Topic: Square bottle vase—Isle of wight studio glass, Kerry glass or trial piece?

[Scott13]

Hi,
Any thoughts, opinions on this one?
The photos were taken when the sun was shining!

Ht-15cm (6”)
Wt-450gm

Any help appreciated — thanks for looking 

Scott

[Scott13]

Hi,
I think I’ve found one with a somewhat similar pattern in the trial and experimental collection
—14th image from the top.
Great site for IOWSG enthusiasts   

http://iowstudioglass.wikidot.com/exp

Scott

[chopin-liszt]

Isle of Wight Studio Glass, Pink and Blue Swirls. Early, fairly experimental range, but there is still plenty of it about. Other colours of swirls are less common, there's blue and white, blue and clear, pink and clear and white alone.
One of the interesting things about some of the pink and blue swirls is that in some of them, the pink can turn green when light is coming through it. Not on all of them. There must have been different chemical compositions used to create the pink.
There are not two shades of pink. Just one that behaves differently.
It really should have a clear ball stopper, it's (theoretically) a perfume bottle.

[Scott13]

Hi Sue,
Many thanks for your reply and info.
I thought it might be a trial one — gut feeling!
Actually at first I wasn’t even sure it was IOWSG it’s got such a squashed flame prunt- but once seen
never forgotten 
Yes I can see now it would have originally had a stopper - I’ll have to see if I can get IOWSG to make
me a replacement one.
A perfume bottle it is - if only on paper.
Thanks again   

Scott

[chopin-liszt]

 
Lots of folk have mistaken the "blob of glass in a flame" logo for the "leaping salmon" logo of Strathearn. If you don't know what exactly you're looking for, it can be difficult.
IoWSG doesn't exist any more. You'd be best trying to contact Tim Harris' new studio.
I don't believe the stoppers were normally ground to fit - is there any evidence of grinding inside the neck?
To be honest, any roughly right sized clear ball stopper would suffice.
I've put small Mdina stoppers on some of mine. I like the colours, if they match. I shamelessly swap stoppers around.

There are a very small number of this design of bottle in a sort of Aurene pattern, but for which they used up the coloured enamels they brought back from Malta. I kind of like those ones and they do look better with Mdina stoppers than clear ones.

[chilternhills]

Hi Scott. This piece was an experimental colourway, made around the same time as Pink & Blue Swirls, but not quite the same as that. As you can see from Mike's picture on my web site referred to previously, it is much darker and intensely coloured. What a great find! Your bottle is only the second example I have seen of this colourway.

[Scott13]

Hi Sue
I think it must have had a loose fitting stopper ( probably clear ) as there’s no sign of any grinding
inside the neck.
Swapping stoppers around - I like it 

Hi chilternhills
Yes definitely a lucky find!
I love its shape and colours - It’ll be well looked after.
Many thanks for your reply and info.

Scott

[chopin-liszt]

Have you noticed it's partially cased? The top of the casing does not blend into the neck.
These trial ranges were more complex than the ranges which eventually went into production proper.
There are, as I said earlier, different versions of pink and blue swirls, but I don't personally consider them to be actually different, just variations on the same theme.
This one of yours has much wigglier "swirls", they're not just spirals around the body. It has elongated big vertical bubbles and a slightly oily look, with tiny bubbles too, and, as Anton says, the colours are quite deep.

[Scott13]

Hi Sue, 
Yes I can see a ridge serving as a demarcation between the main body (cased) and the neck (uncased).
The surface of the cased bit is slightly uneven and it does feel somewhat oily And there are the
bubbles - some large oval ones and many, many tiny ones.
The blues and pinks are certainly quite deep, but I can also see some yellow within the pink ‘swirls’.
Perhaps the sort of variation you’d expect to find in an experimental piece?

Scott

[chopin-liszt]

Michael Harris had only been working with hot glass for about 4 years maximum, when he set Isle of Wight Studio Glass was up.
I know he was incredibly skilled and advanced even for just 4 years practise, but he wanted to get better with every bit he made.
Almost everything he was doing then could be called "experimental". He was desperate to find out how much he could do with glass, always pushing boundaries.
I don't know where your yellow comes from, but it could be a matter of light coming through the glass rather than reflecting off the surface.