Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => Scandinavian Glass => Topic started by: ElaineB on May 04, 2008, 07:48:15 PM
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Hiya,
I was wondering if anyone could help me with the name of this Kjell Engman bowl? Page 152 & 153 of Scandinavian Glass:Fire & Sea show similar named October & November and they also have birds on them.November seems very similar to mine.I'm guessing that my bowl depicts the migration of geese.
Perhaps it represents a Spring return? Maybe April?
It has the number 58462 on the bottom.
Does anyone know?
Many thanks
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Hi Elaine, I'm pretty certain that "October" was a range with bowls and vases having different motifs. Unfortunately I have no photo evidence to back this up. Perhaps someone else has..
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Hi: Your bowl is "November," which came in two sizes. 7" and 5 1/4". I'm pretty sure the bowl pictured in Fire and Sea is the "Nordic" bowl, which has blue in it. "November" is more beige and brown. The other difference is in the "November" line the birds are flying from left to right, and right to left in the "Nordic" line.
Hope this helps. Lovely bowl, BTW, and I don't see much of the "November" line.
David
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Hiya David,
Many thanks for that info but I think it may have left me more puzzled than I was before.Nothing unusual there then... ;D
Anyway,I've hauled the book out & I've got it in front of me just now. These books were not cheap but I guessed they were a wise investment.Both this & the Smoke and Ice edition have provided me and potential buyers with a provenance of origin on countless items and have more than recouped their initial outlay;I had assumed them to be very accurate.So do you think that the actual book description of the bowl could be wrong?
Bottom right of page 153 is a blue bowl with 4 birds flying from right to left,the description of it quoted from the book is:
"Boda 'November' bowl designed by Kjell Engman in 1982,with fire enameled impressionistic scene with birds,signed.Sweden Diameter 4_1/2in; 11.4cm
$150-200"
So do you think that the bowl pictured in the book is actually 'Nordic' rather than 'November' as is stated?
Regardless,it is a lovely bowl and all yours for a tenner bid ;) Got a good few watchers even though it is,as yet,somewhat nameless.However 'Nordic' certainly gives me a bit of solid info to work on.
Very,very much appreciated.All the Best,
E
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Thanks from here too, David. :)
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Hiya A40ty,
That's really strange! When I first replied to David your #1 posting didn't appear on my screen.I've just been notified by email about your reply a few moments ago :o
Anyway,a tall 'October' vase and a smaller cylindrical 'May' vase are pictured on p.152. The October one seems to represent falling leaves in Autumnal colours on a background of green & whispy white. There is a blue tree & the birds are blue too.They appear to be flying in different directions and I'm wondering if this is to represent the gathering or flocking of migratory birds for their communal journey South.It's total speculation though.My bowl & the book bowl could possible represent the months of actual migration and return journey of these birds...with them flying from r-l on one and l-r on the other.So I'm sticking with a month-type name,as both you and David suggested too.
But which month? I don't know...yet ;D
There is also the 'May' vase which seems to have no birds on it at all.There's just a single decidious tree covered in fresh green leaves on a pink sky with whispy white clouds.It's dated 1986 which is 4 years later than the others.Perhaps a different series altogether?
E
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The name "Nordic" confuses me, too, when the other sets in the series are called "May," "October," and November." I'm fairly sure of the identification, though, as I'm relying on The Kosta Boda Book of Glass from 1986 (which I'd recommend if you're interested in this type of glass). Looking at the catalogue numbers assigned to each set by Kosta Boda, "Nordic" has the lowest number, which I'm presuming is the earliest. I wonder if they introduced "Nordic," found it successful, and so started the month series. "October" seems to be the most common, followed by "May." I've never actually seen an example of "Nordic" outside the the Kosta Boda book.
On the subject of the Pina books, I've just finished recommending them to a person who was looking for the best general books on Scandinavian glass. I'd stand by that recommendation as this is the first minor error I've found in the two books. For a while there was a bit of criticism of Pina in some postings, mainly for her other books. There are some errors in Fifties Glass but she corrected them in Italian Glass and her books on Seguso and Toso are pretty good. There are some other good books on Scandinavian glass, but they are either very specialized or deal in very expensive glass, which is generally beyond my means. Pina's great strength is that she identifies glass that you are likely to come across. A part of of me would like them (the two Scandinavian books) to be more comprehensive, but then they would be huge and much more expensive. Pina and Vigier do a pretty good job of selecting the stuff you're likely to come across.
Elaine, if you got it for a tenner (on eBay I'm presuming), you did very well. I missed it completely and I would have bid more than a tenner! Greetings to Central Scotland, BTW, as I was born in Edinburgh and raised in Galashiels.
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Let me assist in clarifying this situation.
The Kosta Boda Catalog date June 1983 on page 146, pictures three bowls
entitled "Boda Nordic" designed by Kjell Engman.
The bowl comes in three sizes. The small bowl has birds flying left to right.
The larger bowls have two birds flying right to left.
Since each of these forms is hand blown by a master, the motifs can vary.
Hope this helps.
Bill Geary
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Cheers Bill.
Galashiels Langhaugh Laddie !!! I've listed it on eBay for a tenner ;)
And,I've just sent a box of Buchan Pottery to Canada and
I'm only about 30 miles from your birthplace.Take a wee boat from the Forth Bridges along the water and drop your anchor 10 miles west of Grangemouth and you'll find me there...but you knew that anyway ;D It really is a small world.
Aw the Best tae ye,
E
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I see you have a bidder already. I'll be watching it. I forgot you had the model number on the original post and that is the correct model number for the November bowl of that size. The first number, 5, is KB code for bowl, 4 is vase.
BTW Bill's book on Scandinavian glass is very good, too. It has everything I'd like to own but can't afford. I wish it had an index, though. Interesting that the picture he has of October is the mirror image of the picture in the Kosta book.
David
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Hiya A40ty,
That's really strange! When I first replied to David your #1 posting didn't appear on my screen.I've just been notified by email about your reply a few moments ago :o
That's curious! (Murky cyberspace, methinks)
But here's curiouser..and proof that the world is indeed a small place; get your wee boat out on Saturday, head back up the Forth and I'll meet you in Port Edgar for a cup of coffee! ;D
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Hi David
Thank you for your providing information on my book. One of the goals was to present production glass along with very expensive art glass ie. the images of "Snowball" and the "Bacchus Bowl".
The other theme was to explore what happened when artists not familar with glass came to the glassworks to design glass for example, Simon Gate, Edward Hald and Edvin Öhrström
All of the glass works in Sweden and Finland were very helpful in working with me on the project.
Bill
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Hiya A40ty,
That's really strange! When I first replied to David your #1 posting didn't appear on my screen.I've just been notified by email about your reply a few moments ago :o
That's curious! (Murky cyberspace, methinks)
But here's curiouser..and proof that the world is indeed a small place; get your wee boat out on Saturday, head back up the Forth and I'll meet you in Port Edgar for a cup of coffee! ;D
:o Curiouser & curiouser! That would be such a sweet escape! I've been forced,on the pain of never-ending earache,to get rid of 'all those boxes in the shed'.So I'm Kinross booty bound on Saturday.I might even make enough profit to pay for the coffee ;D
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:o Curiouser & curiouser! That would be such a sweet escape! I've been forced,on the pain of never-ending earache,to get rid of 'all those boxes in the shed'.So I'm Kinross booty bound on Saturday.I might even make enough profit to pay for the coffee ;D
Have a good time! :)
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Congratulations on the price you got! (I say that with an itty bitty tear in my eye.) It seemed a good bit higher than what an October or May would have fetched so it must be fairly rare.
David
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I know it's an old old thread, but here's a much smaller size (55x65mm) from the series, model 58056: