Sorry for the long wait, but it always takes a little while to have enough pieces to drop off and do the 1,5 hour drive, but today I have been again to have several pieces repaired and popped in while I passed the showroom, to ask about your bowl and some of my own pieces.
The 'unhelpful' lady was absent... thank goodness ... and somebody from the office had to be called forward, to answer my questions, and I very much appreciated that they found a few spare minutes to answer my questions.... I learned that things are up and running again at VSL, and they are very busy reorganizing and preparing the opening of a shop in Dubai. The few minutes turned out into nearly an hour, and not because of me, but the designer, Delvaux.
I'm no groupie, but this gentleman is the son of Delvaux who worked for VSL ages ago, who was an apprentice of Charles Graffart himself ... I nearly wet myself! To meet somebody directly linked to a very important period and designer at VSL, who's only human too of course, but I only know about from my books, was ... well ... the girls probably understand me when I say better than chocolate.
He took one look at the bowl ands said it definitely was made by VSL, the registration for the shape is n° 1402, and a rough date he put on it was 1900-1920. He did admit that not many houses did this kind of crystal, which made it easy for him to identify it. He did explain that certain patterns are not always registered, as VSL was not the most disciplined of companies when it came to that, but more important, they encouraged designers and cutters to be creative and artistic, as long as it was in harmony with the item and period, and therefor certain pieces might be different from one another.
I had my tablet with me and he wanted to see my own collection, which I did of course, and he was very impressed and at one point ecstatic, not only with the pieces but also with the quality of images and he wants to use my pictures for his own work, as reference and inspiration for future designs! I can't believe it! To be able to provide photos and images, to help re-launch VSL ... my wildest dream come true
... I did put in as condition, that I am not to blame if it doesn't work out.
So thank you for posting this bowl, because without it, I wouldn't have had the morning that I did ... I'm still on a high