Topic: Blue trailed vase

[chopin-liszt]

I should say here that I do know of an amethyst psychadelic strapped bottle which was cased in clear and signed by MH. Ron Wheeler sold it a few years ago.

My bottle is not cased or signed but we do have knowledge of that design cased and uncased, so this is completely consistent with these blue vases.

Andy, is yours two different colours of blue? A deep inky cobalt, and a lighter teal shade?
Or is it all one blue, like Mike's cobalt?
I'm sure the strapping looks teal, there's a bit I can see through, but the body might be cobalt?

[AndyD]

Mine appears to be one blue, I would say teal. The top is very similar to your textured vase.

I was watching the auction online, if I was sure it was Mdina you would have had more competition  interesting that it was sold with another Mdina item, if I have the right aucton (there can't have been another)

I did buy mine to re sell but in no hurry, especially as I now have confirmation it is early Mdina. Had it not been it would have been a costly mistake though.
 

[chopin-liszt]

At least buying in an auction means somebody else thought it was worth enough to push your bid up.

What I find exciting is learning that there was what we can now call a "small experimental range" of this very heavy, random and psychadelic style of strapping only MH could achieve.
As far as I'm concerned, they are signed by MH.
Picasso used to draw doodles on napkins instead of paying his bill when eating out, these pieces have Michael Harris' "doodles" all over them. 

There are amethyst bottles, cased and uncased, and there are two sizes of smaller blue pots, cased and uncased, cobalt and teal.

This is new information about Mdina. Suspected before, now confirmed by these new examples in this thread.

[Patrick]

Hi,
This zig-zag bowl that I bought back with me for a friend when I visited the USA in November has the heavy trail........ probably made in the same year as the pieces being discussed.

Cheers Patrick.

[chopin-liszt]

Another very unusual beast, but I would not put zig-zags in the same category as the random psychadelic sort of patterns produced by MH.
Zigzags are a known scarce beast all on their own.
Anybody at the studio who was a reasonable maker could put zigzags on; it takes somebody with intrinsic artistic talent to do the "random" stuff and get it looking good.

[AndyD]

Just want to say thanks again to all who helped with the information on this piece. Great to think that anyone can look and learn about these pieces, and if they see one will have the knowledge to identify it.

It will be appreciated all the more for knowing it's true history.

 

[chopin-liszt]

 
That is exactly what this board is for and about, Andy.
I was a complete ignoramus to start off with, but I've learned a lot from the helpful folk here over the years, through all sorts of interesting discussions, meetings, conferences, fairs and meeting ups.
The more you learn, the more you discover there is to learn and the more you realise you don't know. 

[Patrick]

Anybody at the studio who was a reasonable maker could put zigzags on; it takes somebody with intrinsic artistic talent to do the "random" stuff and get it looking good.

Are you saying the zigzag bowl is not a Harris design...... ?

I think it is the result of 'intrinsic artistic talent.'

Cheers ,

Patrick.

[chopin-liszt]

No, I'm saying zig -zags are a different kettle of fish to psychadelic-style strapping, and that other makers could do zig zags, it's a simple, repeating pattern to follow.
It doesn't take artistic talent to follow a regular simple pattern.
I do think zig zags are a MH design, what I'm saying is that he did not necessarily make them all. Others might have.

Even I could trail up and down, or round and round, with a bit of practice.

But it does take an innate talent to make a random psychadelic design all over a vessel. That is much more difficult and Michael Harris was the only one who could do it.

[Baked_Beans]

I think it's the style of strapping on Sue's bottle which is the key indicator here...almost a handwriting.. as Sue implied  above. Sue mentioned to me that there was a bottle , very similar to Sue's example , which was signed by Michael Harris. I really doubt that he would have signed such a piece if he hadn't have made it himself .