COLLECTING glass is on the up, although parts of the market are a bit overwrought and similarly priced; car mascots, perfume bottles. Turn to the colour review section and you will see amongst the Webbs, the Lobmeyrs, the Northwoods and the remarkable Emile Gallé’s two-piece praying mantis vase (£10,500-11,500), a 1930s Davidson blue and amethyst cloud glass vase at £20-25, and some very modish, 1990s Glasform glass vases from £20 upwards.
While we slosh down more wine than ever, collecting drinking glasses, particularly coloured, has become more expensive, but there’s still plenty “that is affordable”, according to Brian Watson, particularly in 19th century glass. Affordable being maybe a pair of rummers c.1830 £85-100, while for wine glasses at £100-125 there’s a very whizzy pair of green wine glasses with tulip bowls, plain stems and feet, c.1840. Failing that, try the Art Deco biscuit barrel at £12-15.
Usual Buyer’s Guide style – 2000 items, mid-17th to mid-20th century, illustrated and price-guided with the handy refinement of a bookmark-cum-currency-converter for sterling/US dollars and special features on Carnival glass, Gray-Stan, Legras, Loetz and Webb.
Buyer’s Guide to Pine & Country Furniture
REVISED and with all the price ranges updated, old pine still attracts. In her foreword to Pine Furniture, Ann Lingard, who sells pine and country furniture in Rye, comments that the trade often see 12 coats of paint covering a piece of old pine. She suggests this can be painstakingly removed with a sharp knife or razor blade in order to retain as much of the original paint as possible. Should you live that long and remove all 12 coats of paint and find that it’s made up of mismatched pieces, you’d find another use for the razor blade.
More interestingly, pages 216 to 265 are taken up with oak and country furniture and there is, regrettably one page only, an overview by Robert Young on the newly chic French provincial furniture, the prices for which imported pieces have rocketed as books and design magazines coo about the French peasant look. Alas no items are illustrated or priced. Children’s furniture has a mention and there is far too much on painted furniture and kitchenware.
Handy for glass, picky for pine
Buyer’s Guide to Glass by Jeanette Hayhurst. ISBN 18400003618. £19.99. Buyer’s Guide to Pine & Country Furniture, edited by Jo Wood. ISBN184000374X. £19.99.
