Hi,
Here I am safely back from Europe with lots of new information which I hope to share with you over the next few weeks.

This is my latest Glass Newsletter, and I do apologise that I missed several issues over the past few months. This issue has some news about Davidson's Cloud Glass, Bagley Glass, Art Glass in the UK, Irish Crystal, New Zealand Glass on ebay, forthcoming glass shows and exhibitions, Ysart paperweights, and recent books on glass in case you missed them. I intend to keep to the regular schedule in future!

And welcome to all the new readers receiving my Glass Newsletter for the first time, I hope you find it interesting and useful.

1: Art Glass in the UK:
During my visit to Europe I visited several glassworks and met current and former glass artists and technical staff, collecting information for some new articles and publications about glass. Meantime here are some things I think will interest you.

Tudor Crystal, Stourbridge: Through all the changes in ownership and closures to glassworks in the Stourbridge area, Tudor Crystal (now owned by Plowden & Thompson Ltd) are still going strong and producing a fine range of lead crystal cut glass. To my amazement, I found that they have added a range of colored crystal vases very much in the Monart-Vasart-Strathearn tradition. Which is not surprising when you learn that Herber Dreier is a master glassblower with Tudor. These neo-Monart designs form the company's Spring Collection from "Dial Art". Herbert formerly worked in Scotland at Caithness Glass. There is a new article on the Glass Encyclopedia about Tudor Crystal - click here to read it.

Jonathan Harris Studio, Ironbridge: I was told by collectors that Jonathan Harris is making some superb art glass and shown some masterly examples. I then met Jonathan at the Broadfield House Glass Museum (Kingswinford) where I gave a talk on Glass and the Internet. He is the son of the late Michael Harris (of Mdina Glass in Malta and Isle of Wight Glass). His elder brother Timothy is still at Isle of Wight Glass. More about the Harris family glass to come later.

Okra Glass, Stourbridge: Richard Golding of Okra Glass showed me the current range of brilliant art glass made by Okra in their studio, within the Ruskin Glass Centre near Birmingham, UK. Their website even has short videos demonstrating glassmaking which you can download from http://www.okraglass.com/.

2: Kilkenny Crystal, Ireland:
In Ireland I visited the Kilkenny Crystal factory. They produce beautiful, original, cut crystal designs all hand drawn, hand cut, wheel etched, and acid polished. Some parts of this process seemed to be quite different than the English methods of making cut crystal. More about this in a later newsletter. I was interested to learn that some of the multitude of Irish crystal factories import a large amount of their cut crystal from Europe. Hm!

3: Bagley Glass
I visited the Pontefract Museum in Yorkshire, just next to Knottingley, where Bagley Glass was made. They now have a wonderful display of Bagley Glass in a special exhibition room where they have combined the museums own Bagley collection with the Parson's Collection of Bagley glass. If you are interested in English pressed glass, this is an exhibit you should not miss. We will be producing a CD and a DVD about Bagley Glass, incorporating the video produced by Derek and Betty Parsons, later this year.

4: Davidson's Cloud Glass
It has long been argued that Davidson's cloud glass was not made after the war, except for the color known as Briar or Topaz (green with purple streaks). Whilst in the UK I talked with several experts and specialists in Davidson's Cloud Glass, and I now have a copy of a Davidson's catalogue price list dated 1954. This catalogue lists the glass items offered by Davidson's and gives the colors each item was offered in, and the prices per dozen. Eighteen different items are offered in Amber Cloud Glass (there was no mention of other colors in Cloud Glass, only plain colors).

I discussed this with Adam Dodds, who joined Davidson's in 1956, and with Nick Dolan formerly of the Shipley Art Gallery. I think we are agreed that this is too much and too late a date to be explained as selling off stocks of pre-war production. Our conclusion is that Davidson's were making amber cloud glass after the war, at least until 1954 but definitely no later than 1955. It was not made during Adam Dodds time with Davidson's, briar/topaz being the only color in cloud glass that Adam saw made at Davidson's.

3: On ebay this week we have some superb art glass from New Zealand. I hope you can find something you like amongst these:

Peter Raos a Star o' the sea marine paperweight on ebay #2025768780
and a millefiori Monet spring flower paperweight on ebay #2025768778
Garry Nash a Harlequin magnum paperweight in blue on ebay #2025768890
Peter Viesnik a beautiful Fountain paperweight on ebay #2025769030

They are all put up without reserve and so far most of them do not have any bids. If you would like to see a quick summary, click here.

4: Exhibitions and Glass Shows:
a: Depression Glass Shows (click here) - a listing of depression glass shows across the USA - really useful.
b: Carnival Glass Events (click here) - details of Carnival Glass meetings and shows across the USA and the UK - up to date and covers a very broad area.
c: New Zealand Cast Glass Whangarei Art Museum, 06 May 2002 - 30 Jun 2002, New Zealand.
d: Glass Behind the Iron Curtain, 1948-1978 Corning Museum of Glass, 16 May 2002 - 21 Oct 2002, New York.

5: Recent Books about Glass - for your information in case you missed them:

a: West Virginia Glass Between the World Wars - click here to read more. Published by Schiffer Publishing Ltd., April 2002; author Dean Six.

b: Glass of the '50s & '60s : A Collector's Guide - click here. Published May 2002 by Miller's Guides, author Nigel Benson.

c: Collecting Carnival Glass: Revised 2nd Edition -click here . Published April 2002 by Kevin Francis Publishing Ltd. author Marion Quentin-Baxendale

6: Ysart Paperweights: - Kevin Holt has written another article about Paul Ysart paperweights, which you can see at http://www.btinternet.com/~kevh.glass/pages/paul-ysart/paul-ysart.htm - or click here. This article should prove to be a great help in identifying older Paul Ysart paperweights. Many thanks to Kevin for all his hard work.

I do hope there was something interesting for you this week.
Very best wishes
Angela

Useful links:
The Glass Museum at http://www.glass.co.nz/
The Glass Encyclopedia is at http://www.encyclopedia.netnz.com/
The Glass Links Page is at http://www.glass.co.nz/links.htm
The Glass Message Board is at http://www.glassmessages.com/
My glass at auction http://www.myglassauction.com/
To join this list: http://www.netnz.com/email/joinlist.html

And if you would like to leave, just drop me an email and tell me please.