Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => British & Irish Glass => Topic started by: Emu on November 19, 2013, 12:25:48 PM
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Hello,
I wonder if anyone knows anything about this dish. We went to an auction a few years ago and bought a box of glasses for our own use ( wine, beer, brandy,tumblers etc) and this dish was in amongst them. It is grey on the outside and white on the inside. It is in perfect condition considering the way it was just chucked under the drinking glasses in a big cardboard box.
I think it dates from the 1920s to 1930s .
Any more info would be much appreciated.
Thanks everyone. :)
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oh I forgot to post pic of signature...
Here it is..
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Hi, there's a little more information on the board on Gray-Stan or Graystan glass and I know Nigel has some info on his site if you google Graystan or Gray Stan or Gray-Stan, or even Graydon-Stannus I think.
Whichever, your bowl is quite rare as far as I know but Nigel may have more to add on it if he sees this thread.
It was produced iirc around the late 1920's early 1930's (no time to look up specifics at the moment).
The glasshouse was very short lived but did make imho, some gorgeous pieces of glass :)
m
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is it possible please to post larger format pictures with better resolution - if you can re-size so that the first dimension is 700 then this will be very useful. thanks.
Regret I wouldn't know if this was Gray-Stan or not, but the shape is probably that of a powder bowl - there is something very similar in Dodsworth's 'British Glass Between the Wars' - page 43. It seems that Gray-Stan pieces do occur as colour cased over white, with a further final clear casing - it might help to know if this piece has a clear outer casing.
Are you there Nigel :)
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It is marked, Paul, and it certainly looks right for Grey-Stan.
I've not seen any in monotone before - not that I've seen much at all.
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you're right about the colour being very unusual Sue - in all the books I've just looked at there is nothing remotely like this - they are all rather bright pastel colours - but I know less than nothing about this particular studio.
The fact that something is signed is not always a guarantee of authenticity - however, I suspect you're right - at least I hope it's genuine, and perhaps a rare colourway. :)
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I think a faked Gray-Stan signature would be unlikely? The sig though small, looks right to me. The colour is lovely. There is a powder bowl in Charles Hajdamach's 20th Century British Glass in a different decor. Page 94
Please can you upload bigger pictures with pixel size 600x 400 so they an enlarge, particularly the side on one of the pot with lid on and also the pontil mark on the base?
Many thanks
Gray-Stan sometimes has more than two colours but I most often only see pieces with two , a colour and white.
The book shows a catalogue page with a variety of colours named after flowers and says probably an early catalogue and dates 1925/26.
m
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Thanks for your replies everyone.
I'm sorry that the photos are rubbish and they don't do the bowl justice. It looks a lot better in real life.
It is a lighter grey colour in the ''flesh''. There is a layer of clear glass encasing the grey mottling.
I will try and take some better photos of it tommorrow and try to get better pics of the signature and pontil.
I have seen some Gray_Stan glass on the internet when I googled it but they all seem to be vases and more colourful.
I haven't been able to find any like this bowl which I think is a powder bowl as Paul says. :)
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Hi all..
I didn't have time to post new pics yesterday. I took new photos today but not that good I'm afraid. It's the best I can do 'cos I had to take photos with my tablet and not a proper camera and Gray_Stan signature hasn't come out very well but I think better than the first photos I posted on here.
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....2 more. :)
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just as a matter of interest, you might like to see variations on the signature which have been recorded at various times - the first seems to be the example shown most often in books........ http://www.great-glass.co.uk/glass%20notes/mark.htm - so no hard and fast rule, although the hyphen seems common to these examples. The word British is also recorded, and according to Leibe and Hayurst there's a lot of unmarked material - known by comparison to existing signed pieces. But still can't find this colourway anywhere.
The powder bowl to which I referred in Dodsworth, is only similar in shape (not the same shape) , and the colour is differently completely.
I'd have thought we had someone here who collected this name.
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http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=40304.0;attach=72290;image
this is an image of a candle holder signature (was mine)
It isn't identical to any of the sigs you link to - I think op's looks similar to sig no 2, but to be honest, they are hand signed and so will not be a facsimile of each other but I still think it looks right.
There is glass online that also appear to have the solid white interior (which I'd not noticed before - I thought it was always streaky white?). - having just looked again they don't appear to be as completely white as this though - And then there is the clear casing is something else I hadn't come across.
There are collectors but I think only a few :) It's very rare glass and Basil seems to have quite a lot of it ;D
m
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your sig. looks more like the first, and possibly most familiar one, shown above - it has the consipicuous tails to the G and y, and with the word British is supposed to be post 1930..... but obviously several hands at work with this backstamp, so no reason to think it's not genuine. It's just the colourway that seems most unusual.
Sorry, don't know Basil - is he likely to comment on the GMB?
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http://www.glassfairs.co.uk/Exhibition/May13/exhibition.html
no I don't think he would.
However it was his glass at the National in May and I didn't take my camera. This is the only pic I can refind at the moment and none with that solid white interior :-\
m
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Just got the bowl out of the cupboard and compared the signature to the 3 examples Paul linked me to and it does look most like the 2nd sig.
I haven't seen the Dodson bowl aanywhere on the net, just books for sale but they are so expensive, 60 quid for a book!! :o
I do have a few old glass books but can't see anything like it in them, only the bright coloured Gray-Stan vase.
I'm really intrigued by it now. Hope someone on here will know about it and if it's rare, or a fake. I hope it's not a fake, but at least I will know and put mind at rest.
Just had a thought ;D....I been finding out about Elizabeth G-S and I read that she made Lalique style glass in France...What if Lalique , in retaliation or admiration, made this bowl in a Gray-Stanesque way?..... ;)
Ooer...think my imagination is running away with me!! ::)
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uhmmm very tasty..........but it's not the white interior I don't think that's the problem - but rather the grey outer colour that's so unusual. Just looked in Manly - but no help with grey, although a stunning signed piece made in the Venetian style (he says made without doubt by an Italian) - perhaps the same guy that made Basil's goblet :)
On the assumption the OP's is genuine, then whatever else, this piece has to be a very rare colourway - just can't find another anywhere.
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Just looked at Basil's collection on the link you posted Flying Free, his are beautiful, makes mine look horrible and dull, no wonder there doesn't seem to be any more in the boring grey colour!
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no I don't think yours is horrible and dull :o I think it's the absolutely perfect compliment to a selection of the colourful ones. Imagine it in that display. Grey is a very classy colour and perfect combined with brights :)
Paul did Manly have a name for the Italian glassblower at Gray-Stan?
m
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Mmm yes I suppose if was displayed with some nice coloured pieces and lights shining on them , it could compliment them perfectly.
It is now shiny though. I gave it a polish with a soft cloth and it came up a treat. :)
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There really isn't enough Gray-Stan around for it to have anything more than a very small collector base - it's very much a specialist sort of thing.
You have a suspicious imagination, Emu ;D ;)
but when it comes to Gray-Stan, it was Mrs. G-S who got into a bit of disrepute over the making of some "antique" Irish glass, I believe - not Lalique or anybody else copying her!
Her story is quite interesting, in a gossip magazine sort of way, but I'm not sure how much can be said in public in writing.
I can't imagine somebody faking a Gray-Stan mark, although I suppose it is getting better known.