Topic: Is this a John Walsh Walsh preserve jar?

[Roz]

I think this may be a John Walsh Walsh pressed glass preserve jar. I haven't yet bought the JWW book, so I'd be very grateful if someone could check for me, and give me an idea of date. I'm guessing 1930s.

http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-7104

http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-7103

The jar is 9.3 cms tall, 7.5 cms in diameter at the base and weighs 320 grams. It has four very neat and nearly invisible mould lines, a starcut base, and beautiful crisp moulding.

The silver coloured lid is also giving me a problem. I have a book of hallmarks, but can't decide if this is in fact a silver hallmark. The portcullis on the left as you look at it has me completely fooled. The rest of the mark comprises "WH" (or possibly "WK") in an oval; a lion or possibly an "&" in a shield with a pointy top; then uppercase "B" and "P" in Gothic script in rectangles. The lid is 7 cms in diameter.

Can anyone help, please?

TIA,

Roz

[Frank]

The mark is for Brittania Plate, not solid silver... though they probably used the hallmark like marks as a mild deception.

[Sue C]

Hi, i agree with Frank, W.H. & S. B.P where plater's who made small items such as cuttlery, although little is known about them they also made officer's campaign cuttlery so your preserve pot could have come from an officer's chest.
Try www.silver-collector.com

[Roz]

Frank & Sue - thanks for the information on the silver coloured lid. That's really helpful. And the link to the military is absolutely possible - it came from a car boot in the vicinity of both UK and US military bases.

Am I right about the jar itself being John Walsh Walsh?

Roz

[Bernard C]

Roz — You are quite right.   The preserve jar is by John Walsh Walsh, and is pictured in fig.112 of Reynolds with a slightly different lid.   Note that the photograph has been reversed, so the caption reads wrongly.   I have a cube sugar in the same pattern, lower with just a single row of the pattern, and again it is very difficult to see the mould lines.   At Gaydon on Sunday I sold a huge and magnificent cut bowl in the same pattern, see fig.149.

We had a rather light-hearted conversation about this pattern on Sunday.   I suggested that it's not really Deco, nor is it Retro, so how about Transitional Deco – Retro.   Someone suggested Modernist, so we arrived at the rather less than crisp "Modernist Transitional Deco – Retro".   Great for eBay keywords, but not for clarity!

In the late '40s Walsh was really struggling to recover, and so introduced pressed glass versions of some of their patterns in an attempt to lower costs.   As you can see, they just could not sacrifice quality, so they still could not compete effectively with other glassworks, and their closure was almost inevitable.   Reynolds tells us that their cut glass department closed in 1949 and the whole factory closed in Autumn 1951.

You are fortunate in owning one of the finest examples of 20th Century pressed glass tableware, and rather more scarce than the smaller cube sugar.

Bernard C. 

[Roz]

Many thanks for such a detailed reply Bernard. It's a superb piece of pressed glass - in fact it's hard to tell that it's not cut and polished glass.

That one can now go on the IDed shelf!

Roz

[Bernard C]

Roz — I forgot to mention this pattern's designer.

I think it is fairly obvious that this unnamed pattern, along with patterns such as Ayr, Brendon, and Regent, comprising shallow cuts or engraved lines, or both in combination, were the designs of Clyne Farquharson.

I have to be a little careful here, as I have found that some have tended to assume that Farquharson operated in a similar way to Keith Murray, an outside designer.   With Royal Brierley / Stevens & Williams designs you can generally say by Murray or not by Murray.   Farquharson was not an outside designer, joining Walsh in 1924, and having an increasing influence on design from about 1930 through to the closure of the factory in 1951.   Had Walsh not chosen to market some of his designs with his signature and under his name, we may never have heard of him.

I believe he had some involvement in all Walsh designs from the mid 1930s, so it is not possible to say "not by Farquharson" for these later designs.   To what extent he was involved in any one particular unsigned design not from the Farquharson signed ranges we do not know.    But, as I said, there are certain design features that are obviously his work.

You will find authoritative material on this subject in the two lengthy articles by Roger Dodsworth in Volumes 1 and 3 of the Glass Association Journal.

Bernard C. 

[Roz]

Bernard - many thanks again. There is clearly a wealth of reading material I haven't yet started to consider. All in good time!

I am pleased to have identified the piece, and that my assumptions about Walsh being beyond my pocket are wrong.

Roz 

[Bernard C]

Just in — a superb and heavy retro vase by Tudor in an enhanced version of this pattern, cut, not pressed, and hand-polished.   Obviously by the Walsh cutting team.

... So the pattern continued after Walsh's closure.

Bernard C.