Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: Andy on September 03, 2008, 01:39:39 PM
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Pleased with this pretty thing, for a few pounds :D
Its 5 1/2 inches tall , pastel rainbow stripes, diamond quilted pattern, i think its called airtrap?
must be stourbridge ? Webb, S & W ? Victorian. Nice and delicate rim.
Ive found a bowl in Art Glass by John Schuman, page 149, without attribution, but amongst similar
other Stourbridge.
Any one seen pattern /style before, maker maybe?
Cheers
Andy
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Pages 78 / 79 of Manley's Decorative Victorian Glass cover item 183, a 13 inch (33 cm) high vase for which Manley wrote, "The makers of this piece I believe to be Thomas Webb, the date around 1890."
The colours of the one Manley showed and Andy's are, to my eye, just about identical. However, the colours, looking left-to-right, are blue, yellow, pink in the book vase rather than blue, pink, yellow as in Andy's - but that could just be a variation when made or maybe the book image is printed in reverse.
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Andy — Gulliver p.179 shows two examples of this vertical colouring on airtrap, one with the three colours reversed on a slightly different diamond airtrap, and the other with the colours as yours on a herringbone airtrap. Gulliver offers no attribution for these examples, nor (I think) for any airtrap other than Walsh Sateen, backed up documentary evidence discovered by Reynolds in the Sheffield archives after his book was published in 1999. See here (http://www.glass.co.nz/johnwalshwalsh.htm) for an example of blue Sateen.
These three could well have been by three different glassworks, not necessarily all English, and not necessarily excluding Walsh.
Bernard C. 8)
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Baldwin in Moser Artistic Glass discusses rainbow glass by Webb and Moser: "Moser rainbow glass is visually indistinguishable from rainbow glass produced by other manufactureres. To date, glass fluorescence has been the only positive approach to identifying unsigned examples. In the case of Webb rainbow glass, all examples tested exhibit a strong green fluorescence typical of uranium in the melt. This characteristic is not present in Moser rainbow glass." Blacklight time!
There are a few examples of Webb and Moser rainbow shown in the book, and to me it looks like the colors are a bit more subtle than yours, not quite so vivid... but it's hard to tell, and I don't have Gulliver or Manley for comparison. I'm not nearly expert enough to know this is actually the case, but I wonder whether the white cased interior wouldn't be denser and more opaque if it were Webb. One of the Webb pieces shown in Baldwin is cased dense white on the interior.
I've also heard that newer air trap rainbow glass has been done in Italy. Hopefully I'm wrong, but I sorta suspect this is an example.
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The Italian repros were of thicker glass than this, according to Billings:
http://www.glass.co.nz/rosebowls.htm
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According to the same article, "Authentic rainbow pieces, when they do show up on the market, are characterized by very soft muted colors. Reproductions, in contrast, have well defined colors."
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Strange, just noticed i didnt reply on this one , or thank anyone.
I was reminded , because i saw a similar rosebowl on ebay , listed as Mt Washington, possibly.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/320848777918?clk_rvr_id=316805838680
Im pretty sure mine is a good 19th Century example, i thought i would give it another showing, with a few new photos.
;D
Thanks all,
Andy
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I would not rule out the U.S. when it comes to air trap including the rainbow air trap. Phoenix Art Glass co. of Phillipsburg PA (1880-1894) was a major producer of this type of art glass & employed as the plant superintendent Joseph Webb, son of the Joseph Webb of England in 1883. I happened to have (at one time) one of their rainbow air trap pitchers. Ken