Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. > British & Irish Glass

Isle Of Wight Glass, Signed and Unusual Label

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chopin-liszt:
:D:shock::cry:
Barbara - I don't know how I managed to miss your Blue Aurene bowl!!!
Was it on round about the time of the Ysart Conference? I was absent from eBay that week.

David, I too would love to know what reference books you know of that have information about IoWSG or Mdina apart from Lesley Jackson. As far as I know there aren't any books with anything that isn't taken from Lesley Jackson - including the Miller's guides!

Nigel, your paperweight sounds as if it could be a variation of Gold Aurene. I have a lollipop with the flame pontil that sounds about the same as your weight. As you know, early pieces may have a broken pontil mark, the coach-bolt pontil mark or the flame pontil mark. I do hope that it is signed Michael Harris, not Micheal Harris, the latter is usually dremmelled (sp?) :twisted: ! This (gold aurene) is mentioned in Lesley Jackson along with Blue Aurene, and is basically the same colours and textures of glass, without the blue bit.

(Edited here:- I shall have to confirm this with IoWSG. I now suspect that gold aurene is basically yellow with red, and that blue aurene is basically blue and ochre)

I was in correspondence with IoWSG following the purchase of some archive pieces, listed in the archive as "Seawood". I got quite excited about the name, thinking it was an unusual range I'd never heard of, and it is particularly beautiful. The listing described it a small amount of stuff produced for only a couple of years after Aurene. However, when the pictures of the archive pieces were shifted to another part of the site, having been sold (to me), the dates were different, and the "Seawood" name was gone. I was told that actually, "Seawood" was a misprint, and that the pieces were not "Seaward" either, but an experimental variation of "Blue Aurene". They were definitely produced after Aurene, and were definitely not Seaward. I was also told that there was a lot of experimentation and that many colourways/pieces do not have names at all. Speculation about names etc. is probably a bit of wishful thinking by collectors who want to be able to put things into pigeon holes, something I imagine that is much easier with eg. Whitefriars, where stuff was made in production runs, using moulds, rather than the methods of hand-made, free-blown studio glass.

nigel benson:
Hi all,

OK, OK, Sue you've caught me out. I have a habit of mis-spelling 'Michael', putting the 'a' and the 'e' the wrong way round. It is correct on the weight.

Also, thank you for making the point that was buzzing around in the back of my mind when I posted the last entry - that not all colourways have names and therefore they cannot be pigeon-holed.

As with many things in life, glass attribution is not a precise science, which means that we more often than not have use a lot of diagnosistic process before we can safely say that an item is by a particular manufacturer, designer or maker. Similarly when giving the name of a range to something that we know is by a particular company.

Never jump to conclusions, and treat with healthy scepticism information that cannot be double checked. Lastly, beware of books that have copied original mistakes by others. A good example is a Walsh Walsh fan/wave rimmed vase in vaseline (straw-opal) that has flower motifs, which has been in the past, and still is occasionally, attributed to Powell (see J. Miller Arts and Crafts/Art Nouveau - sorry can't remember which - but both recently published). This mistake was originally made in an auction catalogue some years back and can be traced through various books where the attribution re-occurs simply by checking the bibliography and following it back to source.

I point this out, since a lot of conclusions are made on these boards, without a great deal of substantive evidence. This worries me a tad, since casual observations within discussions can, and do, gain credance, especially when a serious debate is taking place. Whilst I certainly do not want to stiffle debate, I do urge a little more care. :)  :)

Nigel

David555:
The old Millers guides are not so good but J Miller is better, I don't take the prices as read - God have you seen her Chance Glass section recently!!

But the new books have done whole sections on IOW and Mdina etc.

I also use auction catalogues, and although not actual books - I create a database with photos and info from websites and eBay - I also have my own items to reference

This is a good site for IOW – there are many more

http://www.circaglass.co.uk/phdi/p2.nsf/supppages/circa?opendocument&part=6 - sometimes it has good stuff with excellent info on all the older items

I think IOW is an area waiting to be thoroughly explored; a good book would be most welcome, lot of research?

I would love as I say to get my hands on the old catalogues like W/F site has done - any good research would also mean covering the other IOW firms and Kerry in Ireland - perhaps even roots work back in Mdina

I know there are books with stuff about Harris, but nothing really comprehensive, with all the shapes and a basic price guide


I stopped buying the Miller’s 'Big' guides ages ago - God knows where they get there attributions - I know from the dealers - who would have thought?

I also hate the way they keep on using the same pictures over and over again – I have the one ‘Glass’ and it is useless with 90% Georgian drinking vessels and decanters, times have moved on, If I want any good info on Deco, I use the many 100s of auction catalogues I have – they cost me 20p and are sometimes on the ball LOL

Adam D555

btw - there is one very good Miller guide I still use a lot :wink:  :wink:

David555:
http://www.isleofwightstudioglass.co.uk/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=8&

This takes you to a whole message board on IOW glass - funny I recognise some of the members - any connection with this board

Surely lots of good info on this

Adam D555

chopin-liszt:
:D:(:D
There's no information in J Miller's 20th Century Glass that isn't straight out of Lesley Jackson, apart from some pictures of Mdina, (Lesley Jackson has no pictures of Mdina at all). The pictures in the J. Miller are taken from Miller's Guides '04 &'05, apart from one of a (stopperless) bottle.
The information in the Miller's guides is also straight out of Lesley Jackson.
J. Miller says that two glassmakers from Whitefriars helped set Mdina up, but if you read the bit from The Glass Cone taken from an interview with Elizabeth Harris, you'll find that the Boffos went over slightly later.

http://www.historyofglass.org.uk/glassnews/glass%20news13b.htm

IoWSG have comissioned a book, "Michael Harris: Mdina Glass and Isle of Wight Studio Glass" written by Mark Hill with support from the Harris family and Ron Wheeler of Artius Glass (and some others, I believe, and some collectors). It will be out late in the coming spring.

Yes, I'm on the IoWSG forum, and have been in private correspondence with Ron, who asked Elizabeth Harris about the query I had about the archive pieces I bought. It is in that email that I found out that Blue Aurene can vary in colour from almost totally deep blue, to an ochre shade with no blue at all. (I've just checked it again - I think that I should retract my earlier statement that Gold Aurene is the same as Blue Aurene, without the blue!  :oops::oops::oops: I should also get some photographs together and ask IoWSG to sort this out for me! Apologies if I caused any confusion there!)

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