Topic: Help in identifying glass dish

[nigel benson]

Whoops, sorry G Man it was you, not Sue, who suggested Len Green and Webb & Corbett. I tried a number of times to edit, but the system kept logging me out!

Credit where credit's due I always say!  

Cheers, Nigel

[Bernard C]

Hi everyone.

When I first saw this cut dish, I recognised it as from a wide range which I first thought was by Webb Corbett some years ago, but now I am not so sure, as none of the examples I have had through my hands have been marked, unusual for Webb Corbett.    So I held back from commenting, hoping that enlightenment would come from another source.

Yes, it is obviously a development of Clyne Farquharson's innovative 1930s designs for Walsh, and yes, it is very similar to Len Green's 1958 Bouquet range for Webb Corbett (ref: Frederick Cooke, Glass — Twentieth Century Design, 1986, p77; also Benson & Hayhurst, Art Deco to Post Modernism, 2003, #133).

Its close similarity to Webb Corbett's Bouquet range eliminates the possibility of it being a mainstream Webb Corbett pattern, as it just does not make commercial sense.    In my experience glass manufacturers concentrate on several quite different ranges to broaden the appeal to both their wholesale buyers and the public.   However there is one exception to this — the retailer exclusive, now unusual except for retailers such as M&S and Habitat, but then, back in the fifties and sixties, much more common.   Certainly John Lewis operated this way, and their glass trade buyers were well-known for their opposition to trademarked and signed glass.

For some years I have been looking out for a boxed set that could help resolve all this speculation, so far unsuccessfully.   Until then, I think it is most likely to be either A.N. Other Glassworks or a Webb Corbett retailer exclusive Bouquet variant.   A study of the blank shapes could also help resolve this.

Note that both of the cited reference works get my top rating.  Cooke was issued in two editions with different covers and title pages by Bell & Hyman of London and Dutton of New York, but the contents are identical.

Bernard C.  

[Adam]

I know nothing about cut patterns.  However, Bernard's linking the name Webb Corbett with the date 1958 set me searching my notes.  Plate-shaped objects are notoriously expensive to make by blowing and in 1958 we at Davidsons were asked by Webb Corbett to press some small plate blanks in full lead crystal for them to cut.

We made one or two small lots with mixed success.  It was never pursued but it does indicate W C s interest in this sort of shape at the time.

We took the opportunity to play around with one of our own small pseudo cut patterns in full lead crystal and acid polished some.  That never came to anything either.

Adam D