An Early Piece of Sunbeam Glass?

This unsigned green decanter probably dates from the first period of glass making at Sunbeam Glass in Auckland. The lady I bought it from is certain she bought it in 1979 in Jervois Rd. She said "I remember going down an alley and here were these two or three glass artists at work." That would suggest she was at a glass blowing studio rather than a dealer gallery, and Sunbeam seems to be the only one to fit the description. The studio in Jervois Rd was behind the shop, shown at right.

Sunbeam was established in 1976 by John Croucher and James Walker, but operated a bit like a co-op, with a number of people involved and working there in a number of media. After a reorganisation in 1980, Garry Nash and Ann Robinson became partners with John Croucher, and it entered its second phase, playing a leading role in the development of glass art in New Zealand. But in 1979 Ann Robinson and Garry Nash weren't there. John Croucher has said "I don't know who made this piece. It could have been made by Danny Keighly, Ken Cooke, or myself (although I don't think so)." The glass has distinctive black flecks in it - Garry Nash has commented: "It could be any one at that time. The glass is coloured with chrome oxide or potassium bichromate, the chrome is highly refractory and requires a very high temperature to melt, without flakes of chrome metal precipitating out of solution and causing black spots. It was a common problem in the early days with every one panicking about the price of gas and fear that the furnace would melt!"

So it is not certain who made this, but it would seem most likely to be by one of these first Sunbeam glass artists. I'm delighted to have it in my collection.

Beer bottle glass was used in these ash trays

The late James Mack, former Director of the Dowse Art Museum in Lower Hutt, wrote that his father worked the night shift at the AHI Glass factory in Penrose, and as a 10 year old James was fascinated to see the workers 'pluck red hot beer bottles from the production line and fashion them into things fantastical.  Their best efforts were swan ashtrays, sensitively conceived but crudely rendered'.

Most of these ash trays are brown, but there are clear and green ones, using milk and wine bottle glass. 'Kia ora' (or sometimes 'Kai ora' if they got the spelling wrong) is a common motto - this recent acquisition has 'Happy Days' and the date 1966. Dates are not common, but all the dated ones I have seen are 1966.

These epergne style ash trays are the most elaborate I have seen. They have no motto or date.

Tony Kuepfer tortoiseshell glass from TradeMe

My latest TradeMe acquisition is the beautiful bowl on the right. I have two other pieces like it, in the same very distinctive 'tortoiseshell' pattern. It is not signed, but has Tony's distinctive cross-pontil mark. The others I bought several years apart at a second hand shop and a street fair. The bottle is clearly signed AWK '90, giving me a good date for the other two, since they are so similar. Tony was working at Whanganui at that time. It's nice to be able to assign some certainty to unsigned pieces.

Giovanni glass on TradeMe

Giovanni (Italian for John) was the name used by John Leggott and John Croucher for their Auckland partnership in glass between 1991 and 1995. Inspired by the glass of the Italian masters, they produced some remarkable and very distinctive pieces. I bought several at the time, but I have added second hand pieces from internet auction site TradeMe, including these two recent acquisitions. I suspect I paid less than the original price - NZ glass is generally not investment art - yet! At 46 and 47 cm tall, these are substantial pieces, in the truly glowing colours that the Johns made their hallmark. Nowadays, of course, they supply these colours to others, as the makers of Gaffer Glass, which they export from Auckland to glassies throughout New Zealand and world wide.

Mike Crawford's Amazing Glass Gourds

A quick trip to Auckland yesterday enabled me to catch the last day of Mike Crawford's show hue at Masterworks - see http://www.masterworksgallery.com/index.cfm?action=exhibitions&type=past&ex_id=96


I bought a gourd from Mike's first show at Masterworks last year - they are amazing. Mine is the red one in this Mastwerworks exhibition image.

This time, as well as whole gourds he has also produced some 'cut' and 'carved' ones, reflecting even more strongly the links between his art and the Māori decorative use of gourds (hue in Māori), which were also functional objects, of course. It'll be interesting to see where he takes this fascination with gourds next.

Lyn Campbell Keeps on Providing Pleasure

Sadly, Whangarei and Nelson glass artist Lyn Campbell died in 2005. She began her training at Northland Polytechnic under Keith Mahy in 1989, graduating in 1992. After working at Sunbeam for a couple of years, she set up her own studio in Nelson in 1995. She moved back to Whangarei in 1998, but illness kept her from working for quite a period. She was just beginning to recover and to work again, when she died on 7 May 2005. Her work is still to be found, increasingly rarely in galleries, and on TradeMe. The tall 'scent bottle' to the right was made in 2002, while the goblet at left was made in 1996. The beaker below, made in 1992, was from an early exhibition at the defunct 'Stanley St Gallery' in Auckland.

A new acquisition from Ben Sablerolle

A while since I last posted, but my acquisitions have continued. A recent purchase from TradeMe is this wonderful example of Ben Sablerolle's 'piano keyboard' roll-up platters. After completing his glass studies at Unicol Whanganui in 2001-02, Ben set up a studio in his backyard with colleague Kerry McDonnell, producing both slumped and roll-up glass. I haven't been able to buy a piece of Ben's before, so I was very pleased to add this piece, which was made in 2004.