Topic: neodymium glass vase -Caithness (?) more info please

[chasdevlin]

Hi.
I bought this hoping it might be a vintage Scandi piece, but I'm now fairly sure it is Caithness. I saw someone attribute something very similar to a Domhnall Ó Broin design, but I don't recognise it and think it's probably later.
 If anyone has any further info or thoughts on this piece I'd be really pleased to hear.

It is neodymium  - it changes from a lilac to a sky blue depending on the light. It is just under 5 inches in height. The base is slightly recessed to a point. There are also some small controlled bubbles in the base. Thanks!

[chopin-liszt]

I've had a look in Mark Hill's Caithness book, and while this design without the layer of bubbles is O'Brion's and very popular with a long lived production. They're called Barrels.
The earlier ones are in a particular set of colours, later ones include other newer colours, and there is so much about it that is right for Caithness, (the rim and the base, the general design - everything!) that I can only assume that your one is later and has the tiny controlled bubbles added.

[chasdevlin]

Many thanks, that's really useful to know.
The addition of the bubbles is a bit strange because there aren't many of them so they don't really add a great deal. Perhaps they were going for subtlety! 

[chopin-liszt]

There was a short period of time, around 2002, when they were doing some experimental studio sort of pieces, in limited editions. Many of these do have layers of tiny controlled bubbles in them towards the base, just like this and I imagined your vase might come from that time, given the book does say that they did the Barrels in more colours, later on, why would they not have decided to try a layer of bubbles in a Barrel when they were introducing them into other things anyway?
It seems a perfectly logical thing to try. 
I can remember the pieces coming up for sale in posh gift shops and department stores, around the same time as Alchemy. All the shelves had big notices on them telling customers "not to touch". You had to ask for permission to see a bit - even of Alchemy.
I suspect the limited edition studio things were just too expensive to be commercially viable.