Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => Malta Glass => Topic started by: Ruralcouple on May 12, 2017, 08:14:34 PM
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Hi all,
I'd appreciate some of your expertise. My husband has been carrying out house clearances for many years; he is a hoarder of anything old, interesting, signed or unusual! Amongst his hoard is what we think to be an Ice Cut vase, signed 'Michael Harris, Mdina Glass, Malta', this was an item from a house clearance my husband carried out several years ago, the owner was an elderly lady who had obviously collected fine items throughout her life, she had an appreciation of arts, music, painting and glass. Shortly after acquiring the vase and being quite ignorant to the history we learnt a little about Michael Harris and were/are quietly confident that this is a genuine piece. We did list it on ebay a couple of years ago, with a good reserve, it didn't sell, thankfully as my husband really likes it! We don't display it, just store it carefully! We would be really grateful to receive the input of the people on this site; I'm having problems uploading photographs but will keep trying. Any input will be gratefully received .... thank you.
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I have managed to upload a photograph of the base of the vase - the signature ... really looking forward to your feedback... thank you!
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Another photograph...
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Another photograph....
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Photograph...
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Look right to me,looks like a really nice piece,I'm no expert though.I'm sure if you re list it again at the moment it might sell better than a few years ago,my partner has a decent sized collection of mdina mostly packed away now,shame really as all things should be appreciated not just stuck in a box.get it out and enjoy those colours.
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Thank you for your response. You are right, it is a lovely piece and should be displayed in its full glory, however, our home is being renovated and we have a house full of pets so putting such a beautiful piece on display could result in it being damaged, we'd never forgive ourselves if that happened! We truly appreciate it's beauty and know we're not going to be able to show it like it deserves to be, we'd like to pass it on to someone who will appreciate it daily but in the meantime we're enjoying finding out a little more about it!
Thank you again for your input.
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Hi all,
I thought it might help if I added the measurements and weight of the vase:
It is 224mm high and 192mm at it's widest point (measured with a tap measure so may not be mm perfect). It weighs 2051 grams.
One side of the vase has a mottled effect, like rain on still water (beautiful); the other side is polished smooth with a definite centre line giving a left and right perspective.... the more we look at it the more we love it!
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:) It looks absolutely right to me. It is an Ice-cut Lollipop. The signature is right and the glass itself is right.
It's also a reasonably heavy piece, it shouldn't get knocked over by pets, unless they're very boisterous and/or prone to climbing on your shelves.
You can buy little gel pads to stick on the bottom which make them far more secure - which also helps prevent scratching the base more when moving it and protecting the mark on the bottom.
What about putting it on a mantlepiece? Admitidly, you won't get the light behind it, but it's still better than not having it out.
You don't want to lock it away and not see and enjoy it. ;D
I'm pleased to hear you do like it so much. There really is something very special about Michael Harris' own work.
I particularly love the expression used by one of the chaps on antiques roadshow to describe glass.
He described it as "the fossilised breath of the maker".
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Thanks Sue, my husband was left a lovely oak & glass display cabinet, by his grandmother. He has a plan to display all his pieces in that, unfortunately the home renovations have been slow going due to a busy work life; he has recently been ill and not so active so started going through some of the collected items with a view to valuing and potentially selling on. My husband found this site and asked me to put our vase 'out there' to gather the views of enthusiasts and collectors regarding the authenticity and I must say we're pleased with the responses so far, with your experience would you consider this to be an early (68) or later (72) piece? .... it seems we may have a genuine Michael Harris item, like you said "fossilised breath", it adds another dimension to a beautiful piece.
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Probably a bit later than '68, he had to learn how to make something this big and complicated.
He's had a little go at working with hot glass on a visit to Rudolfa Hut in '64, and when Sam Herman came over to the RCA in London to bring hot glass working to the UK from America, Michael had a few more goes, falling madly in love with it before deciding to go off to Malta to set Mdina up.
He was basically pretty much self-taught, learning as he went along.
It normally takes about 10 years to train enough to be a proficient glass maker, but Michael Harris had a special talent for it.
So it is most likely to have been made nearer to the time he left rather than at the beginning.
It's still early Michael Harris Mdina. :) All his work from Mdina is "early".
Getting old brings a lot of baggage with it, doesn't it?
My own signed Ice-Cut Lollipop is not on my "get rid of before I pop my clogs" list. ;D
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Hi, and welcome to the group.
Your vase is VERY beautiful and I would like to ask before you finally sell if you could contact me because I will probably be able to top all offers.
I live in Chepstow so could possibly collect from you?
I have a later example that is unsigned.
Best wishes .
Patrick.
Ps, I think you can send me a private message from here. clicking on the LH side envelope symbol.
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Thanks for that information Sue, I appreciate you wanting to hold onto your piece! We are considering selling ours on but to be honest, Patrick, we have no idea of it's true value ::) Your piece is a stunning example Patrick.
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Your piece is a stunning example Patrick.
Sadly it is not in the same class as your piece.........
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This is mine.
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They are all beautiful in their own way aren't they Patrick? I appreciate the added value of HIS signature though! Sue your ice-cut lollipop vase is stunning (do I sound as if I know what I'm talking about? I really don't know what 'ice-cut' means! Can you enlighten me? Also, what is faceted? I wonder if the polished side of ours is faceted... any clues gladly appreciated!) Thank you both.
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:)
The facets are the two smooth front surfaces which have been cut and polished to make them smooth. It is probably a bit lumpy on the other side, that would be from when the final round blown hot blob of glass on the end of the blowing iron (pontil rod) containing all the colours is taken to a flat cold metal surface (called the marver) and pressed against it to make this lollipop shape.
It would have been pressed to the marver twice to make the angle on the front, once on the back to make it flat.
Then the angled side (and the base) is cut and polished, cold-worked, not hot worked.
That is labour intensive stuff.
It's just called a "Ice-cut lollipop". Presumably because after cutting, you can see clearly through the glass, like good, clear, sharp ice.
Lollipop, I suspect, just describes the shape - round and flat, with a stick bit. ;D
They did make lollipops without this double flattening into an angle on one side, so the name is to distinguish what sort of Lollipop it is.
This can be further confused, by the lollipops which were shaped to be "Cut-ice" ones, but somehow ended up on the shop shelves without being cut and polished, so the surfaces are not all smooth. ::)
Theoretically, that would be an "uncut Ice lollipop"
Early on, how well something got finished off, or whether Mdina was written on the bottom, depended very much on how much stock was on the shop shelves and if somebody was available to do the "finishing-off bits" of work.
If the shelves were empty and nobody was available, unfinished-off work got sold.
It was really, really popular, right from the start. They had trouble keeping up with having enough stock to sell.
I'm all pleased for you that you really have got a treasure here. That is always a big bonus on top of liking it. 8)
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Wow Sue, thank you for all that information, it truly is fascinating isn't it? I certainly appreciate the amount of work that went into our 'ice-cut faceted lollipop' vase and fantasise that it was indeed Michael Harris himself who put all that effort in.
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;D The "ice-cut" is the facetting. It does not need to be called a vase, because it is a Lollipop. "Ice-cut Lollipop" is its full title. :)
You do not need to worry or fret or to fantasise. It really is absolutely 100% an original Michael Harris piece, made and signed by him. Not made by somebody else with his signature, it really is his "fossilised breath".
We can ask Mark Hill, the author of the book on Mdina (and the young Antiques Roadshow expert on glass and retro stuff), to confirm if you'd like, but he'll agree. 8)
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Thank you for your explanation Sue, that makes sense, I'll drop the 'faceted vase' bit ;D I did come across Mark Hill's book and thought of contacting him (mainly to authenticate, value and potentially identify sales market) prior to joining this forum but couldn't find contact details, collectors, like yourself, are a valuable source and your comments mean a lot, thank you!
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Mark is a member here, but he doesn't pop in very often.
This is a link to the page from his website, showing pictures of the launch of the Mdina book. That's me in the very bottom picture, with Mark.
http://markhillpublishing.com/tv/past-events/mdina-glass-book-launch/
I see that he is no longer in a position to be able to answer queries from the public, freely. If he did, he'd never have time to work or earn a living. :)
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Lovely to meet you Sue! What a great opportunity to meet with Mark Hill, such a shame he is no longer available for personal queries but totally understandable.
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It was a complete set-up. ;)
We knew each other before, because of our shared love of Michael Harris' work.
He has been known ask me for my opinion about the identity of Mdina. ;D
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< bowing down.. lol... your opinion is obviously highly valued Sue, I may end up asking you too many questions! Do you know if there is a record of the number of signed ice-cut lollipops or is it the unknown?
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:-[ :)
We don't know. There are a few out there.
You have to consider there was only so much work he could have done in the short 3 years he was at Mdina, he had to get good enough to make such a complex and big thing. He did not like signing things. He felt the art should be able to speak for itself. (personally, I agree. ;D) He only did it when asked by the buyer, or for export to the States, where they sort of insisted on it.
I believe that there were certain items he did sign in a small experiment to see if they sold better, which may have overlaped a bit with the American import insistence.
Those tend to be Ice-Cut Lollipops and Japanese Globes.
So finding a signature on an Ice-cut Lollipop he made is not entirely unexpected.
The really unexpected thing is finding an Ice-Cut Lollipop he made at all.
We have tried to count some of the scarcer things. I think we're up to there being around 40 Crizzle Stones known, and around 9 teal-strapped Amethyst "Club" bottles.
I imagine there are more Ice-cut Lollipops than Crizzle Stones, which are still considered to be one of the scarcest and most desirable pieces.
There are others here who know lots about Mdina, Mark is happy just to leave it to us. :)
The whole purpose of the board is to discuss and find answers to questions about glass. Without questions, there is no point in us being here.
Please, carry on! :)
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Thanks Sue, that makes complete sense to us; the person who owned the lollipop was an artist (she passed away in her 90s about 3 years ago), she owned a considerable amount of glassware, Mdina, Murano and other signed pieces, she also had a vast book and vinyl collection - she had some rare pieces, signed by conductors and authors. We can imagine her visiting Mdina, or even personally knowing Michael Harris, and obtaining a signed piece directly from him. My husband and I had no previous knowledge of glassware until coming across a few items and really appreciate you sharing your knowledge with us.
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Please, do go through all the glass you have and bring it to us here, we'd love to see it and to help you learn more.
We might turn you into complete glassaholics yet. :)
We've got lots of techie. info and help here,
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,34093.msg362679.html#new
to help you with the photographs and the resizing. You can put 4 images in each post, just click on the bit under the Browse button where it says (more attachments) and another Browse box will appear.
We were all new to it once, I've learned most of what I know from this board. :)
It is true that Michael Harris knew many of his contemporary artists, and I know he made a piece for Helen Munro-Turner. It is quite within the realms of possibility that he may have even made this for your artist lady.
What was her name, or is that private?
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Thank you Sue, apologies for the delay in replying, we have been sifting through paperwork to try and confirm the previous owner's name, we went through solicitors and have not yet been able to find her name, some of her paintings were signed by 'sourbottom' or 'soggybottom' or similar, they, along with a lot of glassware, were snapped up by others before us. We will keep trying though.. we know have some Murano so will share that with you when we can. Regards
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Thanks! Just whenever it suits you. We'll be here. :)
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Mod: Ruralcouple's other glass items are now being posted individually.
If you are a registered member and wish to view all their items, more or less together, click on their username, then "Show Posts" (Sorry, but Guests do not get that privilege).
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[Hello All! It's been such a long time since we posted our photographs and sought your help in identifying the Michael Harris vase.., the vase remains wrapped up and stored but we have decided to let it go, so someone who will appreciate it can enjoy it. Thanks to Sue's original advice and comments we have been in touch with Mark Hill who has confirmed he would like to include it in his next auction in April, we're in the process of making those arrangements now - just wanted to let you all know.... Many thanks again for your help. ;D