CGB is for Cool Glassware Buddy!

Another box-ticker from the Gift Fair at the NEC, and we're looking at glass animals from CGB Giftware, who are clearly some kind of marketing outfit for a cooperative of smaller, artisan makers, with at least two brands visible, Jasmine and Fox Fern.

 

Some of these are so clever, you have to work very fast, with molten glass, to get the techniques to work, and while there's an element of once you've designed one, you can reproduce it quicker and quicker, the nature of artists is that they will constantly have new ideas, so they are always trying new things, I love the giraffe with the bent neck, these two kerthunkersaurs, and, the ducks must be incredibly hard to get 'right'?

T is for Two - Davies & Langs

Here are a couple of companies formed in the nineteen-forties, so both in their 80th decade, and perhaps set-up with the post-war grants or ex-service gratuities, which were available at the time, and led to several toy companies being formed in the same era? Both shot at the 2025 Gift Fair in Birmingham's NEC, back in February. 

 

I don't suppose Davies Products started (1947) with much poured resin, but that's one of the materials they are carrying now, Davies are an importer specialising in Christmas decorations, and work closely with The Garden Centre Association, where you will find piles of this stuff at the moment.

 

And we're looking at the perennial favourites, nutcrackers, in three styles and another of this year's clear trends - retro' pulp-rockets and/or/with deform NASA astronauts, that's about eight, or ten times they've been on the Blog since this time last year, and there's more in the queue!

 

While Richard Lang ('Langs', established in 1949) describe themselves as "Wholesale Gift & Home Decor Suppliers", so I don't know where these glass ornaments actually came from, but they are very well done, and would make good cake decorations, now the chalkware and plastic ones have all but disappeared? The shot's not brilliant, but unknown to me the camera's lens was probably already failing, by February?

G is for Glass Animals - Oh Dear, More Deer!

I was toying, for several years (the folder these come from has been filling since 2020) with trying to establish 'Vitrines' as the collective noun for these, but the trouble is vitrines are already a thing, specifically small glass table-top/mantle-piece display cabinets, sometimes confused with the similar terrarium glass mini-greenhouses for houseplants, or even fancy lanterns for tea-lights!

 

So even if you were minded to go along with me, it wouldn't be ideal, and sometimes confusing, while if you were determined to not cooperate with the naming exercise, it would annoy the hell out of you every time I used it!

 

Equally, some people call them 'Murano', especially on eBay, where EVERYONE's an expert! And, while there are elements of Murano in their production, Murano is a particular form of Venetian Glass, specifically from the island of Murano, and pertains to larger pieces, using techniques not often found in these little novelty animals, which are more generic to glass foundries everywhere, and amateur glass-sculpting hobbyists.

 

AND, we're looking for a word or phrase which will also cover the plastic-tat versions, and 'coloured-transparent-animals-in-glass-or-plastic' is too much of a mouthful, so, they will be 'Glass Animals' in the Tags, even if they are plastic, and I hope that suits everyone!

 

In the order in which they were originally shot, we'll start with the plastic tat! These were a common prize at fairgrounds, where skill in hooping, hooking, magnet-fishing, shooting (air-guns or darts) or knocking a coconut off a pole, could win you your very-own, chained together set of coloured, transparent animals!

 

Chained together, coloured, transparent . . . yeah, well, boys would pick a pack of cap-bombs or something!  A loo-roll 'Furby' (called a Gonk, and predating Furbies by several decades!), or a bottle of bubble-liquid with wand, were other common choices, a Frisbee, or a balsa-wood fighter-plane! But, under multicoloured, flashing lighting, on their little gloss-painted wooden plinths, these boxes looked pretty attractive!

 

One the left, 1950/60's, on the right 1970's, even more-tattier, tat, in a reverse pose, but the charm's still there, and I bet you can still find these in some souks or markets about the planet! In the end, key-rings were added to some of the more substantial, or just 'less-frangible' mouldings.

 

But, in the 1940/50's, you got glass ones! And here, on the left is a box for a glass set, with a slight variation of the other set on the right - lightly oblong box against the first one's true-square, and a variation of code number, 33V as opposed to 33VA?

 

AG or GA does not spell Venice or Murano! German, Czech', American . . . Japanese?

"ArtNo" hints at Germany, does anyone know?

AG could be something-Glass.

 

The glass ones are much finer, and quite delicate, although some strength is imparted by dint of the stretching, and the annealing effects of continued heating and cooling, as the various steps of the manufacturing-process are gone through.

 

Glass got tissue-paper packing, while plastic gets plastic!

 

Comparison between the two, let's be fair to the toy-men of Hong Kong, it's not bad, and in a capitalist world, it's all about the money saved, at least they've tried to make the one resemble the other? No pink bows, or chains, on this (later?) set of plastics?

 

"Come out to play!"

 

Another boxing of the plastics, the little pink bows are illustrated, but the bondage chains are left off all artworks, here credited to an Illfelder Toy Co., of New York, but plainly the same Hong Kong product.

 

A lot I saw on eBay, with pink-glass horses (or donkeys?), the ceramic deer we saw, cropped-out in a previous post a day or two ago (I'm losing track at the moment!), and a chained set of the 'barley-sugar' deer, also in glass.

 

This one, who I picked-up the other day, in a charity shop next to the lucrative (for Rack Toy Month) Post Office in Cranleigh, is slightly more Murano in style with the orange glass-powder sprinkled, or, more commonly 'picked-up' by rolling the molten glass over the ground glass, on it's back, but is, otherwise, following the same pattern as the others, and it's one of the simpler techniques.

 

While these - above - are obviously all mass-produced sets of commercial production, the many glass animals you find, may also include both craft/hobbyist pieces, and end-of-term/end-of-year student test pieces - can you produce, using a set number of techniques, a number of similar sculpts, following a set of recently-taught rules?

V is for Vitrious

You may have noticed I'm trying to alternate Toy fair and Gift Fair posts, between London Loot's, it won't last for long, but in the meantime here's the next post from Birmingham's Spring Fair; Parmy Ltd., a maker of glass ornamentals, including these exquisite little figurals.

 

Smaller.

 

Bigger.

 

Close-up!

 

Made from hot rods of coloured glass, it's like working with scalding cheese or something, but the finished articles are very clever. There were several similar companies at the show and I shot various other lots, so we'll be returning to the new 'Vitrines' tag!

Website

https://www.parmy.co.uk/

V is for Vitriform Venusian Villains

Well, they don't look very friendly, they're as likely to be from Venus as anywhere else, given they are FICTIONAL, and they are definitely glasslike, as they are made out of glass! I shot these oddities on Adrian's Mercator Trading table back at one of the London Shows in the year just gone - torch-welded rod-glass alien figuriens

They look like the kind of thing you get in the sort of gift shop which isn't tied to a major tourist attraction, or a posh/independent Hotel's gift shop - "Something to take home for the relatives"? Clearly in a Murano style, but not well-executed enough to be such a renowned mark, and these were unmarked, in generic plain stock-boxes, but still - rather fun!

I think the two on the left are variations of the same purple/mauve chap/ess, while red and blue are to the same design, but obviously different colourways (red is quite opaque) and the green amphibiman one is altogether different, maybe from Mars! They could - of course - be qualification/end of term pieces from a glass student? The bases are also glass, opaque, white glass, like and Old Spice bottle!

Q is for Quintet of Queerish Questors

Yeah, I dun'know, it sort of started with Quartet and just grew! At one point it was diving divers di . . . it got samey! Just a quicky; it's been a long day! We're looking at a group of pretty diverse divers - oh, could have run with that?!! - I picked-up in the autumn and spring.

It's the five on the left we'll inspect in a minute, but I shot them with a few commoner plastics (trio to the right) to give some idea of size/scale and bulk/sculpt. From the left we have Manoil's hollow-cast US lump, a fully painted/matt-glazed bisque from Japan, Argentinian plastic cake-decoration (seen before) and Britain's own ceramic classic from Wade, the last is a Murano style, hand-made/blown vitreous example of the glass-carftsmann's art.

So Manoil's lump, and I don't call it a lump in a derogatory fashion, just that it's a heavy chunk of post-war lead-rich solidity! For it's time, it's a surprisingly modern suit with no cage-windows; although he seems to be carrying his air-hose, so deck or dock-side?

Also carrying his hose, this chap makes a quite good alien, being unrealistically short with a huge head, and fanciful suit-design . . . pressurised rubber? Slip-cast hollow-bisque and marked 'JAPAN'.

Wade's is similarly as fine a material as bisque, but a solid cast with a full, translucent glaze which settles after firing like a heavy wash. Not a Whimsy, but a larger, stand-alone piece aimed at the tourist keepsake/seaside market I guess . . . I shouldn't have to guess, I have the Wade book somewhere, but currently in a storage unit!

The fourth of the new additions and what a peach! Probably not as difficult to produce as some of the little animals, but still, it's all very clever . . . one of my secret pleasures at the moment is watching glass-blowing and twist-marble manufacturing videos on YouTube! So I have some idea how he's been rolled out and split, the colours added as hotter blobs, the fins squished down with steel pinchers, and so on!

We did see this chap, not long ago, but he was still around, so he gets a second outing! A polyethylene cake-decoration, with icing-spikes, under his feet and simple paint; that silver again, the Argentines like their silver paint! But a unique sculpt, as far as I know?

A second group shot, the number of photographs is due to the fact that I shot 'an article' . . . twice! Only a few days apart, I totally forgot the first photo-shoot - when I uploaded the SD-Card, there they all were; a few hedgehogs apart! Doh!

T is for Two - Ships in Bottles!

A very quick one tonight, I've been having a 'bit of a week', boiler wise! Among the items I've inherited are two ships, in bottles, these are they . . .

This was from a Perrier Water promotion in the 1970's, a friend of Mum's (also our friend Guy's mum!) was a promoter who used to go round supermarkets or department stores demonstrating things and giving out free samples (Mum did too; a while later - I became addicted to mini frozen jam-doughnuts at one point!), and as well as the bottles of free Perrier, there were plastic key-ring bottles (which I should have somewhere, but can't remember seeing it for years?), and reward bonuses, and I think this was one of those.

Google and feebleBay reveal other Perrier ships in bottles, but they must have been different promotions or regions, as I only remember Janet having a few of these for her team. The ship - Loch Torridon, a four-masted barque/clipper-ship; one of the last) is fascinating, although it's history varies on the internet, some thinking it Norwegian when it foundered, some Russian, Wiki's probably best for a primer!

I've also seen this exact model in a different bottle, for a whiskey company's similar promotion, so the model must have been commissioned from a commercial ship-in-bottle modelling company!

This is more of a tourist memento/keepsake, and a fine example of blown-glasswork it is, one sail has fallen off, but finding someone with the skill to mend it is going to take a few phone-calls, as while there are craft glass-works about the place, there can't be many who can do key-hole surgery with long molten rods through the end of a bottle!

It's a more fanciful model of a more medieval type I think? That's it - two ships in bottles!

E is for Ends; Loose, of Christmas and the Year

Really it's 'L is for Loose Ends' but I know we've had that title before!

The last bits from Brian Berke's recent eMails, my last seasonal shelfie, last words on nutcrackers, baubles and chocolate advent calendars, presents, stationary, catering supplies and a glass animal . . .

. . . .my last present to you this Christmas is to drop all the crumbs left in Picasa or on my desktop into your RSS feed! If you get the Blog via such a thing - I've never really worked out what feeds are, how they work or where RSS's differ from other feeds!

Kicking off with Brian's last present to me . . . a shelfie he took in Connecticut recently of a Crimbo pullover, he suggested I might be able to say something nice about it . . . but I'm not sure I can!

It's got a nutcracker on it so it has its place in the pantheon of nutcracker related stuff we've looked at as a seasonal 'thing', and to be kind to it, it's . . . . err . . . distinctive; if people are found wearing one once I've become Supreme Overlord of Earth (and Emperor of France); it will make it easier to have them rounded-up and turned into pet food (it's for the good of the gene-pool not the pets), but I'm not sure it has any other redeeming features, it's lost its sleeves for a start!

And having seen the weather they've been having in Connecticut in the last week or two, the fact that this is still on its hanger says plenty! Thanks Brian!

Which brings us neatly to another tabloid head-fit over nothing (see yesterday-moning's post), the rink is plenty big enough and there were little two-handled penguins about 3-foot high for kids to ride/lean on if they weren't used to ice, the restrictions on numbers may have been a 'elf'und'safty' thing, but with the best of intentions behind it, (people in authority don't want to be sued because stupid people have hurt themselves doing things which have hurt stupid people since time immemorial!), nevertheless; the tabloids had a field-day of unnecessary outrage.

I have fond memories of both Lichfield and its neighbour Tamworth, being stationed between the two at Whittington for my basic-training back in 1984.

I just saw two more life-size nutcrackers! And the biggest yet at about 9 feet, but they don't beat . . .

. . . attack of the 10-foot-plus woman! I found this young lady looking lost in Woking's main shopping-precinct while delivering a Bah Humbug card in the week before Christmas (nothing to report in/from the Toysaurus), I don't recognise her, maybe advertising a forthcoming cinematographical or theatrical event of some sort?

Or did Woking Borough Council just leave a 10-foot, barely-dressed (hardly festive and definitely not 'for the weather'!) woman in the way to surprise unwary shoppers weighed down with Christmas gifts and/or flu? Does anyone recognise her? At about twice life-size it's a new one (2:1) for the tag list!

I shot these on Friday last (29th) in a charity shop window and I would have had them on Tuesday - just for fun - but they went over the weekend, the almost certainly Russian (or Eastern, ask TJF) equivalent of Erzgebirge, little wooden, lathe-turned, onion-towered orthodox churches, ringed for tree-hanging, aren't they charming? They'd make excellent village-markers in/for micro- or map- war-gaming!

Glass trees and the 'big bear' on the mantelpiece this Christmas, I can't remember if I've posted them before, but if I have; here they are again . . . It's still Christmas! The speckles on the mirror aren't dust, that's what age does to mirror-glass!

Most of the cracker presents this year went to the youngsters, but I managed to end-up with a mini pack of cards and a polymer paper-clip! We had wacky little hats this year, which were quite retro and looked more like something you'd see Laurel & Hardy wearing with stiff collars and kipper-ties!

While on boxing-day I lost the hat competition round my brother's as I wanted to go outside and suck on the vape, which entailed facing a raging squall which would have traduced my traditional tissue-paper crown to a piece of damp pulp, so I had to concede early!

My sister-in-law had lovely places set at table with 'merry festive napkins' (as Giles would have put it!) printed and folded in the shape of Christmas trees and Christmas jumpers, which while only ephemeral tissue were quite clever, I thought.

This year's seasonal kitchen roll was bears taking a stroll through the Crimbo-tree woods! A few sheets are saved each year for wrapping the new baubles and tree decorations when they go away with the others for another year.

My only figural present (other than the Peruvian chess set we looked at a while ago) was this little blown and rod-glass, Murano-style rhinoceros - it's OK; googly-eyed, cartoon rhinos don't attack Flying Fortress pilots! Although - that horn is not to be messed-with!

Collectable books didn't include much to interest figure-purists, and I think I have the Mechanical Toys in storage, but all three will prove useful. I also got the Richard Holmes/IWM D-Day book, which is a bit simplistic ('concise' is kinder), but makes a nice, easy-read, day-by-day account.

The Beswick is a bit like the Ramsey's railway and die-cast yearbooks, only not updated so often, but the old ones do turn-up cheap and I have three for four now including the Wade Whimsies one which is very useful, Lladro &etc.

The third Christmas tome is a treatise on Fossil watch tins . . .

. . . something that had completely escaped me, but about which I now know more than I will ever need to call upon . . . as I don't collect, and have no intention of ever collecting, watches, let alone their packaging! From the dates I guess Fossil took a leaf out of Swatch's book, where are Swatch now?

But it's a lovely thing with different years/model's tins arranged on pages with very nostalgic graphics or - as above - in equally nostalgic settings; a REAL 'Coffee Table' book. Come to Colorado 'The railway tree State'!

Brian B also sent these, a couple of weeks ago, the post had published and they might have waited 'till next year, but then this post started to accumulate in a spare folder! They look like the one's I couldn't find when I was whinging about them the other day; Confiserie Heidel chocolate advent calendars . . . proper ones!

I've since learnt that the local Bible-shop does proper ones with seasonal artwork (two designs), 24 windows and 24 different designs of chocolate so I've promised to buy them there next year!

In the meantime these two were in the 'News Views...' to-be-sorted pile, a bit late now, but I will try to work-up something next (this coming!) November, that's a bit timelier for finding them to enjoy over the important 24-days! From the Metro, on the right; the 'i' on the left.

This was the disappointing 25th and untraditional window's treat in my calendar. It's not that I don't 'get it'; everyone appreciates an extra chocolate; but it's a Christian 'event' and their rules say 24 windows, it's not like we are short of chocolates the next day! And nuts and cake and pudding and marzipan fruits, dates, figs, Turkish-delight, mints . . .

 . . . equally; I'm no Christian, but I try to at least pay lip-service to, or go along with the spirit of the thing, as I would at the Hajj or the Kumbh Mela, and it's a measure of how we are losing our souls as a species (to marketing) that we just accept a slide to godless consumption and the worship of the true God - Mammon - over retaining our cultural links with the past, even if we don't agree with the pan-dimensional mega-being element of the thing!

Or even - perish the thought - using education and intelligence to build a better, fairer, secular world for everyone, based on the rule of law and democratic principles.

On those cheerful thoughts (!) I'll wish you all a Happy New Year and hope to all the Gods - real or imagined - that it's better than the fractious, divisive one we've just escaped, but I fear that for many of us 2018 will be worse . . . the lunatics are [none-too-] firmly in charge of the asylum!