Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: Roz on July 18, 2019, 09:16:13 AM
-
I wonder if anyone here can help with this glass bowl? I have a set of one large and 8 small. The large is 25 cms (9.75 inches) in diameter across the top. They are so much like Frank Thrower's designs that my immediate thought was Dartington, but they aren't in "Dartington Glass - The First Twenty Years".
Thank you in advance!
-
I saw a large shallow one of these the other day and wondered the same thing. My thought was that it lacked the "brightness" of my Dartington daisy bowls. It will be interesting to find out what they are.
-
It appears to have the sorts of "cut-outs" found in punch bowls, so that glasses can be hung from it.
I don't know if Dartington did a punchbowl version of their daisy design. ???
Hi and welcome Roz. :) I don't think we've "met" yet.
-
The shallow bowl had the same finish on the rim.....but was only around 3cm high (from memory).
-
Thanks to both respondents! I was active on here a few years ago, and then went back to working full time, so it became less important to keep checking in. However, in response to the suggestion that this may the Daisy pattern, it's definitely not. I have Daisy bowls and they are quite different. BUT, the texture on the outer surface of these cut-out bowls is identical to the texture on the outer surface of Daisy.
On a different note, these would have been time consuming to produce as the cut-outs on the rim have been done by hand while the glass was still malleable. So I wonder if this was a prototype design which didn't go into full production on the grounds of it being too costly to make? Finally, I'm fairly sure there's a fair proportion of lead in these, as some of the smaller bowls have little scuff marks where they've been nested into each other for storage - and plain glass wouldn't do that.
-
I'm not very helpful or knowledgable about Thrower's Dartington stuff. Sorry. :-[
I do see stuff that can look like it but am never terribly sure. I was only making a vague suggestion about the general construction. Not claiming to actually know anything, whatsoever. ;D :-[
-
Roz I remember you from before.....it seems a few of us are back. I have spent the day trawling the Internet and not found a single match, so your thought that it was too costly to produce may well be right. Perhaps the piece I saw is the stand for your bowl! I will see if it's still there tomorrow. I looked at Thrower designs for Wedgwood, checked all the Scandinavian obvious suspects, even found something similar from Rosenthal which surprised me. Have also ruled out Ravenhead. Checked over 600 images on eBay. Not a waste of time at all, as I managed to identify three of my pieces and find two eBay listings for items I am trying to identify but sadly the sellers don't know what they are either. Also went through all my Scandinavian glass books.
I am officially stumped!
-
Aw, thanks Cat! You've covered the ground I've already covered, but probably with better resources on the Scandinavian side. I really am grateful. The book by Linda and Stuart Smithson is the best reference for Dartington _ I gave its title in my first post. It includes the Thrower designs for Wedgwood. And there are some intriguing missing FT design numbers …….
I'm still inclined to think this is Dartington. I'm going to give this ID request a few more days on here to see if anyone can come up with any more suggestions, and then I'll try contacting Dartington direct. It's been sitting on my "pending" table for about 10 weeks now, and it needs resolving! ;)
By the way, is the shallow bowl you've seen the Hollywood bowl? It doesn't have the cut-outs around the rim that my set has.
???
-
No.....not Hollywood. Now that I have it, and have given it a good scrub, it is fairly bright crystal. Also, notice it has a faint iridescence on the bottom - shows purple, green, gold in artificial light. It definitely doesn't have the weight I associate with Dartington pieces such as the Daisy range - maybe they tried a lighter/lower quality range? Had a thought about Blenko but, again, no. I can see what you mean about the "softness" of the glass, but not something I've seen on Dartington…..even when I stacked eight Daisy grapefruit bowls in one tower to save space!
Apologies pictures are taken on the hob.....couldn't quite manage to assemble the lightbox tonight. That said, I'm loving the last one......very "glass catalogue" effect lol. 23.5cm dia. 4.5cm high.
Had to laugh when I read about your ten week wait. As I go through the pain of downsizing, I'm unpacking boxes of mystery items accumulated over forty years - some of the boxes haven't been opened in fifteen years (that's the only reason I didn't buy it in the first place just to find out about it) If I'd only had to wait ten weeks, I would have been over the moon! I must admit it is much easier to identify things now than it was when I bought them and, when I am ready to give up, there is the awesome GMB.
-
Ooh! It is the same as mine! I've just compared one of the small bowls with my small Daisy and small Hollywood bowls. The mystery bowl is lighter, and the material itself is more yellow in tone than the Dartington bowls. So perhaps it's not Dartington after all - unless, as you say, they experimented with a different crystal. Thrower was also involved in the design process for Bkorkshult, a factory producing glass ware for Wuidart. Is this where we should be looking for answers?
And I'm with you on unpacking boxes from years ago. My long term storage facility (aka the shed at the top of the garden) has yielded some real treasures recently!
:D
-
Bjorkshult was a new one on me......and now that I've had a very quick look I can see it may be the answer to a few of my mystery pieces.....as well as a decanter in the same place the bowl came from! Am going back for another look......
-
On the bad news front......I don't think it's Bjorkshult ...... But good news from a look at Wuidart.....I appear to have a large whitefriars Wealdstone vase in one of the boxes......unless I donated it a couple of house moves ago as it was so big and heavy 😹
The search continues......Roz, I do hope you're having as much fun as I am!
-
Every time I look at it I think "Viking" ......nothing for Viking glass.....
-
I think "Waves"! The cut outs remind me of that famous Japanese painting of waves.
I methodically went through all the Scandi manufacturers I could think of once I realised it wasn't in the Smithson Dartington book. And then I stopped looking because I have a business to run, and this will eventually get identified, probably while I'm researching something else entirely! I've put the question to two forums on Facebook, but they haven't been able to help either. I'm so pleased that you bought the bowl in that pattern - it means that at least three sizes of bowls were made, so the prototype theory begins to look less likely. Incidentally, some of the Rosenthal crystal designs are great aren't they? I only think of Rosenthal as a porcelain manufacturer - I need to be more open-minded.
And I snagged a gorgeous pair of Davidson amber cloud glass large plates yesterday. I've never seen cloud glass as a plate before, only as flower bowls and dressing table sets. Still learning!
;D
-
Hi Roz. I know what you mean by the Japanese waves .....always amazes me how the same thing can evoke very different thoughts.
Following your earlier comment about missing FT designs, I was hoping you might have heard from Dartington, even if it only ruled them out completely.
I can't recall seeing a large round cloud plate either, so two at once is brilliant. Big fan of Rosenthal crystal designs, but even bigger fan of their porcelain.....including the Karner kitten I shouldn't have bought this week but couldn't resist. I did consider Rosenthal for our pieces and I wonder if you spotted their Studio-Linie (not a mistype) petal bowl? I was put off by the slightly more pronounced foot rim. It did occur to me that it might be worth finding out who designed it, and it appears to be Claus Josef Reidel (see link)
https://www.etsy.com/listing/563658811/rosenthal-studio-linie-crystal-petal
Not had a chance to follow up yet, but will probably do that later. I remain convinced we will crack this one and, in the meantime, I am learning heaps!
-
Riedel (not Reidel as mistyped above) Looks like another dead end......but it did lead to a labelled example of another piece I had posted!
-
Roz, I'm beginning to think we have the only pieces in existence.......are you anywhere around the south coast UK? Every time I see a petal bowl I trawl the rest of that makers' pieces, and nothing. My natural optimism is being challenged!
Did you contact Dartington?
-
Hi Cat, sorry for the silence. The business has gone a bit crazy, the garden is in full production (I grow veg and soft fruit) and time seems to just run away with me. :o
I haven't contacted Dartington yet, but showed my brother and sister in law the photos of my bowls. They are great Dartington fans, and they used to go the factory shop at least once a year. (I'm going back about 30 or 35 years here). They both say the bowls are typical of what would turn up in the factory shop as trial pieces. If something had been tried but wasn't considered suitable for mass production, any saleable pieces would be in the shop. And that's what I had thought right at the beginning, when I couldn't find them in the Smithson book.
I do keep checking any other likely suspects though. For example, today I've gone through all the Walther / Mikasa pages on Replacements.com, because they use that textured surface in quite a few pieces, and they're quite adventurous with the design of their rims.
So my bowls are currently on the "naughty shelf", not forgotten, but still not identified. ???
Meanwhile, I captured one of the most amazing pieces of cobalt blue cut to clear glass about 6 weeks ago. I'll be asking for help with it later today.
Thank you for all your help so far. And no, I'm not on the South coast (I'm slap bang in the middle of England), but I bought mine from a car boot on the south side of London. :)