Topic: small vaseline glass shoe - ID = Bryce

[thomasandkatherine]

I would be grateful if someone could give me an id and date on this small vaseline glass shoe.  I believe it may be Sowerby and date during the late Victorian period but I would appreciate confirmation.

http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-1047 <--- Mod: Dead link

[heartofglass]

Hi!
I don't think it is Sowerby, it looks American; maybe Fenton, which makes it 20th C. rather than Victorian.

[Connie]

It looks more like Duncan than Fenton but I can't see enough of the detail of the toe or the top edge.

[thomasandkatherine]

Hi, thanks for the notes.  I am still pretty sure it is Sowerby.  Please have a look at Ebay Id's 7393183482 and 7393791806.  Both these items are the well known Vctorian Sowerby pieces - the commemorative Grace Darling lifeboats.  You will see that the button and star pattern on the lifeboats and my shoe are identical.  Is there anyone who can confirm?

[Bernard C]

Alison — Are you sure that Thompson's positioning of the drawing of the Edward Bolton Grace Darling boat on the same page as the Sowerby boats (for comparison) has not led you to think that it was by Sowerby and not Edward Bolton of Warrington?   You would not be the first to find this confusing.

Anyway the Edward Bolton boats are now known to be almost exact copies of the Hobbs 101 Yacht Celery, differing only very slightly in shape.   It was rather amusing to discover that a boat that was so British you could almost hear it singing Rule Britannia turned out to be a design stolen from the USA.    Tom Bredehoft, the Hobbs historian, and I worked this out several years ago, indeed Tom had previously assumed that the plagiarism was the other way around until we checked the dates.    In retrospect we should not have been too surprised, and queried how a small, little known glassworks could have come up with such a successful design.

Sowerby made little or no use of the old cut pattern Daisy & Button or Daisy & Pin on their pressed glass tableware and fancies, the pattern being more popular with both Davidson and Greener.    Greener of Sunderland made a Daisy & Pin shoe, but the shape is quite different to yours.

In my opinion your shoe is not British.

I hope that helps.

Bernard C.  

[Glen]

The slipper looks to me like an L.G. Wright repro that I believe was made in vaseline (and several other colours) during the 1950s - 1960s.

As Bernard notes, Hobbs, Brockunier & Co., (Wheeling) popularised the Daisy & Button pattern in the 1880s. My understanding however ("L. G. Wright Glass" Measell, Roetteis) is that the moulds for the Daisy Button slippers (2 sizes were made by Wright) were purchased by Si Wright in 1940 from the New Martinsville Company.

Glen

[Bernard C]

Phew, Glen, you knocked me out with that.   I just hope others appreciate your amazing knowledge.

Your No. 1 fan,

Bernard C.  

[Sid]

Hello:

Many companies made versions of these shoes.  This example is almost certainly US in origin. To help in determining age and maker some more information is needed:

- length from toe to heel
- height at heel
- picture of the toe from the bottom
- picture of the shoe from the front

Even after all that, we may not be sure.

There is an excellent book called Shoes of Glass 2 by Libby Yalom that is an excellent resource for this very specialized area of collecting.

Sid

[thomasandkatherine]

Thank you everyone for the assistance.  I have been doing some more research re this shoe and it turns out that it is most likely US and was either manufactured by Duncan/Bryce from the Smith patent during the late Victorian period or a reproduction by Wright from the 1970's.  The shoe is 12cm long and just under 5cm in height.  There are no markings on the inside base.  The glass is fine (not thick and chunky) and the patterning deep and crisp.  There is rough wear round the inner rim and the base of the shoe (where the glass touches a surface) is densely scored with very fine irregular scratches to the point that the glass in those areas is opaque.  There are numerous impurities in the glass.  I can post some more photos if it would assist.

[Sid]

Allison:

Only Bryce used the Smith patent.  Duncan used the Miller patent issued the same day. Interestingly enough, the two patents were issued the same day and assigned to both companies.

Yours is the Bryce version.  It sounds very much like it is orginal.

Sid