Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass Trinket Sets => Topic started by: Bernard C on December 09, 2004, 10:59:30 AM
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A mystery of wonderful quality.
Small acid-matted pink pressed glass three pears bowl. Hemispherical, with three boldly moulded juicy-looking pears each complete with short pruned stem fragment (not how you harvest or prune pears) and three leaves, against an interwoven wattle fence background. Unsigned. Diameter 10.5 cm, height 5.9 cm, weight 270g (9½ oz).
Very fine detail, not British, probably French, Belgian, or other mainland Europe. The masterful use of very thick glass in places for optical effect, together with the overall high quality looks to me school of Etienne Franckhauser, whose clients, according to Baker & Crowe, included Sabino, Hunebelle and Lalique. Another feature in favour of a Franckhauser attribution is that each of the three side sections of the mould is different, with individual non-interchangeable vertical interfaces to each other, like his designs for Jobling's 2593 Three Graces comport and the random geometric Deco 2598 cigarette box and ash tray.
I've seen two others over the years, always a pure light pink. One was fitted with a silver plated rim, either original or added to conceal damage. I've never seen a lid, nor anything else in a matching pattern.
Any ideas? I'll post photographs if no-one recognises it from my description.
... and, what is three pears in French? My dictionary has gone walkabout.
Bernard C. 8)
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Trois poires
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Marcus — thanks.
Everyone — as promised I have put together some photographs. I hope that the colour reproduction looks okay to you — it should be a light pure pink with no hint of amber or any other colour.
See Three Pears Bowl (http://www.bernard.cavalot.btinternet.co.uk/e5623a/bulletin_board_gallery.htm)
Any ideas or comments?
Bernard C. 8)
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Bernard - I wish I could give you a definitive reply as to the maker - but truth is, I don't have a clue.
I saw your posting on AuctionBytes and note that Lou said "it could also be Czech They did some fantasic intaglio work". Hhmn, well yes, they certainly did do some fantastic intaglio work, but this baby is cameo - and HOW.
It's a fabulous bowl, but I have not seen it before. I know of a number of fruity patterns that are cameo (mainly from US makers, but also one or two from Finnish makers) but they are not as massive in execution as your fabulous pink one.
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Thanks, Glen, for your generous and helpful comments.
Your own and Lou's use of the words intaglio and cameo is completely new to me, as I understand these words as descriptive of cutting or etching production techniques, and have never used them in connection with moulded patterns. I would have more naturally used incised and relief to describe the pattern on a finished product.
Using these words for both purposes could cause confusion. For example, if the original artwork was a model from which the mould was cast, intaglio artwork would yield an intaglio finished product via a cameo mould. If the mould was cut directly, intaglio artwork would yield a cameo finished product.
Bernard C. :? 8)
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Yes Bernard. Right on the nail.
I used the words cameo and intaglio as Carnival collectors do. Most Carnival patterns are cameo on the surface of the glass, as you say, in relief. Proudly moulded - as your three pears are. The pattern was indeed cut into the mould so as to appear proud on the surface of the glass.
The opposite is the case for patterns that are "near-cut" - intaglio - incised.
Quite astonishing really - I never cease to be hugely impressed and frankly amazed at the astonishing skill of the mould makers who cut these patterns (in reverse as well, don't forget).
Glen
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I *think* that Lou was using the term intaglio to refer to glass where the design seems to be carved out from one plane of the glass- so the inside of the bowl in this case.
I can't tell from the photos but is the glass hollow or carved out in the pears and leaves? Or is it solid glass?
But I agree even if the pears are hollow this is much more than intaglio because the pears project out from the surface of the bottom side.
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:D Hello Bernard et al.
From your picture, it is very reminiscent of my Jobling lampshade:-
http://tinypic.com/5bwlrr
The very strong and thick texture and the colour. My lampshade is smooth inside, but the roses and everything else stand proud. Like your bowl, bits are very thick indeed.
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Connie, the glass is over ½" thick at the centre of the pears. To put it another way, the inside of the bowl is a smooth curved surface, unrelated to the relief design on the outside surface. Very much the same as your delicious Jobling Lambton Rose Pattern Bowl, Sue.
Bernard C. 8)
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I am wondering whether it only being found in pink is related to the use of both thick and thin glass for optical effect. Many colours would just not work properly. Any thoughts?
Bernard C. 8)
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*bumping up* Bernard, did you ever find out more about the Three Pears bowl?
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Bernard, I love it at first sight today! Following your information it is very small? Can it be Jobling then? Yes I would say after I.ve read more on Jobling here lately ;D
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pamela — No, it can't be Jobling, whose 1930s art glass is well known and fully recorded, including a few patterns that never went into production.
I am wondering whether it only being found in pink is related to the use of both thick and thin glass for optical effect. Many colours would just not work properly.
Eighteen months ago I was so close, but unwilling to make the final step to the explanation. If you look at each pear's profile from the side, you will see that they are slightly flattened. However, when you look at them from the front, they are mouth-wateringly real. Why? The answer is simply that a semi-opaque material like this pink glass gives the illusion of depth as it gets thicker. This should be easy to quantify. Suppose that this pink glass increases the real depth by 25%, then to produce a life-like sculpture, the mouldmaker has to reduce the depth of surface features on his moulding by 20% to compensate. Each different type of glass will require its own particular compensation factor.
So my conclusion is that the decision to use this particular pink glass was included into the design process from the outset. The mould was sculpted to work properly only with this glass.
Now, on to attribution. I don't believe that British/German/Bohemian designers and mouldmakers ever appreciated this need for compensation in the depth of surface features. To them, perfection was an exact miniature. You see this particularly in the breasts of their lady centrepieces, already suffering from unsympathetic packaging to re-shape them, and, by the use of glass, apparently increased in size.
The Franckhauser Jobling jade lady has quite different breasts, which are reduced in depth like the pears in the bowl, and retain their natural shape. The outcome is quite beautiful.
Information on French glass design and mouldmaking is difficult to find, indeed the only material I have found is that in Baker & Crowe. All the Lalique references I consulted maintain a deafening silence on Etienne Franckhauser. Yet it was the partnership of Lalique, the ideas man, and Franckhauser, the model or mould maker, that produced the amazing glass. It is quite likely that Franckhauser had competitors in France working to a similar standard, either in-house or freelance (or both), so it is not really possible to attribute the three pears bowl specifically to him and his workshop.
Perhaps "Le Style Franckhauser" would be acceptable.
Acknowledgement:
Grateful thanks to Jeanette Hayhurst. At a recent glass fair I bought a green Walsh/Douglas waterlily and iris bowl, the twin of BGbtW #114. On p38 of Glass of the '20s & '30s, Jeanette describes a vase in the same range. Her words got me thinking ......
Bernard C. 8)
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Bernard, the pears are important but I tried to investigate the basket also: obviously it's a 3 by 1 weave - which is not seen so very often... does this help historically? (I do not collect baskets I'm afraid :( )
:-X
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pamela — I had not even thought of the background as a basket. To me it was a fence, mainly because around here dessert pears are usually grown as espaliers grafted on to a semi-dwarfing or dwarfing rootstock against a fence or wall. Considered as a fence, the weave used is nothing particularly special.
Bernard C. 8)
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Recently encountered this bowl and whilst researching stumbled across this previous thread. Although the previous picture links are no longer active, the description sounds very much like the same piece.
The measurements and weight match the bowl of my example almost exactly. However my example does include a cover, with a relief moulded fruit design, consisting of strawberries, grapes, possibly cherries and apples.
Interestingly, unlike the other previous examples known in pink, this one is in green uranium glass.
If any further information has come to light since this thread was originally posted, I would be most interested.
Pictures attached....
Thanks,
Greg
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Handful of additional pics....
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Superb find Greg. For what it's worth I believe the 'fence' design is the same as that seen on what are known as willow hurdles round here.
m
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Greg, see Simba / Angela's topic also: http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,49108.0.html
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Thanks M, they are a lovely, pleased to have found this one still with its cover.
Thanks for the link Anne, I will take a look, much appreciated. :)
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I also purchased this lovely lidded pot with pears legs and fruity lid a few years ago, the base sadly arrived in two pieces but I will attempt a repair eventually. It would be good to find a maker. I searched it out here again to see if it was a candidate for Anne's GTS Mysteries as I purchased with the Powder Bowl/Trinket Pot idea, but as Simba quite rightly says in the other thread, it is likely a Jam/Preserve pot/bowl/dish/basket.
https://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,49108.0.html
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We finally have the maker of the pears bowl/ lidded pot. Was browsing the Sowerby catalogues on Mike Tomlin's excellent site and found the pattern on page 7 of the 1936 catalogue where it is listed as the 'Enid Powder Bowl'. Diameter is given as 4", and available colours are listed as 'Rosalin, Amber, Green, and Blue. Acid finish'.
http://www.victorianpressedglass.com/pdf/sowerby/sowerby_1936.pdf