... much the same as Walsh Walsh Sunbeam, Moonshine and Mother of Pearl. ...
Christine — the source for Walsh mother of pearl is Leibe/Hayhurst, 1999, where it is not capitalised as you would expect if they'd sourced from original Walsh material. My view is that they used the term in a descriptive sense only, so we all have to be careful not to upgrade the expression without proof of Walsh usage. Certainly Leibe/Hayhurst had access to a 1929 trade catalogue, but this has to be a decade or so too late for this range. I try not to capitalise it and would welcome correction if it's noticed that I have.
... The top has been restruck to give a graduated opal ...
Christine — surely none of the thin inner layer of white opal and the additional layers of canary yellow and lead crystal is heat sensitive. So how can it have been restruck to give a changed effect?
Your vase, Christine, looks to me like uranium yellow or canary Walsh mother of pearl. It's the first example I can recall seeing.
Leibe/Hayhurst lists just three colours, green (dark green example shown), rarest; flint, most common; and straw opal, most desirable and highly priced.
I've seen three colours, flint, dark green, and light green. Yours, Christine, brings me up to four.
I've only ever knowingly seen one example of Walsh straw opal, and it's on the shelf next to me, but it's not mother of pearl.
I've over a dozen examples of mother of pearl in stock, including one each of the two greens. Several are defining pieces, including a
Vesta Venetian vase with a
Vesta Venetian foot, another with an engraved reg no., and a third, a close relation of the cornucopia in Gulliver, with green seaweed decoration and three green feet.
I would like to see and handle your vase, Christine. Are you coming to the National in May?
Bernard C.
Topic: Opal iridescent uranium vase. Walsh Walsh? (Read 727 times)
