Topic: Michael Harris Kerry Glass Collection Shamrock

[glasskillian]

On the weekend just gone to my amasement i found a collection of kerry glass at the local boot the old fella is a dealer i buy from sometimes but these were his personal collection so i had to pay a fair price £100 he wouldnt take a penny less fair enough i thought umned and ared etc...Anyway my question there were 16 pieces all shamrock colour one or two doubles but basically every shape in the range i have the book by mark hill but i can find any referance to one of the shapes i wondered if anybody has ever come across a small charger by kerry glass i also took a nice bottle  there were three of these chargers in the collection and one bottle plus many other shapes different size globes etc i wuld quite like to keep the collection together as its so complete and would like to try and maybe lend it out on mdina/iow/kerry displays at events if there was any interest in having it there any ideas?
thanks for looking

[glassobsessed]

16 pieces? Sounds like a good price to me... Quite a lot of Kerry was exported to Germany, it may be easier to find there than here in the U.K. The book does not cover every item made, I have seen a couple of bottles for sale in colourways not mentioned in the book. How tall is your bottle? I have not seen any chargers before, again how big are they please?

Lovely to have a big group like that.

John

[glasskillian]

Thanks John yes the collection deserves a good home just trying to work out how to get them all together in one place, The chargers were 24 cm across all had wall hangers on them i guess they may just be plates as there more plate size but i always call them chargers not sure if this is what they are? And the bottle is nice too and 30cm fairly small compared to mdina iow im guessing? I think from the mark hill book im just missing a small cylinder vase but got all other shapes its great...thanks

[glassobsessed]

Wall hangers?

The bottle is a little shorter than the most from Mdina and IoW. I think I would call the chargers chargers, they are the same shape as the IoW chargers just smaller. Lovely to see something new.

[glasskillian]

Wall hangers?
Those funny springs with metal hooks .....
thanks thats great thanks i also got a piece of mdina from the guy well its marked i think its mdina but not a common one have you ever seen this colourway?? If you dont mind seeing it.

[chopin-liszt]

  wire wall hangers - eeeeeek -  get rid!
Is there any damage from them?

The Mdina piece is post-Harris, but still an early, very good one which I collect myself.
Both orange and yellow are difficult colours to use and work - they have a tendency to misbehave.
The design on this range is not just plain old splodgy. There is the yellow spoldgy background, but the decoration has been produced by trailing a strapping of clear glass which has been decorated with orange spoldges, worked in then blown.
A lot more complex than plain splodgy!

My opinion, for which I have no proof, is that this range is likely to be an Eric Dobson design, and probably not produced after Joseph Said took charge.

This might contradict the book, which says that orange bodies did not appear until the late '70s, but - what Mark calls orange bodies, I call red. It's a completely different colour to these splodges anyway.

So dating it is difficult, but it is early, post-Harris. Much of this design was exported to Germany at the time of making. It's not a range that crops up frequently, and it is a "superior" one.

[glasskillian]

Thanks for sharing yours views very interesting and comprehensive excellent!!!
The mdina signature underneath looks like a child might have done it i will attach a picture...The feel of it is more studio glass than production i have a few of the mdina ming i think its called and pieces of the later date production definately dont feel and have the same sort of studio appeal just my oppinion this is quite  uneven etc in construction on the rim etc...And the red trailing does remind me of the trailling you get on some of the early rangesl?? i think...
I did wonder whether it was earlier and not modern this piece thankyou...for confirming...
The wire hangers havent damaged the chargers unusual to get three like that id like to post a picture of the collection but cant resize enough im a techno phobe....
thankyou for great reply's

[chopin-liszt]

Mdina is all studio glass.

I do get exactly what you mean about the feel of these pieces  though - while the design in it is complicated and difficult and beautifully achieved, these is still a wee bit of something rough around the edges, as if the maker has not managed to master the business of executing both the design and the finished shape perfectly - you get the feel of the maker striving with the metal...