Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: Lucyinthesky on February 04, 2018, 11:23:25 AM
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I found this beautiful blown glass set but have no idea of the era or maker? It's of a high-quality, weighty glass with gorgeous purple hues and orange through it. Any clues would be most appreciated! Thanks!
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hi - welcome the GMB :) - regret that this later C20 art glass not my area though we do have others who are very good at such things - fingers crossed they'll look in soon. I suspect your pieces owe a passing nod to the 1940 - 50s 'Cocquille (shell) free form based on the original Swedish designs by Paul Kedelv - though possibly much later, and not necessarily from Sweden - they have been copied widely in the intervening years. Your description makes them sound almost good enough to eat ;D Assume they aren't signed?
But, my post was really just to ask if it's possible for you to re-post your pix in a larger size please - presently they aren't blowing up sufficiently.
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Excellent, thanks! :) Your advice is certainly a start - I see the bowl shape is indeed similar to Paul Kedelv after a quick google. Hopefully these pics are a bit better.
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If you google Murano stag vase you will see the one on the right although I would think it's Italian I have never seen one signed or with a label, very sculptural and collectable.
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Thanks! I did wonder if it was Murano. Does that mean Italian glass can often be unsigned?
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Yes hardly ever, very nice by the way, if it's a 60's one the base should be really scratched being very heavy.
All the ones I have seen Paul has mentioned have been signed on the base rim but I'm sure there are unsigned ones also.
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I might need Specsavers again, but it's possible that the lilac tinting to this glass means your pieces are what is described as 'neodymium' - if it is then that part of the glass which is lilac will change colour depending on whether it's viewed in daylight or under strip light (fluorescent tubing).
I think Christine has commented before that Murano production is often neodymium glass - I forget now, but tube lighting might be the grey response, and daylight is lilac - I think. :-\
Is this blown glass? should we call it something else perhaps - 'hot worked'?
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It certainly looks like the lilac is neodynium, does it change to a grey blue in daylight?
This isn't my area, but the twisted one looks more like a Chalet Glass shape to me than Murano.
Chalet is Canadian.
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They are part of the range sold by Davidson, I forget all the details but take at look at this thread:
https://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,41976.0.html
John
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Thanks so much for all of the replies! I've enjoyed unraveling the mystery of these. They do seem to be Davidson, don't they? Certainly the same shapes looking the examples. Suprised to find out they're British made. :) Fantastic, thanks!
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if you read to the end of that thread John, the conclusion seems to lack a definitive provenance for Davidson - it all appears to have become muddied. Do we know if the Stewarts confirmed the Davidson attribution as correct? - and were they involved in neodymium glass?
p.s. I know labels is labels etc., ...............but just for interest, and looking in McConnell's Miller's offering, he shows something very similar with that amber/yellow border - and quotes Czechoslovakia and the States, but not a hint of the word Davidson.
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I feel terrible now selling these years ago as Murano well done John a new thing learnt and almost unbelievable.
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Good Paul is a sceptic imported maybe?.
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The one on the right Some one has posted in a general glass Facebook site typical White back ground with copper avenrurine greens and silver I can't copy and paste the pick at the mo due to pixel limit.
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You are right Paul, did not have time earlier to read through that thread, just remembering Davidson. I can confirm that plenty crop up here in Britain, seen quite a few over the years. Fairly sure I had one that was all bright yellow, three prongs sticking up and spiralling around a bit, this shape:
http://www.20thcenturyglass.com/images/items/other_glass/misc_glass/otherglass_sculp01.jpg
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John - I wasn't trying to be clever or wise, since am certain you know 100% more than me about these Cocquille knock offs - it was just that the Davidson reference seemed not to come to a positive conclusion - but who knows, maybe they did import these things.
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None of us knows anything certain about who the maker is, that much is clear! All I can say about them is that it looks like they were produced in reasonably large quantities, they fit in very well with the current fashion for retro furnishings from the 60s and 70s. Much like the tall Italian decanters with the pointy stoppers their stock is probably higher now than at any time since they were manufactured.
Calling them Coquile knock offs is doing them a big disservice, they were not made to deceive they were produced to service an eager market, probably quite some time after Flygsfors went out of business too.
Far too often I hear similar, this is a knock off, that is a copy, nearly always rubbish in my opinion, every company will try and make products that suit the current market and fashion so no surprise if there are similarities. Fakes are made to deceive, the only glass example I can think of off hand are the paperweights with faked Paul Ysart signature canes. This is an entirely different dynamic to a seller claiming something is X when it is really Y, usually through ignorance or greed. Adding a fake signature does not make a given object a fake either, just the signature.
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thanks John - I take your point and stand corrected and promise I won't call them 'knock offs' again ;D Perhaps what I had in mind was that a signed Paul Keldev original might fetch a tad more than one of these unattributed and unsigned examples ............ In many ways a parallel situation to the free form low bowls originated, possibly by Per Lutken for Holmegaard in Sweden (his are signed), and subsequently made by the world and his wife - and again where the early signed pieces are now very sought after.
p.s. assume everyone knows what I'm talking about re this Lutken design - without a reference picture to hand.
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Perhaps I’m still no clearer as to who made these, but I’m certainly impressed with everyone’s knowledge and I certainly found it enlightening! Starting to appreciate the history of sculptural glass.
Forgot to add, that the pieces do have scratching on the base, which I guess shows some age.
A conundrum, but a very satisfying charity shop find!
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Google "chalet glass catalogue " you can see several pages all with similar designs no wonder it's confusing not sure if I could put the images on here. If so could someone put a link on or copy the page please.