Topic: Dartington or Scandi?

[Roz]

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!

[catshome]

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.

[chopin-liszt]

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.

[catshome]

The shallow bowl had the same finish on the rim.....but was only around 3cm high (from memory).

[Roz]

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. 

[chopin-liszt]

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. 

[catshome]

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!

[Roz]

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.
 

[catshome]

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.

[Roz]

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!