Glassware

FOR some years now the country’s top glass fixture, the next bi-annual National Glass Collectors Fair will be held at the Heritage Motor Centre, near Gaydon in Warwickshire this Sunday, May 9.

THE importance of colour to collectors of saltglaze ceramics was emphasised at BBR's (10% buyer's premium) March 7 500-lot specialist sale near Barnsley when the orangey-brown hue and unusual subject matter made an Ugly Woman saltglazed inkwell one of the most desirable entries.

OSCAR Pierre Erard is one of the many shadowy figures who occupy the record books of the 19th century glass industry in Stourbridge.

It is not unusual for an auctioneer to receive enquiries from members of the public who have seen items ‘identical’ to theirs in a newspaper, a magazine or on television. In reality the Queen Anne walnut chest turns out to be a 1920s reproduction worth £100 – but, yes, they do look almost identical.

LAST September, businessman and glass enthusiast Nicholas Lyne sold his stake in Berkshire auctioneers Law Fine Art to his partner and co-founder Mark Law and teamed up with Sussex ceramics dealer Brad Dover of Jupiter Antiques to launch the Kensington Ceramics & Glass Fair, the first of which was held at the Kensington Close Hotel on February 26 and 27.

SPECIALIST organisers Oxbridge Fairs have made a change of venue for their third Cambridge Glass Fair. It will be held on Sunday February 15 outside the city at Chilford Hall Vineyard, Linton, which is also the site of fine art printers the Curwen Press.

FRANCE: THE centenary of the Wiener Werkstätte, founded by Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser in 1903, was commemorated in Vienna with various museum and gallery exhibitions, and two specialist auctions at the city’s main auction houses – the Dorotheum and Wiener Kunst.

SOUTH London organiser Paola Francia-Gardner, who operates as P&A Antiques, is reviving her London Glass Fair which will be held on Sunday March 7 at the Chelsea Village Hotel, Stamford Bridge, Fulham Road, SW6.

A National Art Collections Fund grant of £37,500 has helped Ely’s Stained Glass Museum acquire an important early 13th century French stained glass panel of the bust of a king.

DECANTERS of all types from the 18th century to the present are the subject of an exhibition running at the Broadfield House Glass Museum, Dudley, until April 18 next year.

Bonhams weren’t the only London salerooms to be offering a good selection of antique glasswares. On October 9, just a week after the Harvey’s dispersal, Christie’s South Kensington (17.5/10% per cent buyer’s premium) had a mixed-owner 280-lot selection of British and Continental glass to offer as part of their monthly At Home series.

AMONG the London salerooms offering a good selection of antique glasswares in the last fortnight, Christie’s South Kensington had a mixed-owner 280-lot selection of British and Continental glass to offer as part of their monthly ‘At Home’ series.

Ian Turner’s 142-lot collection of Monart sold by Christie’s South Kensington was the largest auction dispersal of this colourful Scottish art glass to date.

Victorian Decorative Glass: British Designs 1850-1914 by Mervyn Gulliver, published by Schiffer Books, distributed by Bushwood Books. ISBN 0764315988 £59.95

At just over $12m (including premium) US auction house Doyle New York made a significant contribution to the series of Asian Art sales held in Manhattan last week with their September 16 auction of the F. Gordon Morrill collection of Chinese porcelain. They found buyers for 82 per cent of the 115 lots, but far and away the star attraction was this large 141/2in (37cm) high Yuan dynasty blue and white pilgrim flask of c.1345.

Monart glass specialist and collector Ian Turner is a familiar name to many in the trade, having devoted the last two decades to buying and researching this vividly coloured 20th century Scottish art glass. In addition to building a 260-piece collection, he has also contributed to several books including Ysart Glass, edited by Frank Andrews, 1990.

THE Wallace Collection’s exhibition From Palace to Parlour, A Celebration of 19th century British Glass may not shed any new academic light on the subject but it draws attention to a period often ignored by traditional glass collectors: the 19th century. “The 19th century has been completely overlooked,” says independent scholar and glass consultant Martine Newby who curated the exhibition on behalf of the Glass Circle.

IN A month when keen collectors and scholars of glass – that ancient but sometimes-overlooked fraternity – are coming into the picture in a big way, glass dealer turned specialist fairs organiser Paul Bishop is holding his second Cambridge Glass Fair.

Two leading Kensington Church Street glass dealers are to hold their own selling show, describing it as “a ground-breaking exhibition shining a light on a hitherto unrecognised area of British cut glass”.

FROM August 21 to October 26, The Wallace Collection in Manchester Square will host what they bill as the first ever exhibition in London devoted entirely to Regency and Victorian glass.