Topic: Aseda Denby Milner Swedish Vase ID and definition of Skol?

[womantiques]

Question about this lovely heavy 9-1/4" brown vase with an inverted base has a red paper label that reads "Milnor Sweden." Would appreciate clarification on what I've seen listed as Aseda Denby Milnor Sweden glassware. If I understand it correctly, Denby purchased glassware from Aseda and other Swedish glass companies and resold it under the Denby label. (Was this the Denby Stoneware company?)

So would this vase be attributed to Aseda and/or Denby?
Is Milnor the name of the product line? (I've seen Mirage listed as a line).

Also, I've seen SKOL in descriptions -- is this referring to "Bowl" or "barware" or a shape -- or "bowl"-shape of the inverted/concave  ???base?
Thanx!

[chopin-liszt]

Hello and welcome.   
I'm not sure about what glassmaking company Denby used for making their glassware, but I can tell you yes, it is the same Denby as the stoneware.

You may have a minor typo causing your trouble with finding the definition of the word SKLO.
It just means glass.

Just have a little patience, somebody else who does know more will probably come along soon.

[womantiques]

Thank you for your info. I've seen a few listings of this pattern with the word SKOL, not SKLO, and definition of SKOL is both "cheers" and "bowl." so maybe the others had typos, too!

Do you know anything about the pattern - "Milner?" -- or have Aseda or Denby reference sites?

[chopin-liszt]

Sklo is Czech for glass. Skol is also the name of a beer. 
If I did know anything about your pattern or had information to provide on your other questions, I would have added them before. I'm afraid I don't. This isn't my area.

[flying free]

I have come across a snippet of information from the Dallas Museum of Art.
They apparently have some glass which from the snippet I've found on google I think is identified as 'designed by Joseph Bourne for Denby, imported by Milnor Cincinatti, made in Sweden by unknown maker'.  The source is China and Glass in America 1880-1980, from Table Top to TV Tray
So perhaps Milnor was an importer in the States?
Perhaps contacting the Dallas Museum of Art might help with further information if they have any?

[womantiques]

Thank you for your detection. Not sure if this already posted -- Dallas didn't come up in my googling, but I'll check them out. Makes sense that Milnor is the importer as it's on the paper label. Others have ascribed design to Bo Bergstrom. This ebay listing shows a bar set, asking $225, for: "Rare Swedish Glass Martini Set In SKOL Plum/Amethyst Denby Milner Aseda Sweden" --( this and other listings used the word SKOL):

https://www.ebay.com/itm/235614630948 Mod: Link dead

[chopin-liszt]

The seller does not give any reference for their attribution.

I find it a little bit difficult to work out how the glass was made in both Poland and Sweden, and I rather suspect the seller was putting as many "names" in as they could to try to get views.
I'm never sure of the word "rare". It could mean 50,000 or just 1. And I think the set is rather overpriced.

[flying free]

Skol appears to be the name of a range of Aseda Glass - as described here (scroll down) as 'Skol - (Small Stones) Series'
https://www.mothersweden.com/bo-borgstrom-vase-overview.html

https://admin.abicart.se/shop/4412/files/About/Bo%20Borgstr%C3%B6m/Skol/Bo%20Borgstr%C3%B6m-%C3%85seda-vase-Model-B5-890.-Height-26-cm.jpg

Possibly the design of this series of 'Skol' are items with the base as shown in this link.
Does the base of your vase look like these?

If so, then yours might be a 'Skol' series vase imported by Milnor, designed by Joseph Bourne for Denby and perhaps made at Aseda.  Or ASeda might have made these Denby designed pieces which were imported to the States by Milnor but they might NOT be the 'Skol' series. They might just look quite similar to it.
 They also might NOT have been made by Aseda - the design might just be very similar to these 'Skol' series pieces which were made by Aseda.  i.e. sellers might just be attributing them to Aseda because the design is very similar ... if you see what I mean.

Some written source information would be needed to be sure they were made by Aseda, especially given the Dallas museum info in that American Glass book  just says made in Sweden but maker unknown.

[Anne]

MilNor is/was an American importer based in Cincinnati, Ohio.

I have found a copy of a Milnor Denby advert from a 1969 magazine (title unlnown) giving the company name and address.

Apparently the Milnor trademark as used on the advert was registered in the USA in 1969, but used from 1967.  https://uspto.report/TM/72314843

[Anne]

I've been hunting through newspaper archives to try and find out more about Millard Norman, and the following facts have been extracted from several newspaper articles about Denby from 1970.

13 March 1970 (Birmingham Daily Post)
The American importer of Denbyware for almost 20 years (i.e. since around 1950) was Millard-Norman (Milnor). In 1961 Lionel Simons, a London-born graduate of the Columbia Business School (USA), became the vice-president of Milnor, later he was its president and sole shareholder, and on its merger with Denbyware Ltd he became a millionnaire and a million-plus shareholder (25%) of the Denbyware group. Milnor's turnover between 1963-1968 was mainly from Denby products. 

13 March 1970 (Ripley and Heanor News) In addition to the facts as above, this article concluded with this information: 'The Millard-Norman Company ...  trades under the name "Milnor". It does not manufacture goods.'

14 March 1970 (Derby Daily Telegraph) An extra snippet from this article: 'Millard-Norman (Milnor) were ... the sole US distributor of Denby and Langley.'

So, to conclude, we now know that Millard Norman (Milnor) was an importer not a manufacturer and was the sole US importer of Denbyware.

That Denbyware contracted with an (as yet) unknown glassworks in Sweden to provide Denby glassware is clear from the advert I posted above and from the labelled examples of Milnor glass we have seen.

The next step is to identify which glassworks that was, and that might prove a little more difficult to establish, but I'll keep searching.