vaseline opalescent (yes) ...
Dave — Well no, actually!
... and, Christine, it's Walsh. It screams Walsh at me. No criticism, Christine, as over 75% of the Walsh I buy is described as something else.
So what is it if it's not vaseline opalescent? It is Walsh canary or yellow
Mother-of-Pearl, comprising a plain canary or yellow glass with a very thin layer of white opal flashed? on the inside. I believe it was made by taking a tiny initial gather of white opal, possibly a lampshade glass, and then casing this in the main coloured glass, sometimes building up the thickness required with clear crystal or opalescent glass. Hayhurst notes three variants of
Mother-of-Pearl, green, flint, and straw opal, to which should be added this canary, yellow, or vaseline, and a relatively uncommon ruby (cranberry), but factor in the possibility of combining opalescent glass with coloured glass and it is not quite that simple. Certainly the Walsh master craftsmen were unsurpassed at combining a relatively small number of types of glass to produce a myriad of effects. Almost all
Mother-of-Pearl was iridised.
The little leaf comport or tazza on the right of the photograph
here is a fine example of Walsh flint
Mother-of-Pearl, the attribution reinforced by the use of the ribbed pattern mould shown in the drawing submitted with design registration No. 582840 of 28 April, 1911, see Gulliver p.286 or Reynolds p.17, so we know for certain that this fairly commonly seen pattern was in established use by then. See also the example shown in Gulliver on p.109 top right.
The best examples of Walsh glass I've found for showing the white opal layer clearly are some examples of the cornucopia shown in Gulliver on p.91, and, yes, it is Walsh flint
Mother-of-Pearl, although the white opal layer on the illustrated example is so thin as to be almost invisible. On some examples the white opal layer around the rim has broken up into a crackle effect, clearly showing its nature as a thin layer.
Finally, note that sometimes the white opal layer draws back slightly from the cut rim, particularly clearly on your vase, Dave. This characteristic of Walsh
Mother-of-Pearl may explain the rim on the vase illustrated in Gulliver, p.109 bottom right.
... and, off topic, but worth mentioning as a cautionary note. Note the completely different construction of the naturalistic feet of the cornucopia and comport. The cornucopia has feet pulled from a sandwich of pierced discs, possibly three per disc, whereas the comport has the feet in pairs, applied as a moulded (pressed or pincered with a very clear mould line) sausage, pulled to make the feet. It would be easy to assume that one of these techniques was the way that Walsh master craftsmen always did it, and to use this assumption as evidence of a non-Walsh attribution for the other technique. It just illustrates the importance of obtaining several distinct pieces of evidence to support an attribution, and the importance of not making unfounded assumptions.
Phew, that was a marathon!
Bernard C.
Topic: vaseline opalescent (yes), but is it WALSH WALSH? (Read 1935 times)
