Whitefriars Glass: Post-1960

1964 Whitefriars Amethyst Soda vase, pattern 9599.

hi all,
can anyone confirm/deny whether this is by Murano?  it's very thick, heavy glass and has a smooth polished base. thanks.

If it's flattened to two sides - see the Whitefriars thread for the 9571 teardrop.

The main difference between this 9571 Whitefriars teardrop and the Caithness one is that the WF is flattened to two sides (the Caithness has a spherical base).  Also, the ruby red is a WF colour whereas, the Caithness teardrops didn't come in red (more muted colours like peat, heather and smoke).

Kingfisher Blue

Pewter Nailhead 6.75" , patt.no. 9683.

Rare 8-sided vase, pattern 9781, in Kingfisher Blue. Produced only between 1972 - c.1973, then discontinued:

Another of my purchases from the same day - a pattern 9638 Shadow Green soda vase with applied ceramic trail to the rim. Produced only briefly, and in small numbers, between 1964-1966 because they had a lot of trouble getting the ceramic to adhere properly to the glass - meaning too many went in the bin than was economically viable.

I do REALLY like these vases - they're very Scandinavian.

Lilac knobbly , patt.no.9844

Kingfisher blue , nail head vase

I was wondering if I might be right to call this bowl "silver"? I realise photos are not the easiest way to discern colour, but they're quite spot-on - in this instance - in terms of accuracy. It may well depend on your monitor settings, I suppose. Anyway, all help gratefully received.

Stu.

Hi Stu, on my monitor your bowl doesn't look 'silver' - it looks to me like it could be a very pale 'twilight' or one of those other impossibly hard to identify pale colours they did. Another dealer insisted to me that silver was the same as pewter anyway and it was just a posher word some Whitefriars collectors used when applying the colour to a particular shape or item.

With regards to your bowl, best thing to do is find it in the Whitefriars catalogues (it's pattern 9099) and then check what colours it was produced in.

Looks like a weak batch of Arctic Blue on my monitor. I would expect Silver to be much darker and less blue-tinted.

Twilight would be decidedly browny.

Actually, loading your images into Adobe and tweaking the colour balance... it could well be silver.

It's easier to get a better idea of colour if you shoot photos outside, or at least in natural daylight. Tungsten lightbulbs tend to distort the colour quite a lot, especially with the paler shades.

I am becoming a little more convinced of it's 'silver' qualities as I photograph
it. I have owned clear bowls, but they're just bland in comparison.

A weak Arctic Blue is a good point, but 'Silver' just makes me feel happier, so...



I love these little bowls - they have to be the cutest Whitefriars items.

So... here then (left to right).... Arctic Blue, Sapphire Blue, Twighlight, Siiiiilver!

What say you?

Yep - shown next to the others it looks 'silver' (or pewter!)

I think Pewter and Silver are two different colours. I've never actually handled any Silver, but I sold a Pewter vase last week and it's quite a dark grey compared to the illustrations of verified Silver pieces I've seen.

The walls of this vase are about 4mm thick...

I always thought they were different colours too Nic but as I say I did have a rather insistent dealer at my stand once saying they were the same so now I'm confused (for a change :-)

I can't look at my bowl anymore - I keep seeing it as Arctic Blue now because my eyes just keep putting blue where it isn't (or where at least I think it isn't...). It's just a good job I wouldn't want to sell it!

Thanks for the help here though - I really appreciate it.

9702 vase in Pewter with applied Kingfisher spots, designed by Geoffrey Baxter. Produced only between 1969-1971.

Just to add to it all, there was a silver grey as well.

9852 Gold FLC

Another Enamel Trail piece in Shadow Green - a shallow bowl, pattern 9640 (10.5" size):

9539 in Arctic Blue

9612 streaky green lampbase knobbly