Topic: Small blue Penguin chick ...any ideas on the maker please ?

[Baked_Beans]

Thanks Jackie for your help, very kind  :thup: Cheers,  Mike .

[suzygpr]

Pic of Whitefriars penguin

http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-3300

Just a thought but Isle of Wight Studio Glass did produce their minimal series of animals in coloured glass without the Azurene finish in 1983 only, according to Mark Hill's book.  Not having seen one I couldn't say whether it is or not.  Also two ex-Wedgewood workers were employed to produce the range - could explain why it resembles a Wedgewood Penguin.

Hope this helps

Suzy x

[Baked_Beans]

Hi Suzy,
Thanks for the info ! Could well be !
Here is a link to a Whitefriars 'frigger' . Probably or maybe after Boffo ?
The Penguin here (in this thread) is, I think, very thick Kingfisher Blue.....the flash doesnt show the green in the blue (but look at the beak you can see the green).... I'm 90 % sure that this  penguin is Kingfisher Blue but  Isle of Wight glass could well have made a very similar colour. The Penguin in this link is amber. What do you think ? Possibly a Whitefriars piece after Boffo...or perhaps not ! Could be I.O.W. ?

http://www.whitefriars.com/bb_orig/viewtopic.php?t=2995&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=lighting+pink

You have to scroll down to the the Penguin !!!! Cheers, Mike.

[suzygpr]

I'm afraid I can't be of much more help on the Whitefriars side of things, very ignorant on most glass apart from Mdina and IoWSG.

Came across the image whilst trawling for pics and thought it might be relevant - found another Whitefriars one this morning.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/art-of-glass/sets/72157617558316670/

The amber one in your post has flippers that reflex forwards, this might be a more distinct feature to compare to your blue one.  The two Whitefriars images I found have no flippers.

Suzy x

[Baked_Beans]

Hi Suzy,

Great pics of a WF penguin ...I think they are 6 inches in height ..would love to find one at a carboot 

I have limited knowledge in all areas of glass !! But it is an endlessly facinating subject and very difficult to attribute items sometimes ! This little chick being a case in point ! I see what you mean about the flippers .

Cheers, Mike.

 

[Patrick]

Hi Mike,
 I have a similar blue penguin to yours, also a smaller one in amber both shown in the image below.  Included in the image and on the right is one that I purchased from an ex Whitefriars worker ( Nashy ) who has attributed it to Boffo. The colour is a dense soda based amber used in lighting shades that were made using metal frames.
 As mentioned the flippers in the larger 2 project forward and in the Boffo they face back. It is interesting that they all have random bubbles .

Regards,
              Patrick.

[Baked_Beans]

Thanks Patrick,
What a lovely line-up of penguins , looks like a scene from the Antarctic ! Yours do look distinctly different in certain ways but there are also similarities . Mine is made of lead crystal and doesn't have the bubbles. It does have a small hole in the base which could be a cut-off bubble.
I will bring it to Cambridge so that you can have a look and see what you think about the colour. It might be possible that it is WF, it certainly is very well modeled and looks like a really cute penguin chick.  Cheers, Mike.