Topic: Jobling designs 1932 - 1947

[Paul S.]

continuing ……………….

Registration 802233 dated 23.04.1935  -  Jubilee plate  -  regret to say that neither the factory sales pages nor the Baker & Crowe list provide a catalogue No. for this design.

In the museum booklet, the authors have reproduced two Jobling sales catalogue pages, both showing this plate with what I assume is the 'seaweed' surface decoration   -    one with the centre circle showing an image of George V and the other, similarly, showing Queen Mary.     No idea how the central image was produced, or what it consisted of (foil perhaps?), or whether in fact the plate was available without pix of royalty.
According to Jobling's sales wording, this item was available in pink, blue, green and amber, satin finish.         I assume the pattern is in relief.

Yours in 1935 for the princely sum of twenty seven shillings per dozen (£1.35 in modern parlance). 

[Paul S.]

at a quick glance this one appears not to be a candlestick, but images can deceive, and if you look at the cross-section drawing all is revealed  -  confusion can be blamed partly on the absence of dimensions, I think  -  it's also true that the unusually large drip tray makes this appear more akin to a bowl.              Speaking of that part of the design, the factory catalogue states       ………...'specially designed to catch grease'.

Registration 803288 dated 31.05.1935 - seaweed candlestick -  Jobling catalogue No. 2608.          The surface decoration on this item appears to be the same as the Jubilee Plate - but I stand to be corrected  -  possibly this design has less of a visual impact - perhaps less seaweed?

Available in flint, satin finish  …………..  also green, blue, amber and pink, satin finish.

[theElench]

I can confirm that the decoration on both plate and candlestick are in rather low relief.  The decoration on the candlestick is not an exact copy of that on the plate in miniature, but is the same pattern re-drawn to fit the smaller piece.  It's less eye-catching on the candlestick because the fronds are shorter and the curve of the bowl steeper, making them less visible.

I wonder, having read that Joblin sold vases as tableware for celery, could these two be another ruse to evade Luxury Tax?  As a plate and candlestick they are household items.  Together, wouldn't they make quite an attractive centrepiece?

[Paul S.]

thanks for the answer - appreciated.               The candle holder (I'm having trouble calling it a stick) has the most unusual shape/proportions that I've ever seen for a piece intended for a candle - it would hold several cakes I'm sure.

I could be very wrong, but might it be a requirement - for avoiding the tax because of utility status - that the item had to carry the word CELERY? - do Jobling celeries carry the word?
What, if any, is the centre image on your plate  -  George V or Queen Mary?

[Paul S.]

The very next item from the Baker & Crowe list - Reg. No. 805376, a salad bowl, factory catalogue No. 2583   -  shows a three-footed pressed bowl with decoration of criss-cross mitres.      This is both a shape and decoration which has appeared in this thread in an earlier post (together with a footed milk jug) under Registration No. 800443 from 19th February of the same year, though unfortunately for whatever reason, Baker & Crowe didn't include details of the earlier Registration, so now we see this salad bowl for the first time, listed against 805376 rather than in the earlier Registration.   
I'm not inclined to think there is deliberate subterfuge here  -  it may well simply be that there was a conflict of sizes/uses, and the authors wanted to show a larger version of the salad bowl and it just so happened that it suited their purposes better to delay showing this shape and decoration until the appearance of the later Reg. 805376.                However, the complete absence of the earlier Reg. 800443 (and come to that 800442 also), is a mystery - the lidded container, the milk jug and the smaller salad bowl design (assuming it was smaller), from those Registrations should have been included.
Lustrousstone's comments about there being more than one size of this design, with perhaps the intention of a smaller version being intended for sugar may well be correct - no doubt it will remain a mystery always as to why the earlier Registered design wasn't included by the authors.

So, here are pix of 805376  -  salad bowl  -  factory catalogue No. 2583.            For reasons unknown to me, all of the images, available for this Registration - at Kew - are shown in 'plan' view  -  nothing side on at all.   

As a personal comment, 2583 doesn't do anything for me though it's not supposed to of course  - it smacks of a utility shape and appearance, and lacks any pretence of refinement or artistic leaning, and suggests the thick glass of Sowerby, Davidson and other makers of every day glass.
Where is the imaginative and deco inspired images that we see on much of this factory's other output  -  instead there is the most banal design that reflects nothing of 1935 - what a lost opportunity.            

[theElench]

The Joblin celery that I have is a 11700 in frosted (?) pink.  I can't find "Celery" on it anywhere.  I hadn't read of any requirement for the word to be visible to evade the tax, the "evidence" that it was called a celery to do so was that, in the writer's opinion it was over elaborate to be such and too narrow to be practical.

My plate does not have either image.  I recall seeing another for sale, also without any image.  I also recall that not so long ago a seller on Etsy offered a pair for sale with the images of the king and queen.  If I recall correctly, saying something like "retaining their original paper transfers ".  If I'm allowed to do so, I do recall the sellers name and can add this to the thread if anyone wants to enquire directly.  Their pair are not currently listed as for sale.

The dimensions for the candle holder (I agree it can't really be described as a stick).
Rim dia.   6.0 inches.
Base dia.  4.0 inches.
Height.     2.5 inches.

Both pieces glow under UV light.

[Paul S.]

have to say that my comments about the word CELERY being applied in order to qualify for tax evasion wasn't founded on my own knowledge or experience, though I seem to recall that we have had discussions on the Board in the past where it was explained that marking glass with the word was done to avoid just such a surcharge.         Probably refers to material made through the middle third of the C20 - such pieces (not Jobling though) seem often to have had the word on them.         
I recently posted a picture of such an example - a large and colourful thing, that was way over the top in size and weight, which carried the word CELERY - but unlikely that you'd ever use it for that purpose.              I wasn't suggesting you would find the word on Jobling's pieces, just curious as to whether it might occur.

Regarding the paper labels in the centre of the plates, again I lack personal experience of these pieces  -  always possible that all examples were provided with paper transfers by the factory, and in the course of wear and tear some simply fell off  -  then again maybe some actually left the factory without any transfers.

There was a time I found a small selection of Jobling designs in charity shops, but now almost never  -  perhaps the occasional fir cone bowl.    Many pieces stylistically reflect what we think of as deco design - very artistic, which is why they appeal, though according to Baker & Crowe profit in most years was almost non existent for Jobling in terms of this decorative glass side of their business.
You obviously have some experience of Jobling designs - I agree some would make attractive centre pieces.

             

[theElench]

Not having heard that this might be a requirement, I had a good look to see if it was, in fact, there on my pink one.  I have a VSL "Marcelle" celery with the word etched near the rim, but so faintly that it has to catch the light at just the right angle to be legible.  I was looking for something similar on the Joblin.  Either near the rim or on the upper side of the base.  If it is there, I can't see it.

Both seem rather narrow and impractical to hold celery, remembering such things from my aunts table when I was a child.  Hers would have held most of head of the stuff, enough for a couple of sticks for each person at the table.

I have no experience of the labels either.  The seller I mentioned wrote as though examples were rare enough to attract a premium on the price.  If they were paper, and just glued on I would doubt that most lasted very long, my plate certainly has no trace of paper or even glue to indicate that it ever had a picture on it.

[Paul S.]

Again, going from memory, I think most of the pieces that do carry the word 'CELERY', and which we're suggesting do so for possible tax avoidance reasons - are similar insofar as the word is often quite faint and I'd imagine applied in the form of an acid stamp.          Perhaps we should instigate a new thread for all such examples.

However, moving on........................

Registration 806062 dated 28.08.1935  -  bird bowl  -  Jobling catalogue No. 2602.

I think this particular Registration is the last of the related group of three showing this stylized exotic looking bird pattern - almost Lalique in  appearance, especially when in the opalescent pressing  -  the other two being 780717 (17.02.1933) and 787871 (15.11.1933).
Certainly some examples were available in amber and believe there were other colours  -  am sure Steven is able to be more accurate regarding the full range.             Regret I've no idea as to dimensions.
According to the Museum booklet, this was the final Jobling design for which M. Franckhauser made a plaster mould.

[Paul S.]

into the final seven designs: ……………………………………..

Registration No. 822997 dated 30.08.1937  -  a vase  -  Jobling catalogue No. 2633.           A height of 6 inches may be the only size produced, but I stand to be corrected.           
According to Steven (Mosquito) this is an uncommon/scarce item, though it has appeared on the Board in recent weeks because it was an item I found, in uranium  -  I'm not aware of whatever other colours might have been produced.            Always possible that the nearer we approach 1939, then as with many manufacturing companies, the need for production of ordnance/other materials for the war effort, limited Jobling's output of their own glass designs.

Both 1934 and 1935 saw quite a profusion of new designs from Jobling  -  it appears there was an absence of any new design Registrations in 1936, and only five for 1937.               After this date, perhaps understandably, there is a substantial time gap before a single design in each of the years 1946 and 1947.