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Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Unresolved Glass Queries => Topic started by: tecnogrrl on April 26, 2006, 05:52:36 PM

Title: Vase ID - Handblown
Post by: tecnogrrl on April 26, 2006, 05:52:36 PM

Hi -

I bought a set of vases at a garage sale and am trying to ID them or find out what they might be worth.  They are very unique, 7" tall, the top is 3" across.  There is no makers mark, but you can see on the bottom where it was held by a glass blowing thing, and the top "lips" have a clamp mark on them.

I'm sorry if these are to big, I'm new at this.

http://tinypic.com/wisfvs.jpg

http://tinypic.com/wisget.jpg  Moderator: Image gone



To explain the view of the tops, you insert a flower into the openings.

I do not know much about glass, but am trying to learn.  What period or type are they?   If anyone has seen such a thing, please provide info or let me know how to find more info, as I have searched thousands of pictures and cannot find anything like it.

Let me know if I can provide more info, this is my 1st post.

Thanks,
Tecnogrrl

Title: Vase ID - Handblown
Post by: Leni on April 26, 2006, 06:16:00 PM

I've seen these described as 'Crown Friggers'  :?   Some were made in the Stourbridge area I believe, but I don't know by whom.  I think they date from about the late 1800's.

Title: Vase ID - Handblown
Post by: Anne on April 26, 2006, 07:43:10 PM

I'd always understood them to be hatpin stands, but they would work for thin stemmed flowers also - perhaps freesias for madam's dressing table. :)

Title: Vase ID - Handblown
Post by: lucyw on April 26, 2006, 07:47:10 PM

I have seen these before, there were two tall ones, and a short squat one described as a 'stuart, ladies side table set.' Not sure what you would use the short one for though?
 They were priced up at £120 for the set.
 I have also seen the tall ones sold singularly described as stuart.
Hope this helps.
Lou*

Title: wow..
Post by: tecnogrrl on April 26, 2006, 11:17:58 PM

you all are on the ball!  I would have never thought of a hat pin stand, but that would work....I don't know as these are a pair though.   I will do some searching on that.

Ultimatly they will go up on Ebay, but I want to find out more about them and hang on to them  for a little while 1st.

Tecnogrrl

Title: Vase ID - Handblown
Post by: Cathy B on April 27, 2006, 02:03:18 AM

Just off the top of my head, and without knowing anything about what they might have been for, what do people think of the idea that the crowns acted as a sort of in-built flower holder (or flower frog)?

Title: Vase ID - Handblown
Post by: heartofglass on April 27, 2006, 07:28:00 AM

I agree with Cathy, the tops of these type of vases has always struck me as a built in flower frog or arranger.
I think I've even read this somewhere.....possibly in Gulliver's "Victorian Decorative Glass"
I think that the Stuart attribution is about right, c.1890s.
They're a great pair of vases! :)

Title: Vase ID - Handblown
Post by: Leni on April 27, 2006, 07:52:01 AM

I'd vote flowers, rather than hatpins!  Especially with them being a pair!  How many very long hatpins can one person have?   :lol:

Have you tested them to see if they react to UV?  Admittedly they don't look as if they would, but I have had surprises with glass of this sort of age!   :shock:

Title: Vase ID - Handblown
Post by: Anne on April 27, 2006, 05:53:48 PM

I think the longest hatpin I've seen was 12" or 13" long - it must have been for a heck of a hat !  :roll:

Title: Vase ID - Handblown
Post by: Pip on April 27, 2006, 06:49:24 PM

ooh can I just add my pennyworth here? Some hatpins were very long in order to be able to go into the hat, through the rather big hairdos of the day and back out of the hat again.  A short one wouldn't be long enough to anchor the hat down to a big hairdo ...  so it's not entirely ridiculous that these could have been hatpin holders.

Title: Vase ID - Handblown
Post by: David E on April 27, 2006, 09:22:11 PM

I can remember my mother having long hatpins that must have been this length – but I was small then... :roll:

Title: victorian...
Post by: tecnogrrl on April 27, 2006, 10:27:53 PM

so, the concensus is that they are victorian in any case?  The lower parts actually remind me of those cheap vases you get from florists, so I'm wondering if someone was practicing their glass blowing.  

What do you think of this theory?

Tecnogrrl

Title: Vase ID - Handblown
Post by: heartofglass on April 28, 2006, 07:50:40 AM

I've seen these vases written about as being part of a regular line for Stuart,
& possibly aimed at the cheaper end of the market?
The one I have is short & squat. It would make more sense as a possible hatpin holder than the tall ones, despite all the revelations about gigantic hatpins! :shock:
However, I've always thought of it as a squat vase, like a rose bowl, with the looped crown as a built-in flower frog.

Title: friggers..
Post by: tecnogrrl on April 28, 2006, 01:07:00 PM

OH!!!!  I get it now!  Sorry Leni - this yank is a little slow some days.

Heartofglass - Do you have any information you can point me to on Stuart?

Thanks again!!!!!

Tecnogrrl

Title: Vase ID - Handblown
Post by: heartofglass on April 28, 2006, 01:20:11 PM

Hi tecnogrrl,
The Stuart references can be found in Mervyn Gulliver's "Victorian Decorative Glass-British Designs 1850-1914", published by Schiffer books 2002.
An expensive but indispensible reference book with hundreds of colour pics & drawings from original designs.One of my faves.
Here's a link to the publisher's site;
http://www.schifferbooks.com/

Title: Re: Vase ID - Handblown
Post by: Frank on January 12, 2007, 04:40:20 PM

I have come across this topping in some French catalogues. One is Verrerie d'Art de Bendor 1970's-90's and another that I cannot recall, I had been hunting for this thread and it got highlit by another thread today.