Topic: blue bowl ID : Cambridge Azurite + discussion

[Ivo]

It's a bowl, pressed - I can just about feel 2 tiny mould marks around the bottom; it is opaque blue with a lighter shade of pale slagged through it, it has some wear. Diameter 25, height 7 cm (for the metrically challenged that is just under 10" diam and 3 1/2 height) And of course, it has no markings - that would just make it too easy.  Question is, of course: "yes but what is it?" The colour is not like any Leerdam I've seen, the shape is unleerdammish, too.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~abel/question/blubole%20002.jpg
http://www.xs4all.nl/~abel/question/blubole%20003.jpg
http://www.xs4all.nl/~abel/question/blubole%20004.jpg

http://tinyurl.com/59gss - seems it is Northwood from the twenties.

[Anonymous]

Good afternoon Ivo

I picked up an identical piece from Ebay USA earlier this year. The colouring of mine is very much like the Davidsons orange cloud glass and until it arrived I thought it might be a variation of Davidsons No 21 pattern bowl ....and it sits perfectly on a Davidsons black stand. The colouring is so much like GD's that it displays with other orange cloud pieces extremely well
Thanks for the lead to the website ...interesting to see the design of the black stands.
Are you able to date these specifically as it then takes me onto who designed the first stand in this design.... unaware before of the Northwood version.
Regards

Gareth

[Ivo]

Unable to say when - but the website says 20s or 30s. I think somewhere around the end of the twenties all these glass manufacturers walked over the same glass exhibition in Paris or in Munich or in London and they all saw the same novel presentation: coloured glass on a black foot! WOW - so they all ran back to the office and designed some.  Because Leerdam made it for sure. Davidson, Northwood, Monart, Maastricht. Schneider.....  I wouldn't be at all surprised if Schneider started the trend - but realistically, it could have been any of them.

[paradisetrader]

Ivo I'm a bit confused.
This Northwood site seems to be only for stretch glass, which would have some irridescence, even if only very subtle. Yet I noticed you say in the other place that yours had none.
Also yours seems to have the narrow collar under-rim which the commentary on the bowls page seems to suggest only applies to pattern NW 718.
Just trying to hone my ID skills.
Peter
PS "unleerdamish" - love it !  

[glasswizard]

Hi and yes Peter stretch class to be called as such has irradescence. My first thought upon  seeing the piece was Cambridges Azurite. This was produced in 1922 and as the book "Colors in Cambridge glass" states, "A light blue opaque that will often show some variation in the color of a given item. Some areas may show streaking that is almost white and other areas may show a little darker color. " So Cambridge Azurite seems like a contender. Terry in Iowa

[Ivo]

Darlene (visit her Ruby Lane shop at http://www.rubylane.com/shops/afterglowantiques) managed to sort out my initial confusion by answering  as follows:  "Northwood did make this color without iridescence.  Cambridge also did this color (some of the pieces in the early "Cambridge in Color" book are actually Northwood.  Northwood was not consistent in marking their pieces. In stretch glass it is actually more common to find their pieces unmarked"
Faced with a choice between Northwood Blue Jade or Cambridge Azurite I couldn't say what I prefer - it is six and half a dozen to me...

[BugDoc]

Glen Thistlewood just emailed me about this train of disucssion since iridescent stretch glass was being mentioned.  I've looked at the bowl and it certainly looks like one of the Cambridge Azurite pieces.  My wife (Renee) and I specialize in collecting the Northwood "Jade Blue" (their name for the iridized opaque blue "Rainbow Line" (their name for their iridescent stretch glass) and we get folks posting the Northwood pieces claiming that they have found a "very rare" iridized version of the Cambridge Azurite!  LOL!  Just found one posted on eBay.  The Azurite can have some color swirls in it, but most pieces are a nice, clean blue color.  The Northwood Jade Blue can vary considerably, from a light, pale blue to a relatively dark blue and it often has swirls of color.  Hope this helps.

Dave Shetlar (the BugDoc), Stretch Glass Society, director of technical information.

[Ivo]

Great, thank you so much for the answer. Now the only question is, what was American glass from the twenties doing in a local thrift shop in Holland? I guess that one will never be solved.

[Glen]

Now the only question is, what was American glass from the twenties doing in a local thrift shop in Holland?

Oh I could write a small book on the odd places I have found glass. I've seen:
>> American Carnival from the early 19teens and twenties
>> English pressed glass from the same era and earlier
>> Modern American Carnival (esp. Indiana)
>> Sowerby's #2266 (Chunky)

in fleamarkets, and second-hand shops in France, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. I also have been told by "roving" friends that the same stuff from the same eras turns up in India.

And then I'm also aware of:
>> American Carnival from the early 19teens and twenties
>> Scandinavian, German and Czech Carnival from the 1920s and 1930s

being found in South America, Australia, Africa and more.

I could go on and on with all sorts of other examples. And the reasons for this movement of glass? Here's just a few suggestions.....

Trade at the time of manufacture - tons of glass was exported/imported
Movements of people (taking precious possessions with them)
Gifts
Unwanted eBay purchases  :twisted:

Glen