Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass Paperweights => Topic started by: chilternhills on August 12, 2015, 12:50:35 PM
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I have come across a globe paperweight that is signed using a diamond tipped pen 'Sam' with a vertical line each side of the signature. Could this be Sam Herman? The seller claims it is. I don't have access the the PW to provide a picture. It has a 'spotty' design with a smooth, unmarked base (other than the signature). Thanks for any feedback.
Anton
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I think I have seen one paperweight by Sam Herman at a fair (it got sold before I got to it, I only caught a glimpse!) but it was not a typical pwts sort of shape - it was a massive flat, thick, disc sort of a thing, decorated internally.
I really couldn't say anything about a weight with just "Sam" written on it, especially without seeing it. :'(
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It's this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sam-Herman-Former-Isle-Of-Wight-Glass-Gold-Leaf-Studio-Glass-Paperweight-/311418516694?hash=item4881fd74d6
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The writing looks a bit clearer than the 4 signatures I've just compared it to. But there are only 3 letters to go by, the signatures all vary themselves. I've not seen the use of just "Sam" on its own before.
I am no sort of "writing" expert.
Sam Herman was not "formerly at IoWSG".
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Here is a link to a very similar example that sold back in June, which is signed 'Sam Herman Studio 1981'
Assuming the signature is correct it would have been produced at the Lots Road studio in Chelsea.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/400930403472
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It's marked Sam Herman Studio Glass but appears to be signed MW ???
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Exactly, it's marked "Sam Herman Studio glass", that is not the same things as a Sam Herman signature, and it doesn't look like his writing, not compared to the 4 signed pieces I have.
Greg, you surely must have more than just 4 signed bits? (sulk ;) )
I'd agreee with Lustrousstone, it's been initialled MW.
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I'm with Sue on this one (no surprise there!). It was quite common at the Jam Factory glass workshop in the 1970s for others to sign their own exhibition work and also mark it with an acknowledgement of Sam Herman as the leader of the studio. See three such examples with their inscriptions here:
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,50103.msg283097.html#msg283097
I agree the example in the link offered by Greg doesn't appear to be marked in Sam Herman's handwriting. I also haven't seen him sign his work as "Sam Herman", but always as "Samuel J. Herman". I suppose he might have adopted the less formal version later than the examples in my experience. Is there any evidence of that?
Trevor
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Just checked, Trevor. My "National Treasure" is marked;
Samuel
Herman
1967
above the pontil scar and
London
107
under the scar.
All the words on seperate "lines".
No J, and that was '67. All my others are the full Samuel J Herman. One is additionally marked SA 81.
Jammy. ;)
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Can we completely discount other makers.. I am thinking Sarn and Sark glass. I have a Sark Glass mushroom where the Sark Glass signature has the word Sark looking more like an 'n' than a 'k'. Admittedly it has the word Glass after the word Sark, but for ages I thought it said Sarn Glass. I'll try to dig it out of the collection and show a picture of the base.
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There's been another one on ebay in the same series as that shown above by Greg. The blurb in that listing (whew!) suggests the seller is more confident of its origins by the hand of Sam Herman than I am.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/282267471432
The single word "Sam" on the OP's specimen appears to be in the same handwriting as the other two (Greg's plus this one).
Based on what I know of Jam Factory practices and markings 1974-77, my conclusion is these paperweights were made by someone with initials MW who was working under direction in Sam Herman's studio in 1981.
Trevor
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You read all that blurb? Trevor, you are a braver man than me, over the years his excessive wordiness has reached legendary status amongst buyers.
John
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;D
I wilted well before a tenth of the way through.
I had started off determined to get to the end. ::)
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I think the seller (or their assistant) deserves some credit for correct use of an apostrophe for the possessive form of at least some of the words that require it.
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I do sparse, laziness probably but could those reams of text be seen as an art form of their own?
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A frustrated philosopher?