Glassware

SPECIALISTS at Bonhams have just announced that they have identified a magnificent Roman cameo glass vase, which may be the most important of its kind in the world.

Among the highlights at the most recent sale conducted by advertising and bottle specialists BBR was this miniature shaft and globe bottle in dark olive green glass vessel probably used for pharmaceutical purposes c.1660-70.

Fifty-six works from the Vaughan family estate of Hengwrt, Nannau and Rug in Merionethshire, many of which have been in The Welsh Museum, Cardiff following the sale of the house several years ago, were dispersed without reserve by Tamlyn's of Bridgwater, Somerset, on December 9.

This large three-section glass panel was designed and made by Paul Jefferies at the Whitefriars factory in 1966.

THIS 2in (5cm) long brooch is textbook Lalique. Fashioned as a cicada, its main constituent is glass set into a gold frame. The insect’s body is formed from pâte de verre and the wings from plique à jour enamel, both favourite Lalique materials.

Is this the best ever dug bottle? That is the question asked by advertising and bottle specialists BBR who will offer it for sale at The Elsecar Heritage Centre, Barnsley, on July 6.

An entire day was devoted to glass by Bonhams earlier this month as they offered just shy of 500 lots of English and Continental glass in their Bond Street rooms.

The Harris Museum & Art Gallery in Preston, Lancashire will unveil a new Ceramics and Glass Gallery on May 14.

A companion work to an August Bohm masterpiece has bought a house record to Gloucestershire firm Wotton Auction Rooms.

Bottle specialists BBR have quickly uncovered what looks like a scam involving fake coloured ‘Chandler’ cottage inkwells.

Readers are advised to be wary of cut-price Whitefriars Drunken Bricklayer vases – they may be fakes.

The highlight of the Oriental sale conducted by Salisbury auctioneers Woolley & Wallis on May 22 was this underglaze copper-red Qianlong (1736-1795) mark and period moonflask standing 11in (27cm) high.

The 21st century equivalent of an unknown masterpiece brought in to the front counter of a saleroom must be the treasure that surfaces on an auctioneer’s computer via a routine email.

IT is almost 10 years since the noted Wiltshire glass dealers Delomosne last held an exhibition with accompanying handbook, and that was the collection of cordial glasses belonging to the late John Towse.

Giving Scotland’s once-neglected art glass further standing in the saleroom, a good range of Monart and Ysasrt glass emerged at auction recently North of the Boarder.

Wedgwood, famous as it is, is not the leading name for majolica collectors and this mid 19th century matchbox modelled as a fly, right, was something of a puzzle to Paul Goodley, specialist at Aylsham auctioneers Keys (10% buyer’s premium) when it was entered for the March 15-16 Norfolk sale.

Topping a very successful sale by Reading specialists Special Auction Services ( 15% buyer’s premium) on March 12 was this rare brown stoneware spirit flask, left, by Oldfield & Co. Date c.1835 and depicting the then Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. The 9 1/4in (23.5cm) flask sold on its mid-estimate £3000.

JUST a couple of years ago, specialist glass fairs were proliferating. That frenzy seems to have settled down of late, probably because the serious glass dealers understandably are getting choosy. But one that increasingly is making its mark is the Cambridge Glass Fair, organised by Paul Bishop under the name Oxbridge Fairs, which will be held for the fifth time this Sunday (February 20) at Chilford Hall Vineyard, Linton, Cambridgeshire.

Fine Art Auctioneer Dr. Jürgen Fischer in Heilbronn, Germany has announced an important forthcoming sale of European and Studio Glass to be held on 11th and 12th March 2005.

Two of the strongest performances in the December ceramics sales came from the glass sections offered at Bonhams Bond Street on December 8 and at Sotheby’s Olympia two weeks later.