Topic: Arts & Crafts - Stuart/Powell?

[JOK]

Here is a dark green ribbed and footed bowl presumably dating from around 1900. I am aware that both Stuart and Powell produced a dark green glass in this period and had similar designs. My thoughts are that this is Stuart, but I can't find any similar examples. I have taken photos with pieces of Powell and Stuart to compare the colour and it looks closer in colour to Stuart (or what I think is a Stuart piece). There is also an old photo of the Powell showroom reproduced at p.101 in the Whitefriars book showing a group of green glass vases and bowls which I have copied here. This piece is very similar to the ribbed and footed bowl in the photo, but the foot is not ribbed and the knop is rounded rather than disc shaped.

Any suggestions of examples of similar pieces would be much appreciated.

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/jok23/100_1352.jpg

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/jok23/100_1359.jpg

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/jok23/100_1360.jpg

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/jok23/100_1363.jpg

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/jok23/100_1355.jpg

[Bernard C]

JOK — I think it could well be Walsh.   That squashed stem (I don't know the proper name for it)^* is a known Walsh feature, dating from the late 1920s at the earliest.   In fact I believe it could well be one of the innovations introduced by Clyne Farquharson soon after he joined Walsh in the early 1930s, when you see a number of improvements made to existing ranges to bring them up to date.   The stem is known on marked Walsh pieces — on both plain glass and glass decorated by engraving, such as the waterlily and iris vase shown on p.38 of Leibe, Miller's Glass of the '20s & '30s, 1999.   Other examples are shown in Reynolds in plates 21, 27 and 38.

Please would you let me know the colour of the glass of the stem.   Some Walsh examples, such as the one shown in the Miller's book, have the stem in a different colour to the main body and foot.

Bernard C. 

* I am reluctant to use "knop" or "rudimentary stem" as these terms already have quite specific meanings in other glass fields.

[Lustrousstone]

Oh look a squashed Walsh stem http://lustrousstone.co.uk/cpg/displayimage.php?pid=1131

The ribbing looks right too.

[JOK]

Thanks for those thoughts. The colour of the stem is the same as the body - dark green. Here are some better photos of the bowl and the stem.
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/jok23/100_1371.jpg
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/jok23/100_1370.jpg

I am familiar with the Walsh iridescent range, but I think the stem is different in that the stem on the iridescent bowl is curved at both the top and bottom (as far as I can see?), whereas the green bowl stem is curved at the top only and goes straight down into the foot. The other difference in manufacture is that the foot is not ribbed on the green vase; the Walsh bowl has a ribbed foot. Does anyone have the Walsh book to see if there is a similar example? I don't disagree that it could be by Walsh.

[Bernard C]

...   Does anyone have the Walsh book to see if there is a similar example?   ...

JOK — Reynolds is the Walsh book.   Had there been anything there closer to your vase Christine or I would have mentioned it and been more positive than "I think it could well be Walsh."   Also I can't recall seeing that stem on glass by other glassworks.   Have a look in Reynolds for yourself.    If you haven't a copy, then please buy it or borrow one from your local library.

Bernard C. 

[JOK]

I did manage to look through the Walsh book when I visited the Stourbridge glass museums at the weekend.

I don't know what the Walsh colour range was, but I couldn't see anything that colour or shape, although there were ribbed bowls and vases.
The Stuart museum (Red House) had pieces of the same colour and with almost identical stems - there is a picture on Nigel Benson's page of a stuart vase with the same foot and stem in the same colour ( http://www.20thcentury-glass.org.uk/imagelib/sitebuilder/misc/show_image.html?linkedwidth=560&linkpath=http://20thcentury-glass.org.uk/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/CopyofDSC_0081.JPG&target=tlx_picpvwv ).

My personal opinion is that it is probably Stuart, but the shape is clearly modelled on Venetian glass with very similar pieces by Powell illustrated on p.11 of the Jackson book and 104 (not 101 as I said before) of the Evans book. The Stuart archives (not that I have looked at them first hand) show examples of how they copied the Powell Venetian designs (eg decanters and vases).

Having said that, I did notice a 1930s Webb bowl (similar shapr to the Walsh bowl) with the same foot and stem, but again I am not aware that they produced glass in this dark green colour.