Paul, that's fantastic! Thank you sooo very much.
Have to say that gilded insect is beautifully done - (silently wondering if it is Jules Barbe for Thomas Webb
).
So I am time limited at the moment but are we seeing :
a) the clear versions which are the 'hammered' design?
b) the pink versions which are the 'fishscale'registered design?
Maybe not as it has occurred to me that I found a pink version with a black enamelled rd number on the base that was the 3 number not the 4 number. So perhaps they can't be separated by hammered (clear glass, 3..... rd number) and fishscale (Pink or cream glass, 4..... rd number). On the other hand, perhaps the black enamelled number was added 'afterwards' to that pink fishscale vase(eek
.. link no longer available but I'd guess that hand painted rd numbers on bases could be suspect sometimes).
On the making of them:
Kev, I've been thinking that it might have been cream cased red (pink), blown into a mold, hence the pink being quite pale on the widest parts of the body and darker in the less blown out bits at the foot/neck perhaps?
Also ... perhaps those metal collars might have been why the rims are cut on some. Lovely with the metal collars I have to say.
That one with the fishtail foot - I'm sure I found one in real life that has that effect as well.
There are so many, and so many here in the UK, that I have to think perhaps Bohemian (prolific senders of glass to UK, and also known Bohemian maker (Loetz) made for Wittmann and Roth, and also more likely with cut and polished rims than a Uk maker perhaps?). Also metal bashers (as Bernard called them) often made collars for Bohemian glass here I think. (that collar is lovely in the sepia pic)
That jug also reminds me of a Harrach type shape.
Also, Wittmann - that's a German name isn't it rather than English? Perhaps there was an easy connection to Bohemian glassmakers because of family connections maybe?
With regard to them being made by Thomas Webb - I think the Webb archives are in Dudley aren't they? So it is entirely possible that Fieldings have found the Webb pattern to be honest. Webb will have made them for Wittmann and Roth perhaps as a 'sole' product for them and Wittmann and Roth will have as we have seen, made sure their number or mark was put on them. Bernard used to say that retailers did not like their makers marking their pieces. Wittmann and Roth seem to have been middle men rather than retailers and perhaps went one further ensuring that all products made for them were marked as theirs (I think they marked ceramics as well and I don't believe they were made by them either).
Ooh, I hope we manage to solve this one.
m