Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: obscurities on December 27, 2013, 04:09:39 PM
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I apologize that this is a link only, but the poster is not likely to give permission for images to be used, so a link is all I can provide. I am curious about this piece of glass and possible sources.
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/109192-stevens-and-williams-art-glass-bowl-pin?in=user
This piece of glass is ID'd as Stevens and Williams and I am not so sure it is actually their glass. I am not super familiar with English glass as an overall so I am deferring to more well versed members in this forum. The one thing that bothers me the most about the example is the kind of cloudy ground pontil mark which I have not seen before on a S&W example that I can recall. I also see a lot of glass represented as S&W in the marketplace which I know is not theirs, but is Bohemian.
I am interested in thoughts on sources for this piece, or if the S&W attribution is correct.
There was some suggestion that it could be Bohemian, but the poster deleted those comments from their post.
Any info as to attribution or suggestions would be quite welcome....
TIA
Craig
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It doesn't strike me as being S&W, but there isn't that much documentation on their early stuff. I wouldn't like to say English or Bohemian, though I would perhaps learn slightly further to the latter. The only thing that really strikes me is that I would say it was made for the US market with those handles. And as for the rim comment...
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The horny bits on the handles look Spanish. The rest of its form is slightly Spanish-ly over-exhuberant too.
I thought the rim looked reminiscent of something in a seafood restaurant rather than a "signature" of S&W... ;D
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My penny worth...that very soft pink is quite distinctive,S&W do like pastel shades,alabaster for e.g so maybe, ::) ;D ;D
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soft ???
It jumps out and bites your ankles!
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I know it's your favourite colour, ;D ;D
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I'm curious about that pontil mark - would Stevens and Williams have ground a pontil mark and left it like that unpolished - likewise the base of the feet if you look at the last photo?
http://cf.collectorsweekly.com/stories/0wYubp7KrpMvHvu4kmmsqA.jpg
Not sure if it helps any as it's a small sample, but I have had two mat-su-noke vases and they both have had snapped off applied feet (difficult to describe) and both are shiny finished. The pontil mark is an applied raspberry on both.
I've had pink overlay cut to clear Art Nouveau piece also S&W, and with a polished pontil mark,
and also quite a few pieces of Alabaster and other Art Deco period pieces all with a polished pontil mark.
My pink cloudy also has a polished pontil mark as does my Caerleon vase.
So that pontil mark is a query for me, as well as the matt finished feet.
I have no idea about the rim comment on that thread? Is there some documentation somewhere that states that is a Stevens and Williams type rim or something?
Could it be an American piece? or is there something about it that would preclude that?
m
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I cannot say whether the item in the collectorsweekly page is or is not Stevens & Williams.
But I wonder whether many of the Victorian baskets and bowls (etc,) in opal & pink are attributed to Stevens & Williams on the strength of Cyril Manley's books.
Manley illustrated a few items having an opal coloured body with a pink inner and with the rim pulled over and down, extending the pink colouring mostly over opposite sides of the body. In the examples he showed, the "pulled down" section looked more like a deep "saddle" shape with a pronounced curve rather than a "shallow slope" extended around the entire rim.
Another point from Manley was that he considered that there was an "English" (or British?) and a "Continental" (meaning continental Europe) way of adding feet to items. Basically, he was of the opinion that separate foot elements indicated the English way.
So maybe when people, having referred to Manley's books, see separate feet (rather than feet worked out of a larger, single section of glass covering the base), they tend to think it is likely to be English. And if it is coloured in opal and pink, and the rim is pulled over and down, to any degree, then maybe the view is that the item is Stevens & Williams.