• Report on the Glass Fair
• Walther Designs registered in the UK
• "Davidson" match striker and ashtray
• The V&A Art Deco exhibition

Happy reading.

Birmingham Glass Fair

The Glass Fair at the Motor Cycle Museum was once again full of wonderful things to buy. Specialist dealers were selling glass from ancient to modern and at all ranges of price. For the Cloud Glass collector there were no outstandingly rare or unusual pieces to be seen, but what was around was high quality with good colour and trailing. In particular there was some very nice examples of Blue Cloud Glass. Two examples of ORA were on offer, both of which were bowls. Also there was a lot of Orange Cloud scattered around the fair - the most I have seen for a long time.

Some of the other items which caught my eye were:

• A lilac trailed 'ORLA' large bowl. Clearly a variant on Violet Cloud, but a very nice colour (see the 'Other Colours' Cloud Glass page
• A jade Tutankhamen bowl. Several stall holders had Black Tutankhamen bowls, but this was the first example of Jade I have seen
• A 723 vase in Jade
• A Walther "Mignon" bowl in Topaz-Violet
• A green Good Companion Lamp - sadly missing its shade

The next fair will be at the beginning of November.

Walther Designs Registered in the UK

On the 22^nd December 1937 Sächsische Glasfabrick August Walther & Söhne of Ottendork-Okrilla, Germany submitted 18 designs to the Patent Office to be registered under the UK Patent and Design Act 1907. A design registered under this act gave the owner copyright protection for a period of 5 years which could be extended for two further periods of five years on payment of the appropriate fee.

Why Walther should have decided to start registering their designs in the UK is unknown. The designs registered first appeared in Walther's 1936 catalogue. It is not known whether these designs were actually sold in the UK, but by registering them it gave Walther protection against them being copied. This sort of copying did happen. The Davidson company was forced to register its designs in Australia after the Japanese started copying the 'Barrel' can (Reg. No. 802751) and undercutting them in the Australian market. Walther was not immune from copying other companies designs either. Their "Primus" bowl is a direct copy of Davidson's 1910BD flower bowl.

The patterns that Walther registered range from their stunning centre pieces such as the Möven and the Pierrette trinket set to a quite ordinary trinket tray. Interestingly although all of the designs had an application date of the 22^nd December 1937, their effective registration date ranged from the 8^th July 1937 to the 8^th December 1937- before the recorded application date. This was permissible under special circumstances which were defined in Section 91 of the Patents and Design act.

The table below lists the registered designs submitted by Walther. We have either used images from the Public Records Office or from the 1936 Walther Catalogue. The 1936 Walther Catalogue was supplied by Siegmar Geiselberger and is from the PK 2002-3 edition of pressglas-korrespondenz (www.pressglas-korrespondenz.de).

 

Registered Design No:  825108 Walther Style Name:  Pierrette Walther Catalogue No:  40260 Effective Registration Date: 8th July 1937 Description:  Trinket tray featuring the  Pierrot and Pierrette  characters. These two clowns are from the Italian Commedia dell'arte. Pierrot is a fun loving clown who is desperately in love with Pierrette. Pierrette only sometimes returns his affections and Pierrot is often depicted alone playing his mandolin and pinning for Pierrette. In the scene on this tray both characters are seen together by the light of a lamp.

Registered Design No:  825109 Walther Style Name:  Pierrot Walther Catalogue No:  40261 Effective Registration Date: 8th July 1937 Description:  Candlestick featuring Pierrot playing his mandolin.

Registered Design No:  825110 Walther Style Name:  Pierrette  Walther Catalogue No:  40262 Effective Registration Date: 8th July 1937 Description:  Candlestick featuring Pierrette.

Registered Design No:  825111 Walther Style Name:  Dresden  Walther Catalogue No:  42546 Effective Registration Date: 8th July 1937 Description:  A Jardinière

Registered Design No:  825112 Walther Style Name:  Walther Catalogue No:  Effective Registration Date: Description:  Application Abandoned

Registered Design No:  825113 Walther Style Name:  Pierrot Walther Catalogue No:  40264 Effective Registration Date: 8th July 1937 Description:  A powder jar from the Pierrot and Pierrette trinket set. The finial on the pot is in the shape of a Lyre.

Registered Design No:  825114 Walther Style Name:  Walther Catalogue No:  Effective Registration Date: Description:  Application Abandoned

Registered Design No:  825115 Walther Style Name:  Pierrette Walther Catalogue No:  40264 Effective Registration Date: 8th October 1937 Description:  A clock featuring Pierrot and Pierrette

Registered Design No:  825116 Walther Style Name:  Petri Walther Catalogue No:  40073 Effective Registration Date: 8th October 1937 Description:  A three piece centre-piece decorated with a fish motif.

Registered Design No:  825117 Walther Style Name:  Haarlem Walther Catalogue No:  43911 Effective Registration Date: 8th October 1937 Description:  A three piece centre-piece consisting of a stand, a bowl and the figure of a young woman carrying a basket of flowers.

Registered Design No:  825118 Walther Style Name:  Möven Walther Catalogue No:  40080 Effective Registration Date: 8th October 1937 Description:  A three piece centre-piece consisting of a stand, a bowl and a figure of a bird and fishes

Registered Design No:  825119 Walther Style Name:  Unknown Walther Catalogue No:  Unknown Effective Registration Date: 8th October 1937 Description:  A trinket tray, powder jar and candlestick. This design does not appear in the 1936 Walther catalogue.

Registered Design No:  825120 Walther Style Name:  Sigrid Walther Catalogue No:  43855 Effective Registration Date: 8th October 1937 Description:  A bowl, a shallow dish and also a lidded box with a geometric design.

Registered Design No:  825121 Walther Style Name:  Brilliant Walther Catalogue No:  42374 Effective Registration Date: 1st December 1937 Description:  A Trinket tray. None of the other pieces of this trinket set were included in the design registration.

Registered Design No:  825122 Walther Style Name:  Luna Walther Catalogue No:  80311 Effective Registration Date: 1st December 1937 Description:  A table lamp with fish motif. The lamp has the same design as the Petri centre-piece shown above.

Registered Design No:  825123 Walther Style Name:  Paradies Walther Catalogue No:  46140 Effective Registration Date: 1st December 1937 Description:  A two piece centre-piece with a pelican motif.

Registered Design No:  825124 Walther Style Name:  Poseidon Walther Catalogue No:  44025 Effective Registration Date: 1st December 1937 Description:  A two piece centre-piece decorated with a geometric design.

Registered Design No:  825125 Walther Style Name:  Lilli Walther Catalogue No:  42049 Effective Registration Date: 1st December 1937 Description:  A figure of a young woman. These figures were either sold as a statuette on a black base or as part of a centre-piece.

Registered Design No:  825126 Walther Style Name:  Kolibri Walther Catalogue No:  42440 Effective Registration Date: 1st December 1937 Description:  A flared vase decorated with a flower motif.

Registered Design No:  825127 Walther Style Name:  Isabella Walther Catalogue No:  41360 Effective Registration Date: 1st December 1937 Description:  A bowl decorated with a geometric design.

Registered Design No:  825128 Walther Style Name:  Groningen Walther Catalogue No:  40309 Effective Registration Date: 8th December 1937 Description:  A bowl decorated with a leaf design.

Registered Design No:  825129 Walther Style Name:  Unknown Walther Catalogue No:  Unknown Effective Registration Date: 8th December 1937 Description:  A ring stand decorated with a geometric design.

"Davidson" match striker and ashtray?

In recent months there have been a couple of metal ashtrays sold on Ebay which have a small spherical amber glass match striker in the centre (see photograph). The surface of the glass match striker is divided into six sections. Three consist of raised and finely spaced horizontal lines on which the match would be struck. The other 3 sections are of a pattern which is identical to Davidson's Hobnail (Reg. No 153858).

 The match striker has the registered design No 570646 in relief on one the the striking sections and also around the base. This design was registered to James May Farnel of 19 Hill Street, Birmingham. The design submitted to the Patent Office consists of a hand drawn representation of the spherical match striker with only the horizontal lines of the striking area shown in detail. The pattern in between is shown as a series of hatched lines indicating that it is not part of the design being registered.

The hobnail design suggests that the match striker could have been made by Davidson. Whether Davidson made the match striker on behalf of James May Farnel or whether they bought the rights to the design is unknown. We must also be careful not to rule out other manufacturers as the hobnail design was very common in both pressed and cut glass.

Victoria and Albert Museum  Art Deco exhibition

If you were expecting to see a lot of English Art Deco glassware in this exhibition, then be prepared to be disappointed. The exhibition is dedicated to 'High' Art Deco and most of the exhibits are French in origin. Having said that it is well worth visiting, but you are advised to book tickets in advance as it is still very busy. The exhibition shop, which you pass through at the end of the tour, is overflowing with things to buy. The book of the exhibition is excellent, but expensive. While you are at the V&A don't forget to look at the Glass Galleries (entrance is free to the rest of the museum). They have a good display of English and continental pressed glass. We only found two examples of Cloud Glass, both were amber. One was a No. 51 vase, and the other a 10/1910 bowl without its stand or grid.

The V&A Art Deco exhibition runs until the 20th July 2003.