Topic: Close packed Millefiori weight, Ysart? ID = Strathearn

[Ekimp]

Hi, I’m pretty ignorant on this (...I’ll add it to the list). After looking on the Internet I thought it could be Ysart related but mainly learnt how much I don’t know and that I need an expert. It is about 2.75 inches diameter and 2 inches high. Information appreciated, many thanks.

[Nick77]

Hi

Not Ysart but a Strathearn closepack weight.



Nick

[Ekimp]

Thanks Nick, I’ll read up on Strathearn.

[SophieB]

Hi,

Have a look at Richard More's website - it is a great resource on Strathearn:

https://strathearn.smugmug.com

Sophie

[Ekimp]

Thanks Sophie, that’s just what I was looking for with the examples of canes with dates. I’ll try and find a match and date. 

[KevinH]

The canes / dates as shown in Richard More's wonderful pages do not indicate a particular start or end date for the use of any of the canes. They simply show that there are a range of date canes for many of the years of production.

All we can say is that the canes included in a dated weight were made in or before the year of the date cane. There are many examples of Strathearn weights using canes from the years 1956 - 1964 when the company was named Vasart Ltd. And there are also plenty of examples of Strathearn weights using canes that may have been made during the even earlier period of 1946 - 1956 when the comany was first formed as Ysart Brothers Glass (tradename Vasart).

Not only that, some of the canes in Strathearn weights all the way through to 1980 could have been made in the 1930s!

However, there were certainly canes made in the Strathearn years only. But because there are no known catalogues of those (or earlier) canes, we can only determine a general style or perhaps colour and then check to see whether they been found in weights made before 1964. Not an easy task!

Edited to clarify the last paragraph.

[daveweight]

Here is the story of Strathearn Glass
One of the Directors of Teachers Whisky went to America and at a function he attended he saw a bowl holding nuts that had been made by squashing a bottle. This gave him the idea of making ashtrays from squashed Teachers Whisky bottles so he searched for a company who could make these and found Vasart Glass. They made a trial batch but Teachers wanted thousands made and the old Vasart factory could not cope with such a large order to Teachers bought Vasart. They had a new glassworks built in Crieff and had to find a name for the new company. In the Scottish language Strath means Valley and Crieff lies in the valley of the river Earn so the new company was called Strathearn.
Although most of the paperweights Strathearn made were mass produced designs they did make some very nice weights including double overlays and even experimented with sulphides.
Picture of one of the Teachers Whisky ashtrays attached
Dave

[Ekimp]

Thanks for the info, shame it doesn’t look possible to tie down a date though.