Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass Animals & Figurines => Topic started by: WhatHo! on August 11, 2011, 07:48:04 AM
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Hi, i just found these 2 beautiful objects, they are both about 4 1/2" high and really well made. Can anybody give me a when, where, who please. Many thanks Wolfie
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Lampwork can be impossible to ID. It's been made (and still is made) worldwide for many years, as it only requires a hot enough flame and some simple tools. They don't look like Pirelli or Lauscha or any of the well-known makers to me.
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when I was a lad, at Southend-on-Sea (Essex in the U.K.) - especially during the summer months, these things could be seen being made by little old guys in small cramped booths along the sea front, and selling for probably something like a shilling (what's a shilling I hear you ask...........well don't). However, in recent months I have again seen them being made on the pier at Brighton (Sussex in the U.K.). I guess they have been made in almost every seaside town in the country, so as Christine says they are rather universal in origin. Mind you, how you tell a good one from the 'also rans', I really don't know. :)
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Hi,
Well one thing is for sure these were not made by a random guy on any pier.................... The quality is superb and on a par with the work of the highest skilled lamp worker.
Regards,
Patrick.
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Hi all,I was surprisingly disarmed by this little piece because this is not my thing at all!.It looks like I'll never find the maker but it may be from the same stable as the above because the leaves are done in the same way....or maybe not?I think it was made for a plinth rather than an unhappy accident ?any way have a gander and make your own minds up.
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Unfortunately your pictures are too tiny to blow up
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Yup,I'ts happened before but I can't remember how I solved it!
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I think I've worked it out?
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I think this maybe the beck hurst glass studio now on Eastbourne pier,from the limited information I can find it started in a back street of the town moving to the pier in1968.I'll try and find the full history,their plinths seem a lot smarter now.
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I am sure you are right , this looks very like Beckhurst's glass... what a lovely piece .😊
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Just need to find who made mine now :)
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Have you asked Angela Bowey if she can help Wolfie? She has a broader knowledge of lampwork than many.
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It was on the pier in Eastbourne, back in the late 1970s that inspired me to become a lamp worker. I was fascinated just watching it. The studio is still in operation and run by his Granddaughter (I think?) but the studio has moved along the pier. There was another based in Hastings and also in Brighton when I was in my early teens and even younger there was one based in Croydon, Surrey in the Kennards store (now Debenhams) The bases of these lamp-worked items will often lead towards Id, as most workers stick with what they've achieved and known to suit their requirements. The first post on this thread, shows a turned foot, which is relatively uncommon for these items, and it is this perhaps that will help to identify the maker, though as has already been said, it is close to impossible to put a name to many of these works and also dating them, save for their individual styles, such as long-spindly legs on animals for example. I used borosilicate glass myself, which back in the day was only available in uncoloured glass or insipid brown/amber, however it was much more resilient to fractures during the making and far more sturdy once a piece was produced. One could also produce the various component pieces and then quite literally melt them again to join the components to make a finished piece... But not always! The only drawback, was that gas & oxygen was required and a more substantial lamp other than those used with gas & air for soda glass... I wonder if anybody remembers (or even has) one of the many borosilicate ships in bottles with golden sails? I'm sure that any person on here that currently works glass at the lamp, will agree that its truly addictive and quite a buzz! As with like most artistic mediums, one is only as good as ones own ideas, no matter how technically brilliant one might be. I used to know several scientific glass blowers (like myself during training) that produced exact and precise glass products, but ask them to make a fish, a flower or an animal for example and they'd have difficulty doing it.
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Thanks Marcus. Excellent and interesting info, thanks for taking the time.