Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: ahremck on November 07, 2011, 03:09:55 AM
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I have just noticed that two of my paperweights(unsigned and unlabeled), and a small blue vase - that I have asked about before - have a common design pattern. Each has been made with a neat irridescent spiral and then somewhere around the middle the spiral has beeen distorted to make "waves".
I am hoping :X: :X: :X: :X: :X: :X: :X: :X: :X: :X: :X: :X: :X: :X: :X: :X: :X: :X: :X: :X: (that is fingers and toes crossed) that someone recognises the pattern and can give me a possible maker. All are very well made and I would think came from a very reputable artist/studio but I can't seem to get a start.
Ross
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Matching pontil mark / base photos.
Ross
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????
Is called Orient and Flume ??? Not sure?? As a guess....?
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No, Rose, the style Orient & Flume made famous is called "Pulled Feather" . It is more likely to turn the whole of the spiral into a series of giant waves. This is different as only a small band of the spiral is altered.
To show you what I mean look at the following pictures. The first two are indeed Orient & Flume, a Don Richardson vase & an Abelman Oil Lamp.
Ross
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I know this won't be helpful, Ross, since I know you know his work far better than I do, but Colin Heaney came to mind....
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The only "Heaney" pieces I have had have been identified by "brewster" as Martini Glass. Unfortunately Martini Glass no longer exists. Also I have never seen more than the one
piece not signed by Colin - so I don't think so. The vase is so IOW in feel and size and approximates the shape. I suspect it is British and had a paper label now defunct. The paperweights have a different type of iridescence as well. It really is a puzzle.
Ross
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Ross it is a very long shot but there isn't the very very faintest of markings on your base of the vase anywhere that reads SHAKS is there?
The 'background' glass on the vase looks similar to pieces I have by Will Shakspeare. I don't think the base or pontil mark is the way he does his glass though, but they could be earlier pieces....as I said, just a long shot and his mark is so faint that you would normally completely miss it and need a magnifier to spot it.
m
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Ross, what a great puzzle! I agree your three items seem to be made by the same hands. While they are similarly decorated in the bodies, the shared characteristics are even more apparent in the bases. The bases have the same shape, the same finish of the spiral stripes, and the same treatment of pontil scars. Even the irridized colouring looks more similar in the pictures of the bases than in the main photos.
I'm confused when Ross says (in Reply #5) "The paperweights have a different type of iridescence as well." Does that mean different from the vase, different from each other, or different from IoW?
There are many reasons a work like this goes unsigned. I'm not thinking of production ware, which may be made by anonymous assistants in any case, but of items clearly intended as decorative arts. Some makers are reluctant to sign, for reasons of modesty or from a wish to acknowledge a shared production effort. I have read that of Michael Harris, although whether true I do not know.
Other reasons items that might normally be signed remain unsigned include error or forgetfulness, theft of unfinished stock, sales in the studio from stock, items deemed to be of second quality, etc.
It would help the detective work, Ross, if you could tell us where and when you acquired them. If bought online, the location of the seller(s) might help. Small items such as these can travel far from their place of creation. The distance is likely to be greater if they shared that journey than if they travelled alone and found you quite independently. Unless there is some reason to believe these items are well-travelled, I am inclined to focus on Australia as the source.
I agree these items are unlikey to be by Colin Heaney. There is a general inclination to attribute anything with this irridized metallic finish to Heaney. His output was so vast and varied it is unsafe to claim something is definitely *not* made by him, without good evidence, but sometimes it gets ridiculous. Items are often falsely attributed to enhance their sales value. I even saw one item recently that was clearly signed by another artist described as "Heaney era"!
I think Ross is saying that there are few unsigned items that can be reliably attributed to Colin Heaney. If so, I agree. Many of the unsigned "Heaneys" offered by vendors turn out to be something else. The only examples I can safely point to are the statue in the photo below (which was likely intended to be part of a larger work) and some of those wonderful flowers he made (in a bunch where some are individually signed and some are not).
Ross's items do not look at all like anything I've seen produced by Martini Glass (Tina Cooper and Mark Galton).
OK, so who made Ross's three related items? Even if the evidence of place and time suggests Australia there are a number of possibilities. Some of them may even have been working with, or for, Colin Heaney, or were by then independent artists who had trained with him. Another suggestion that fits better with the quality of workmanship is a contemporary of Heaney whose early work Ross discovered recently, namely Alan Fox of WA. However, I cannot find any examples of Fox's work with the same swirled decoration nor the fire-polished pontil scar. So the puzzle remains.
Trevor
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Even without answers to my earlier questions of where and when these items were found, I maintain that all three items come from the same studio, as indicated by the common design features I described earlier (as well as the obvious ones the OP mentioned). If I add the assumption of some independence in their paths of discovery, an Australian origin is likely. The subtle iridized surfaces then suggest particularly the Denizen Glass studio of artist Robert Wynne.
The swirled-trails motif does occur in Wynne's work. The familiar examples are mostly more subtle than the extensive swirls around the middle on the three items in the OP's enquiry (typically there are only one or two incomplete swirls on the whole item as a key feature of the design). However my reticence is ascribing the extensive swirls on the OP's items to Wynne is removed by spotting an example on ebay where the swirled trails are even more strident than on any of the original items:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Australian-Denizen-studio-art-glass-pink-spherical-vase-Robert-Wynne-/152351779619
That leaves the matter of the base finish, which on the three items in question is a lightly flame polished pontil scar with no grinding, stamping or signature. Denizen Glass items of a similar class have a variety of finishes, ranging from full grinding to a smooth surface with an engraved signature "Denizen", to a couple of different pontil stamps of the word and one of a dragon breathing fire. In those cases with stamps, there may also be some grinding to level the base, but often not. The bases on these items look like Denizen products, simply missing the pontil stamp.
I think it is worth asking Rob Wynne if they come from his studio.
Trevor
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I didn't see this post when it was first here.
I'd suggest putting Siddey Langley into the mix of potential makers. :)
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Well done Trevor you were spot on for two out of three (the paperweights), and nearly so for the vase. Here is Robert Wynne's response.
"Info :
1982-84 I studied at the Cal State Uni in Chico, California doing a post graduate in glass design. Whilst there I discovered the Orient and Flume Art Glass Studio ( My friend Roberta Eichenberg worked there). This studio became influential in my early “Denizen” studio lines during the mid to late eighties ( Back in Sydney) with iridencence and Noveau patternation being prominant.
The two paperwieghts were probably of my hand. If they were not stamped “denizen” then it would follow they were slightly imperfect (to me) as I was experimenting with different fuming techniques striving for bright peacock iridescence (blues, greens and gold).
The third vessel does not look of my hand. I could suggest Mark Gaulton as he was assisting me during the mid to late eighties and he loved surf and oceans."
Mysteries solved.
I would say he succeeded very well in his endeavours - here is a vase of his I have from the early 90s.
Ross
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Actually I was correct for all three pieces. I said the origin was "the Denizen Glass studio of artist Robert Wynne".
We should also acknowledge that the earlier suggestion of Orient and Flume has some merit as an influence, even if it was not the actual source of the items.
Trevor