Excellent green & blue studio art glass vase by New Zealand pioneer Mel Simpson

Description: This is a lovely and attractive, handmade, octagonal, art glass vase with sloping shoulders and a broad, flaring mouth and a single applied handle on one side. It is made from a lovely dark green pigmented glass. From the shoulders to the mouth, there are vertically stretched entrained bubbles and vertical lines of reddish pigment. There is an applied handle on one side and a ring around the top rim, both made of cobalt blue glass. It is about 21.5 cm high and 9.2 cm wide. I believe that it was probably made in the mid-80s. It is in excellent condition, with no damage. This lovely, quality piece is unsigned. When purchased, it carried a collector's label stating that it was made by the eminent New Zealand glass artist Peter Viesnik. Peter did not recognise it as his work. My research led to a very prominent early New Zealand glass artist, Mel Simpson, who has personally confirmed to me that it has many characteristics of his work, including the octagonal moulded shape, the particular melt colours, the entrained bubbles, the shape of the pontil scar and the combination of two different hot glass colours. He was surprised that it was not signed and suggested that it may have been bought directly from his Elam workshop, prior to it being formally for sale. MEL SIMPSON (1948 - ) was one of the pioneers of studio glass in New Zealand. In 1980, he was one founder of the NZ Society of Artists in Glass. Mel learnt glass-blowing in 1975 at UCLA in the US. He then returned to Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland to teach and established its glass facilities in 1978. Ann Robinson, Garry Nash and Peter Raos were among his students. He exhibited widely in NZ and overseas between 1980 and 1993. This lovely vase was formed in several steps. First, molten green glass is poured into an octagonal mould. Air bubbles are then introduced, near the top. The piece is then removed from the mould, attached to a pontil rod, a little pigment dotted on between the bubbles, the top of the vase then drawn out and finally the blue handle and top rim attached. The moulded base is nicely indented and is very even and flat, with no need for a ground surface. The pontil mark is very clean and neat, and is not ground or fire-polished. This lovely piece is a typical production piece from the mid-1980s made by one of New Zealand's art glass pioneers. It has both fine form and good function and is highly collectable. I have a number of other modern and vintage art glass and similar pieces for sale. Why don't you check them out? Hit the button at the top right for “Seller's other items”.

Price: 220 AUD

Location: West Pennant Hills, NSW

End Time: 2025-01-23T05:43:51.000Z

Shipping Cost: 43.62 AUD