Topic: Lampwork lattice carousel / Merry-go-round - Unicorns?

[Chris Harrison]

http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-5289
http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-5288

I found this in the bottom of an auction box.  Discounted it as a piece of tat, then realised it was handmade and someone had put a lot of work into it. 

Plain glass thread lattice base and canopy, with with gilded highlights. The animals are a little bit weird.  I think they're perhaps unicorns...

It's approx 2.5" tall.

Sorry for the lousy photo. I need a new camera.  So I scanned it, too, to show the detail.

Can anyone tell me anything about it?

Thanks,
Chris

[catshome]

Hi Chris,

Not sure if it will help, but I have something similar - a Gondolier and canopied Gondola.......

http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/albums/userpics/10086/smallerDSCN0778.jpg

I suspect mine is a tourist souvenir - maybe Venice.  My feeling is that they are very modern.  I also have a vague idea that (I'm really sorry) Argos did a small range of glass lampwork ornaments a few years ago - I seem to recall a bird in a cage with some gold detailing.

Anyway, we might both get a nice surprise.  If I'm wrong can I blame the extra strong painkillers I'm taking as I've put my back out (again!).

Cat

[Frank]

Still learning on this stuff, I am sure that the lustring/gilding will give an indication about its origins - at least in time if not place.... one day.

[Connie]

I remember as a kid that every large amusement park in the States that we visited had a lampworker making these type of souvenirs.  I am fairly certain that the Disney theme parks still have them.

[Cathy B]

Connie's right, there were probably a lot of people making these things. The first piece of glass I ever bought was a similar lampworked bell made by a bloke with a blow torch and a bunch of glass rods at the Blessing of the Fleet ceremony at Ulladulla, NSW, in 1977. It lasted about 20 minutes before it broke into about a million pieces and I spent several hours trying to glue all the lacy bits back together. (I was only a kid!)

[Frank]

Tracking down some of these people would be useful because there are clearly techniques and 'ways of doing' that have commonality, though could have arisen in more than one place and also spontaneously. That a lot of people did this is not disputed and a lot of them were glassworkers that were stopped from working in a glass-works due to health problems. Health problems caused, in part at least, by the toxicity of the materials they worked with. Others are following a family tradition, Lauscha and holiday resorts.

[Anne]

There used to me a chap did these type of things who had a short-lived shop in Kendal. I don't know where he went to though after the shop closed.  There was also a lampworker in Brighton (t'other Anne knows of this one too) but I think he's retired as well now.  I have some of the latter's output... in fact, Frank, as they are cats and snowmen they ought to be visiting the Zoo!  

I'm also pretty certain there's at least one in Blackpool still... maybe we should have a thread to collect locations of these one-man band lampworker places?

[Carolyn Preston]

I'm also pretty certain there's at least one in Blackpool still... maybe we should have a thread to collect locations of these one-man band lampworker places?

I know they used to hang out at what we call The Stampede. The local annual summer agricultural exhibition/rodeo/summer giant huge party. I used to be fascinated by their ability to make such intricate things from bits of glass. (Seem to recall some glass blowing as well).

I now own one such thing in my Scottish kitsch  collection of a thistle, flanked by leaves with the top of the thistle and leaves in coloured glass.   

Carolyn

[Anne]

These are my lampwork bits... both from the Brighton lampworker. The cats are very dark purple (meant to be black) - one of his regular lines, and the snowmen were made especially for me - he'd never made those before but was apparently quite taken with the idea and kept them as a regular afterwards.
Cats:  http://yobunny.org.uk/gallery1/displayimage.php?pos=-230
Snowmen:  http://yobunny.org.uk/gallery1/displayimage.php?pos=-232

The only other lampwork pieces I have are...

my Murano neodymium elephants - of which there were four and are now only two.   My mother brought them back from one of her holidays for me.
Elephants:    http://yobunny.org.uk/gallery1/displayimage.php?pos=-231

and my two fauns, which I found in a charity shop a while ago:
Upright faun:  http://yobunny.org.uk/gallery1/displayimage.php?pos=-991
Reclining faun:  http://yobunny.org.uk/gallery1/displayimage.php?pos=-992
The reclining faun has a cute red nose so I guess he's Rudolph, and the standing one survived being knocked out of the cabinet where he lives, dropping four-feet down onto a quarry-tiled floor and escaped unscathed - which is more than can be said for the 2 liqueur glasses and 1 wine glass that went with him! 

[Frank]

Interesting one http://www.pierglassstudio.co.uk/ their work pops up on ebay as Pirelli/Murano