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Verlux/Verlys Help please...

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Fuhrman Glass:
In Victor Arwas' Book, Glass Art Nouveau to Art Deco, he has a section on Verlys and he says that Holphane set up a glassworks at Les Andelys, France in about 1920. They eventually imported some glassworkers from Bohemia, Czechoslovakia to help make art glass. They were under the name VERRERIE D'ANDELYS, which the they used the first and last syllables of each to make the name VERLYS. They at that time had a showroom in Paris at 156 boulevard Haussmann. The originals were free blown and then in the mid 1930's replaced with pressed molded glass. The Verlys line was produced from about 1933 to 1955 and was in transoarent clear, frosted, opalescent or coloured glass. Some were also produced in in a rich luminous opalescent glass. Holophane originally setup the factory to produce optical fresnel lenses and pressed glass for industrial use.

John Smith:
Absolutely Fuhrman Glass... The history of Verlys is also littered with contradictions, however it is my OWN belief and understanding that:

Verlys established itself in France c1931 as a part of the Societe Anonyme Holophane, Les Andelys, from which the factory took its name. 

In 1935 Verlys of America was created in a wholly owned subsidiary of Holophane Lighting Company, Inc, located in Newark, Ohio. Glassware was produced there from c1935 to c1951. Verlys of America purchased molds from Holphane Francaise, the French Verlys company.

It is only the signatures which can determine each factory. Verlys of America was the only company of the two to pen etch their signature. The French Verlys, was always signed in the mould and in one of three ways: A Verlys France; Verlys France, or Verlys Made in France.

Note that the word ‘France’ is always included in the signature, denoting country of origin.

Though Verlys America ceased operations c1951, A. H. Heisey Company leased some of the moulds from them in June c1955.

These were: Chrysanthemum, Pine Cone, Rose, Tassel, Thistle, Wild Duck and Water Lily bowls. The Gems Vase was also included, as were other patterns produced using etched crystal only. Heisey used these moulds for about 2 years, and then returned them to Verlys of America in c1957. None of the Heisey pieces were signed.

To add to the above history, The Fenton Art Glass Company bought all of the American Verlys Moulds in c1966. All of the pieces from these moulds will be signed or labelled Fenton…

Victor Arwas, was very much indeed a knowledgeable man, now sadly missed. I have spoken many times with his wife, who rightfully carries on with the Arwas dynasty of most things Art Deco... I have turend to her also about my M Model Lamp (please see my posting) and she, like many of us, rely upon people in France of today to assist and to establish with all manner of things.... FRENCH! 

None of us should caution the authors of our yesteryears. Most acted in the best of good faiths with the information that they had close at hand.... most of which was long before Google Search!!!

We should all of us be appalauded here at GMB for our own imput. Some wrong. Some right. But all of it very very helpful.  John
 

Fuhrman Glass:
as with many molds, they have ended up going many places and being used for many things. I used to own about 25,000 lb of numerous molds that i finally got tired of lugging around and sold them a couple of years ago, but some of them were sold piece meal to people all over the US. Companies were notorious for shipping molds to different locations and back again as some shops at some factories could get production from them when others could not. So much of it depended upon the mix of gaffers and handlers in each individual shop and what day of the week it was. I can attest to the fact that some days, some molds just would not work well and getting consistent glass quality is lot more difficult than most can ever imagine. Keeping a consistent flow of materials and controlling the moisture content of those materials and the times for melting under specific flames is very difficult. It can produce some extraordinary glass or some real crap. Doing it on a consistent basis is very difficult as in earlier times it was even more difficult to control the materials and their quality than now. Some formulas can go very different colors depending upon how long you reheat it and the varying flames in the glory holes.  Now we have some more sophisticated equipment that is available to assure consistency but few glass companies that I know of use the equipment as it is very costly. I highly respect what was created in the 1800's for those people had little control over things as we do today, not to mention their small understanding of the molecular changes that went into the annealing process.  It's remarkable we have such  a rich heritage of glass collections that is still with us.
I used to do a bit of business with the Holophane Corp. in the 70's and 80's but was never able to find anyone there who knew much of the history of the company. It has since gone thru several new corporate owners and I doubt there is much known about these early workings of the group.
I've seen a lot of companies shut down and many end up being totally bulldozed and buried so the owners don't have so many worries about chemical contaminations of the buildings and the soil around them. Most would qualify for "superfund" cleanup sights. It was scary how the chemicals were handled and what was disposed of and how. not to mention what they pumped into the atmosphere and local water supplies.
But it is all very interesting and gives us enjoyable paths to discover.

John Smith:
... Incredible. I love it. I too have worked with glass, mainly at the lamp using borosilicate but also as a freelance designer mould maker at the furnace. I am sure that one thing which governed the workers of our yesteryears, was their total disregard (or knoweldge of) health and safety issues. Much of the glass produced during their times, would be impossible to replicate today... URANIUM??? Arsenic??? as just two example additives... I am suffering from breathing problems, purely due to the chemical salts that I breathed in during the 1980s... in the name of my art. What Uranium or Arsenic and/or spraying metalic salts to create iridescence must have done to our glassworking ancestors, is beyond anybodys comprehension... but still they used it & worked with it as they battled to create what we now see today... Mould working is also a nightmare even at the best of times, but???  I take my hat off to you Fuhrmanglass, for I kind of know exactly where you are coming from.... By the way.. I don't suppose that you have any original R Laique Car Mascot moulds! (smile) I'll take them off your hands and pay for shipment, or even catch the next flight to collect! PLEEEEEEZE just let me know...  ;)

Fuhrman Glass:
no Lalique molds, but I do own a few pieces of Lalique from the 50's. Have frind whostillmowns some of the original Consolidated molds.
It never ceases to amaze me how inexpensive some of the Stuben, Lalique, Kralik,Loetz pieces are in comparisom to many modern studio pieces. I've been amaazed at how much some of even my stuff has sold for.
Good yellow and orange glass is getting difficult to make because of the cadmium involved and Neodymium is going thru the roof in price. Even stannous chloride used for most of the irridizing has gone from $5/lb to about $45/lb, not to mention the cost of silver and selenium these days. Glass making will change a lot in the next 10-15 years. Good fluoride opals can be very toxic to melt, but sure makes beautiful glass. get all of it while you can.
I hear you on the uranium as my local town has spent 100's of millions of dollars cleaning up our town from when they produced all the original atomic weapons here in WWII, IE, the Manhattan project. but still lots of nuclear waste coming here to be recycled.

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