Topic: British Licensed Gulvases....

[Pinkspoons]

I just read on the internet that Kastrup and later Kastrup-Holmegaard only ever produced uncased gulvases in dark blue, dark green and amber themselves and that gulvases produced in smokey grey, clear, and light blue were made in the UK under license.... but unfortunately it didn't give a company name.

I don't suppose anyone knows which glassworks that may have been, if the information is actually correct?

Bit of an obscure one, and probably unanswerable, I know - but then most of my Holmegaard questions are these days!  :lol:

[Pinkspoons]

Just skimming through old messages, and came across this thread with the comment:

Interesting that it has a retailers label on ‘Cascade England’ I have seen that two times before both on Holmegaard Gull vases (I know the label for 1960s 70s items) – not saying that it is Holmegaard but it feels imported from Scandinavia.

Adam P

It's a shame that Adam doesn't mention the colours of the Cascade-labelled vases.

Reading through several threads on here to do with Cascade, the loose concensus seems to be that they were an importers. Could it be possible that rather than being an importer, they were producing Scandi designs under license in the UK? It's just speculation, but I'm not sure pieces actually made by Holmegaard would have been re-labelled, as the design and interior magazines of the period that I have seem to regard Holmegaard quite highly, and it was sold fully advertised by Heal's department store - so I can't see much point in putting the label of a lesser company on the glass.

And culled from another thread, which may back up my specualtion (emphasis mine):

I have a recollection that "Cascade Glass" was a trade mark used ( with a black and silver label of a fountain cascading down by one of our pressware comeptitors now defunct. So it may be Waterstone Glass of Wath upon Wear near Rotherham, Wodd Bros, or Trent Valley.
I have not seen a catalogue for ages, and I left my archives on defunct British Glass to the Broadfield House Museum in Kingswinford, near Stourbridge. A call to Roger Dodsworth the curator ( and author of "British Glass between the Wars" may solve the mystery!
The blue looks like Waterstone who made mainly bottles and ashtrays and a few things like eye baths in that blue. (See Eyebath website for Woods as well!)
Sorry not a definite solution but a lead perhaps...
Fancy giving away my archives in July and deciding in September to start collecting British Domestic Glass! Doah! What a plonker!

So if anyone just happens to be passing Broadfield.... 

[Pinkspoons]

Righty.

Cascade made Gulvases, under license from Holmegaard, originally for use as decor in Ralph Lauren shops throughout the UK. Each colour of vase represented a different section of the shop, and the bottles were displayed in large numbers in wall alcoves. For example, ladieswear would have clear Gulvases lined up in the walls, and footwear would have blue (those aren't the actual colour assignments, they're just examples).

Not only did Cascade produce the non-Kastrup/Holmegaard Gulvase colours of pewter/smoke, light blue and clear, they also produced them in Holmegaard's dark blue and amber. This explains why there are some Gulvases in the "official" colours kicking around in sizes under 10", which was the Kastrup/Holmegaard catalogue minimum.

It only took 6 months to solve the mystery. Just need to find production dates now! 

[Anne]

Well done Nic, that's extremely useful to know. Are you able to supply your information source/reference as well please? I'm thinking that this topic should be archived as important data and the source would be jolly useful to have there also.

[Pinkspoons]

I was chatting to Michelle from NoPinkCarpet, who is one of the folk to chat with about Holmegaard, and she disclosed the information. I think she said she got the information from Ron Wheeler, who was in charge of HG's UK marketing/sales for a period.

I've yet to verify with Ron, but I was too excited (in my geeky way) to wait til then. So best hold off the archiving for now.

But it does all tie up with information I already had.

[Anne]

Indeed yes, we'd not archive just yet anyhow, but it's useful to have something flagged as archiveable IYKWIM!    I know what you mean about the excitement though... you just *have* to tell someone don't you, or you feel you'll burst!

[Pinkspoons]

Something very much like that! 

But I'll put in the proper hours with the verifications. Also need to see if pestering the goodly folk up at Broadfield will yield some help with production dates.

[Max]

Great.  So my proudly displayed Holmegaard Gulvase is actually a Cascade Nullvase.     

[Anne]

Actually it's a Cascade nullvase licensed gulvase, Max!   

[Cathy B]

Max, that brings up an interesting question though - will this make any difference to the value of the items to collectors?