Topic: Selkirk Glass mystery ... Help me please before i tear my hair out !!!

[poppymurren]

Please help me in my quest to find the name of my Selkirk glass paperweight before i pull my hair out.
It measures 27cm round and is the most awesome paperweight i have as a novice collector.. please, please help me good people

Forgot to add .. has selkirk glass 1987 etched at the bottom..

Your help is much appreciated.

poppymurren

[Lily of the Valley]

Hello Poppymurren  :hi:

Please post a photo of the base and a close-up of the signature.

I hope you are able to find an answer ... Lily 

[poppymurren]

There's no signature on the bottom ... just Selkirk Glass, Scotland 1987 .. I've attached the best pictures i can take of the base... Hope this helps..

poppymurren the novice

P.S .. excuse the paint on the fingers ... I'm in the middle of a masterpiece

[Lily of the Valley]

Thanks for the additional photos.  What little I can see of the signature does look right, but, unfortunately I cannot see enough of it to be sure.  Maybe you could try again?

I have two Selkirk paperweights--one with a name (Seaburst) and one without.  Truth is, yours may not have an actual name.  Hopefully, though, someone else more familiar with Peter Holmes weights will stop by and add something to this thread.

Good Luck .... Lily 

Oh, are there white tendrils around the center bubble in the weight or is that just a reflection I am seeing?

[Sach]

Reminds me of a Caithness Moonflower.

[Derek]

Hi poppymurren

The fact the weight is not named would indicate an unlimited edition weight.

In 1987 there were 4 new unlimited weights launched by Selkirk but none
of them were green

However in 1986 there was an unlimited weight called "Pastelle"  which
was produced in either pink or green. Quite common for a good selling
design to be carried forward to the following year so  I suspect that
your weight could be Pastelle but it really needs another member who
has one to confirm the design.

Another option is that it was a trial piece for a new design. Selkirk was
a volume producer of paperweights and the unlimited editions were aimed
at the gift market and for passing tourists as souvenirs. Such trial pieces
would be signed and put in the factory shop.


Sach - You mention Caithness Moonflower - Peter Holmes worked at
Caithness (Head of paperweight making)  right up to 1977 and the
first Caithness moonflower appeared in 1970. Although the design is
credited to Colin Terris, Colin worked VERY closely with Peter Holmes
on the design of weights so its not surprising that Selkirk produced
designs that were very similar  to those of Caithness.

Best regards

Derek

[Wuff]

All Selkirk weights appearing in the sales catalogues have names - but these are usually not inscribed on the base, which makes identification sometimes difficult.
In addition many more weights were produced, which never went into production - but seem to have been sold anyway: these would likely have no names, at least no known names.
Now for the weight in question: I have checked the 1983...1988 catalogues - this weight is not shown. So most likely it's one which was never produced in larger quantities - no name - but call it a one-off  .

[pooleandpaperweights]

Looks suspiciously like a Satin weight to me.  I do have one somewhere but packed away, but heres a blue one

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Beautiful-Selkirk-Glass-Paperweight-satin-Blue-/380250127835?pt=UK_Art_Glass&hash=item5888ac7ddb

Its a classic selkirk abstract weight, so could be one of hundreds of designs!

Ian

[Wuff]

Looks suspiciously like a Satin weight to me.  I do have one somewhere but packed away, but heres a blue one

It actually looks somewhat similar - could be a design study leading up to Satin. Satin first showed up in the 1990 catalogue (Lilac) - but there was never a green version in the catalogues / price lists. Later colourways were Blue, Crimson, Rainbow, and Sea Blue.

[Derek]

Hi Wuff

I think unlikely that Selkirk would take 3 years to get from a design study for an unlimited weight to production

Best regards

Derek