd world war.
The engraved signature looks as if it was done with a flexible drive and diamond point, which also suggests more recent than your first suggestion.
Don't know the artist, though, so could be way off. Can't tell from the image whether they are cast, but assuming they are, this would probably confirm a more recent provenance. On the other hand, you may have discovered a contemporary of Amalric Walter or Decorchement! ;)
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Adams observations explain things a bit. I looked before and thought they must be by another Guy Underwood - whose Bermondsey Glass stuff is pretty scarce signed but I cannot remember how the signature is done. The bases are odd and not what I would associate with the era. But as I could not pin it down, kept quiet.
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Mentioned in
Objects of Art in Metal The Russell Art Co 1934
"designs in glass by Guy Underwood"
also
"Modern Decorations by Guy Underwood and other Artists"
same date and publisher
I have a vague memory of this guy being mentionned during a visit to Peter Leyton's which is on the fringe of Bermondsey
Why not call them.
contact details at
http://www.londonglassblowing.co.uk/
Peter
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See here (http://www.andrewhartleyfinearts.co.uk/listing.asp?id=17&archive=true) Scroll down to lot 277
He also seems to have been a sculptor and a painter
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I would have to disagree with Adam's observations regarding the bases. The glass bases are not necessarily float glass, they may be cast or rollered glass which has then been ground and polished. I have occaisionally seen glass bases of this type on pre-war French figures (just the glass block, with the figure glued/bonded directly to it), though they are uncommon.
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The only published references I know of are to two pieces in the Manley collection and both were also marked Bermondsey Glass. One of these was cast glass.
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The glass that the stands are on looks like float glass,
Images very fuzzy. Quite happy to be corrected! :)
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If it were float glass, this would date it to at least 1959.
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I'm not totally certain that the stands are original to the fish, but I suspect they are. Interesting that the lot in auction in Christines post is dated from the 1930's. I'm wondering where he may have been working at that time as I've only been able to place him at Bermondsey up to the first world war. I've followed Peters suggestion and dropped a mail to Peter Leyton also.
Having taken another look at all the fish, I'm 99% certain they are certainly pre-WW2 and the coloured ones in particular have a real art nouveau glass feel about them, that probably makes little sense but if you feel them you'd know what I mean.
Paul
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There's a large building complex off Bermondsey St., now divided into commercial units, offices and appartments but still called "The Glass House". It was built in the 1920's.
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I've now e-mailed details to Nigel Benson so I'm hoping he'll be able to throw some more light on these.
Paul
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Hello all,
As has been said, very little is currently known about Bermondsey Glass, or its designer, Guy Underwood - at this point it is an assumption that he designed all their glass. A little is written in Cyril Manley’s book “Decorative Victorian Glass” (pages 28,75 and 99) and there is a mention in “British Glass Between the Wars” (in Appendix IV, under British Tableware Producers 1918 – 1939, page 111). Both briefly discuss the same two pieces, which, at the time, were the only known examples and BGBtW/Dodsworth concludes "Nothing known about this factory."
Manley notes that both pressed and blown wares were made by the firm (on the basis of the two items he owned). He also notes, “…as the two pieces shown are so different, especially their method of manufacture, there must be some exceptional specimens waiting to be discovered.” – I think Paul has found such examples. I also think that the glass plinths were made and finished especially for these stands - similar to other glass stands have been seen from the 1920's and 30's over the years.
Unfortunately, Manley dates the company to C1900, which would be unlikely with the words “British Made” written on the base of the known pieces of Bermondsey Glass. If anything it would indicate early 1930’s, as Dodsworth suggests in his essay about Gray-stan in BGBtW with the addition of “British” after Gray-stan; “These probably date to the early 1930’s when there was a ‘Buy British’ campaign in operation.”
I own three marked items of Bermondsey Glass, two are blown and the third is another version of the pressed, or cast, Madonna’s Head that is illustrated in Manley (also in blue glass). Although I have owned two of them for many years the third, a blue cased blown vase is in the 'cloudy' fashion of poor-end Nazeing (possibly even what I now refer to as the Elwell type Nazeing). This stimulated my interest in the subject because of it's similarity to Nazeing examples.
As a result of this interest I have been assembling as much researched material as I can find and have also used an appeal poster on my stand at fairs - so any additional information would be gratefully received (either through this GMB thread or directly to myself) and acknowledged when published.
1930's Nazeing (1934 - 1939), Powell (1928 - 1939), or Gray-stan (1926 - 1936) have a great deal more finesse although it is possible that they might have influenced Bermondsey’s production. Stylistically, the Bermondsey pieces and the Guy Underwood pieces in this thread owe far more to the late 1920’s and the 1930’s than to beginning of the twentieth century (pre First World War), so I would challenge the dates of c1900 defined by Manley and c1900-1914 as suggested on Great Glass’s website.
At this point in time, there are maybe 9 known and marked pieces of Bermondsey Glass. Until there is a large enough quantity of marked items, it is unlikely that we can say with any accuracy that there are particular characteristics associated with the firm that would allow us to identify unmarked items as from that source, but I suggest that the work dates from between the World Wars.
Nigel
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see here (http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,18955.0.html)
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Hi, Nigel, Frank, not sure that it helps, but there is a reference to Guy Underwood, exhibiting at The Alpine Club Gallery in 1923. (Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940
I am not sure there is a link between him, and the sculptor Leon Underwood, other than they both exhibited at the Alpine, but a check of the census records might help. George Claude Leon Underwood was born 1890, in Shepherds Bush.
Regards,
Marcus
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Hello Marcus,
Thanks very much for the information - I've just checked it in our copy of Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940 :huh: Why on earth it didn't occur to me to look before I don't know :-[ Today's lesson duly noted and taken on board. Again, many thanks.
Nigel