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Description, References and Size

This is a rib molded "Amethyst" posy vase. Whitefriars pattern number 837. Made circa.1870s-90s.

Back in the day when people picked their own flowers from gardens and hedges and didn't buy the long stemmed stuff we have these days, the little short stems flowers as a bunch was called a posey and this tiny vase is designed for those flowers.

Before you look at the measurements and say it's wider than it's taller, so that makes it a bowl, my answer to that is; no it's not.

These little vases were made for a long time (up to 1940) in a lot of colours and if were starting and wanted to make a little harlequin collection this would be a good place to start. They come in at least; Sea Green, Gold Amber, Emerald, Sapphire, Sanctuary Blue, Amethyst, Flint, Amber, Straw Opal.

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, The Art of James Powell & Sons, Lesley Jackson, Page 98 & 101

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, James Powell & Sons of London, Wendy Evans, Page 252

Height: 2.25 inches

Width: 3 inches

This is a posy vase with horizontal bands of different shallow cut patterns covering most of the body. This is Whitefriars pattern number 1144. Designed by Harry Powell alledgedly in 1906 and produced until the 1930s.

I am going with the date ascribed by Lesley Jackson for this glass, however the pattern number is lower that the last glass I show in the Pre-1900 section which was supposed to be designed in 1894. Either the pattern were allocated by Powells on a fairly ad-hoc basis or something is not right in the books.

This pattern was copied from a Roman glass bowl that was excavated in Germany.

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, The Art of James Powell & Sons, Lesley Jackson, Page 43 & 103

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, James Powell & Sons of London, Wendy Evans, Page 273 & 290

Height: 5.5 inches

Width: 3 inches

This is a diamond molded "Twilight" vase in a form similar to Chinese ginger jars. This is Whitefriars pattern number 9381. Designed circa. 1930s.

Apparently this only comes in Gold Amber, Flint, Sea Green and Ruby, but here it is in Twilight. What this tells you is, don't entirely trust the catalogues and books. Glassworks are hot sweaty places full of blokes making stuff, and if someone turns out a batch of stuff in the wrong colour they are not going to bin it.

Reference: Whitefriars Revisited 1935-1969, Chris Woolman, Page 50

Height: 8.5 inches

Width: 6 inches

This is a rib molded inverted conical shaped, footed, "Gold Amber" vase. From the Whitefriars Wealdstone range made for Wuidart. Designed circa. 1930.

This is not a particularly exciting vase, but I bought if from the Partington Collection when that was sold. As he his collection was so good, it might be that this is quite a rare vase, on the other hand it might be he got this with a job lot of other stuff and it not rare at all.

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, The Art of James Powell & Sons, Lesley Jackson, Page 124

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, James Powell & Sons of London, Wendy Evans, Page 252

Height: 8 inches

Width: 7 inches

This is a "Gold Amber" ovoid vase with internal horizontal optic ribbing. Designed by James Hogan in 1937.

The optical molding is done making the walls of the vase thicker and thinner, as this is a large vase you really can't make the think parts all that thin. So what that means is that this is a really heavy lump of glass and and you can't help but be impressed by the heft of the thing. Wealding this on the end of a metal pole must have been a job and half for the glass blower.

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, The Art of James Powell & Sons, Lesley Jackson, Page 124

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, James Powell & Sons of London, Wendy Evans, Page 252

Height: 11 inches

Width: 6.5 inches

This is a "Sea Green" rib-waved tumbler vase. Whitefriars pattern number 8473. Designed by Marriott Powell circa.1930.

This is the largest size these tumbler vases came in. My thoughts on that is that, yes it is impressive but that it is a size too large, the wave pattern is just a bit lost on it. These vases are a very practical shape as vases and they were making them right into the 1970s, although I think Ruby was the dominent colour they were using post war.

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, The Art of James Powell & Sons, Lesley Jackson, Page 115

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, James Powell & Sons of London, Wendy Evans, Page 127 & 289 & 323 & 331

Reference: Whitefriars Revisited 1935-1969, Chris Woolman, Page 39

Reference: English Glass, W.B.Honey, Page 40

Height: 12 inches

Width: 8 inches

This is a "Sea Green" rib-waved tumbler vase. Whitefriars pattern number 8473. Designed by Marriott Powell circa.1930.

This is the smallest version of the above vase. Same colour and same pattern. This looks much more together than the huge one above. It is good to see them together the same size so that how the pattern changes with scale is more obvious.

Look away now the purist Whitefriars collectors, this vase lives in a kitchen cupboard and we use it to put flowers in. It does have a mark in the glass, like something was put against it whilst it was being made, so I think this might be a second.

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, The Art of James Powell & Sons, Lesley Jackson, Page 115

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, James Powell & Sons of London, Wendy Evans, Page 127 & 289 & 323 & 331

Reference: Whitefriars Revisited 1935-1969, Chris Woolman, Page 39

Reference: English Glass, W.B.Honey, Page 40

Height: 6 inches

Width: 4 inches

This is a "Ruby" rib-waved tumbler vase. Whitefriars pattern number 8473. Designed by Marriott Powell circa.1930.

This "Ruby" vase is one size down from the vase above, and I think the size the looks good without looking to be too big. As you have the same number of swags drapped around the vase, they droop a bit more and I think look more defined.

As a "Ruby" one this vase is probably made post war.

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, The Art of James Powell & Sons, Lesley Jackson, Page 123

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, James Powell & Sons of London, Wendy Evans, Page 127 & 289 & 323 & 331

Reference: Whitefriars Revisited 1935-1969, Chris Woolman, Page 39

Reference: English Glass, W.B.Honey, Page 40

Height: 10 inches

Width: 6 inches

This is a "Gold Amber" footed ovoid rib-waved vase. Whitefriars pattern number 9353. Designed by William Wilson circa.1950.

This vase is the rib-wave pattern wrapped around a new shape designed by William Wilson about 20 years after rib-wave was initially used.

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, The Art of James Powell & Sons, Lesley Jackson, Page 115

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, James Powell & Sons of London, Wendy Evans, Page 324

Height: 5.75 inches

Width: 4 inches

This is a "Amethyst" rib-waved footed trumpet vase. Whitefriars pattern number 9146. Produced circa.1940.

This is quite a rare vase as I have have only seen it as a drawing. It's also "Amethyst" which also makes it a more desirable colour.

I don't know if it was normal for these particular vases but the "Amethyst" colour does not look the standard more plummy colour. This one seems to pop a bit more. In fact the colour is so intense that I have taken the photo from a bit of an angle so that you can see the ribbed-wave pattern a bit better. Whitefriars was supposed to have standard colours, but you do find things that seem to stray from them. I have been told that sometimes if they thought they were gong to run out of a colour they would mix a bit of clear in with the batch to make it up. This of course dilutes the colour and I have noticed this from time to time.

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, James Powell & Sons of London, Wendy Evans, Page 302

Height: 9 inches

Width: 7 inches

This is an "Amethyst" vase. Whitefriars pattern number 8910. Designed by Harry Powell circa.1932-34.

This was designed by Harry based on a pre-dynastic Egyptian form. I am not sure when Harry left the firm, but this must be near the end and he is still plundering the museums for ideas. You may think I am critisizing but far from it. These are shapes that previous peoples have felt were special and he was bringing them back to life for new use. It may be that Harry was not an original designer himself, but that he knew a good design when he saw, and if there were no patent issues, even better.

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, The Art of James Powell & Sons, Lesley Jackson, Page 126

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, James Powell & Sons of London, Wendy Evans, Page

Reference: Whitefriars Revisited 1935-1969, Chris Woolman, Page 45

Height: 5.75 inches

Width: 5 inches

This is a waisted "Amethyst" vase. Whitefriars pattern number 9594 with paper label. Designed by Geoffrey Baxter circa.1950s-60s.

To be frank I am not impressed with this design, it kind of isn't speaking to me. It doesn't have the feel of any period but not in any kind of timeless way. I think what I am saying is that it is a bit boring really. It does it's original paper label though.

If you see a piece with a Whitefriars label like this, expect to look like this one, a bit dirty and rubbed. If it doesn't look old that is probably because it isn't. This particlar style of paper label was used from 1950-63.

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, James Powell & Sons of London, Wendy Evans, Page 236

Height: 5.25 inches

Width: 3 inches

This is a "Golden Amber" pedestal vase, with a gadrooned trumpet shaped bowl. Whitefriars pattern number 9160. Made circa.1940s-50s.

This is kind of classical in appearance and as this is the larger version of this vase it is quite an impressive looking beast. The pedestal base is like a stretched version of the M61 decanter with it's domed foot.

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, James Powell & Sons of London, Wendy Evans, Pages 304 and 324

Height: 9.75 inches

Width: 6 inches

This is a "Golden Amber" vase, with flattened body with seven dimples in each side. Whitefriars pattern number 9594. Designed by Geoffrey Baxter circa.1960s.

To be frank I am not impressed with this design, it kind of isn't speaking to me. It doesn't have the feel of any period but not in any kind of timeless way. I think what I am saying is that it is a bit boring really. It does it's original paper label though.

If you see a piece with a Whitefriars label like this, expect to look like this one, a bit dirty and rubbed. If it doesn't look old that is probably because it isn't.

Height: 7.75 inches

Width: 5.5 inches

This is a flaring cased "Kingfisher Blue" vase, with green ribble trail. Whitefriars pattern number 9708. Designed by Geoffrey Baxter circa.1969-71.

This type of ribbon trail vase seems like a follow on from the long standing design of the 1930s. Regardless of this, it was not made for long and I can only assume it was not the most successful.

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, The Art of James Powell & Sons, Lesley Jackson, Page 142

Height: 8.25 inches

Width: 6.5 inches

This is a tubular cased "Kingfisher Blue" vase, with dark blue random strapping. Whitefriars pattern number 9794. Designed by Geoffrey Baxter circa.1972-80.

Following on from the the slightly random ribbon trail above, however this design seems to have stuck and was produced until the factory closed in 1980. There are different sizes, shapes and colours for this vase, the other colours being sage green, tangerine, and amethyst.

Reference: Whitefriars Glass, The Art of James Powell & Sons, Lesley Jackson, Page 143

Height: 6.25 inches

Width: 4.25 inches