Topic: An original (not moulded) Dartington Alfred Capredoni wren?

[Ekimp]

Hi, trying to find out more about this.
First thing to say is it isn’t moulded. The block of glass has been ground flat front, back, bottom and right hand side but is broken or knapped (like flint axes) on the top and left hand side. The sharp corners have then been cleaned up by grinding and polishing. It is about 4 inches tall, 2.75 inches thick and 1.5kg.

The wren looks to be ground, etched and polished by hand, again not moulded. I’ve seen the Alfred Capredoni animals that are moulded but with some small etched details added by hand later but this isn’t one of those. It has ‘Dartington 1977’ engraved on the bottom (written in mirror to be viewed rightway round through the glass) but no artist’s signature.

Would this be handmade by Alfred Capredoni or a different artist and were they made as part of a named range that I could search for? Perhaps this is the forerunner for the moulded animals? There’s plenty of moulded examples online but I haven’t found any other originals and when I search for Alfred Capredoni I get inundated with the moulded ones.

Many thanks.

[Ekimp]

....the other photos.

[chopin-liszt]

I would strongly suspect an engraving artist has got hold of a piece of decent quality, annealled cullet to use for their work.
I do know that Lesley Pyke does this.

(And if you're reading this, Lesley, Congratulations to you both, Mr and Mrs King. 
 I'm delighted to hear your lovely news. I just found out on your website.)

http://www.lesleypyke.com/

[Ekimp]

Hi Sue, thanks for your reply and the link, I see the cullets that Lesley Pyke engraves and see what you’re saying. The wren looks well drawn and well executed (it is about 2mm deep intaglio) so I would assume it was done by a talented engraver...but why sign it ‘Dartington 1977’ unless that is coincidently their own name or they were working for the company? Perhaps Dartington is the name of the artist and I could look into that. I can’t imagine that there would be much point in adding Dartington in an attempt to deceive?

[chopin-liszt]

Doh. 
I missed that you said it was marked. 
However, it might be a bit of Dartington cullet, and/or engraved by an artist there, or acquired from Dartington by an artist?
It does seem odd that it's marked Dartington and not signed by the artist.
Have you tried contacting Dartington to ask?

[Ekimp]

Ha, yes, easily done. They wouldn’t supply signed blank cullets would they? - like signing blank cheques - they wouldn’t know what someone might engrave! I assumed it must be an official Dartington piece if it’s not the artist’s name.

I’ve not contacted Dartington on this yet as they were kind enough to help me out identifying a bowl (Large 'Fusion Bowl' product code BD2229) about a week ago so didn’t want to bother them again so soon. Plus I saw that Alfred Capredoni’s son Chris had posted on another thread (a while ago now) so was hoping he might identify his fathers work...or not.

[chopin-liszt]

I don't know anything about "supplies" of blank cullet, I'm afraid.
But if one were to be used for engraving, it would have to be properly annealed, wouldn't it?
I now follow your thinking. 
Fingers crossed Chris sees this.

[Ekimp]

Ah...I think I miss understood how an artist might ‘aquire’ blank cullet...I’m sure that sort of thing doesn’t go on....
Thanks 

[chopin-liszt]

  It is something I've talked about with Lesley Pyke, who has used bits.
It's not easy to get hold of a good bit of quality cullet, because of the importance of the annealing. Bits are few and far between.

[Ekimp]

Thanks for the info, always learning! I’ve not come across cullet before so it seems of interest even without the wren. There’s very few inclusions that can be seen by eye. I got it in an Antiques/collectors emporium and I think they probably regarded it as a damaged moulded Dartington block.