Topic: Royal Brierley millefiori.

[keith]

Now have two of these weights, wonder how many survived ?

[flying free]

That's interesting.  Do you know who made them?
m

[keith]

The canes are Murano, Royal Brierley cased them in crystal but from what I've heard they had problems and only made 50.

[flying free]

wow.  So fairly unusual.  I wonder why they had problems?
Glass incompatibility?

[keith]

Think that was the reason.

[flying free]

hmmm, that's something to think on.  If Murano canes were shared so widely (I think that's right?) but not in places where the glass used for encasing was incompatible I mean.
m

[glassobsessed]

The two glass types coefficient could have been incompatible but that seems an unlikely (amateur?) mistake to make. Perhaps another possibility is not enough time in the annealer, no idea how much more likely that is though...

John

[Derek]

Hi Keith

I have just read through this thread and the other one you posted about Royal Brierley. I agree the canes in this weight are Murano and the  canes were readily available as they were (and are) openly traded by the Murano makers.

Almost certainly the problems Royal Brierley had were caused by incompatibility of the Murano canes with the glass they were using. The COE for the two glasses only have to be very slightly different for there to be annealing problems. Some colours are more prone to this problem than others,  white being the worst offender.   Paperweights need longer annealing time than thinner glass products but this is usually only overnight.

You pointed out the connection to Devon and just over the border is Liskeard Glass. They were founded in 1970 and had links with Isle of Wight Glass. They made paperweights in their own name and many of the designs were made using Murano canes. They also used to make paperweights for other firms including the Yelverton Paperweight museum.   

Liam Carey started his apprenticeship at Liskeard Glass in 1977 and eventually bought the company in 1983.  He renamed it Merlin Glass and he now concentrates  on high end glass door knobs and furniture knobs. Interestingly some of his products still use Murano canes. Might be worth contacting him to see if Liskeard Glass had any connection with Royal Brierley.

Hope this helps

Derek

[keith]

Thanks for the information, I'll do some looking.