Topic: Modern(?) carnival glass fruit bowl

[Quackers]

I'm rather stuck on the maker and pattern of this modern bowl

http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-4361

I'm assuming it is a fruit bowl rather than a punch bowl - not sure if that is right   Height is about 110mm, diameter 270mm.  Inside is plain with a very flashy irridescence, the rim is gently scalloped and slightly waved - very soft looking as if the mould was really worn.  No marks to be seen.  Four-part mould from the faint mould lines.

Any ideas?

[Quackers]

Forgot to say it is a deep amethyst or maybe purple.

[Glen]

I'm pretty sure that's an L. E. Smith piece (Contemporary Carnival).

Glen

[Glen]

Sorry, forgot to give you a pattern name - "Heritage", "American Heritage" or (the ubiquitous) "Hobstar." And I'd say it is a bowl (not a punch bowl).

[Quackers]

Great, thanks Glen - do you know if L E Smith are still in business?  Their website  www.lesmithglass.com doesn't seem to exist anymore.  As this bowl has no base wear I'm assuming that it is really new, for some reason I'd thought European rather than American but there you go!  Glad to see it has some traditional pattern names 

thanks again

[Glen]

mmmm, I thought Smith were still up and running. They've been making some special pieces for Gary Levi in recent years.

I do know that Summit have closed (following the death of Russ Vogelsong). And Fenton are currently in shut down for three weeks (on the heels of a 2 week shut down in December). So maybe it's a temporary thing?

[Connie]

I think it is fairly common for the plants to shut down around the New Year especially if they have to do a large retool for a different product line.

The LE Smith site says they sold all their 2006 products and to check back for their new 2007 product line.

[Quackers]

Well I suppose it makes sense to shut down for a while to retool and stuff, but to take their website offline seems a bit drastic   I mean, I close my plant nursery to visitors for four months in the winter (they tend to complain about wading through the mud otherwise  ) but still take orders via my website and printed catalogue.

Connie - how did you find that out?  The website I tried to look at just has a yahoo business placeholder page.  (link above)  Fentons website seems to be fully up and running so presumably they made enough to carry on trading while they rejig everything.

[Connie]

I did a Google on LE Smith

L. E. SMITH GLASS
L. E. SMITH GLASS. DUE TO OVERWHELMING DEMAND, OUR INVENTORY HAS BEEN DEPLETED. REVISIT US IN 2007 - THE YEAR OF OUR 100TH ANNIVERSARY! ...
www.lesmithglass.com/ - 7k - Cached - Similar pages

I do agree it is strange to take down the entire website but maybe they are switching designers, web hosts, who knows 

I think that Fenton is in a different league.  They are better known with a huge collector base.

Another reason to bring a factory totally off line is for scheduled maintenance or upgrade of equipment which can be accomplished faster if production is stopped. This is a slow time, after the Christmas rush and before the spring line is released.

[Quackers]

The google cache works again, for some reason my google.co.uk search didn't give me the cached version  

I'll keep my eye on things and wait for them to re-open.  I don't suppose there is a collectors site for their glass?  I'm afraid I got tired of wading through pages of ebay results on gooogle.

cheers