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Thanks,
Peter

The site looks fine...some tweaking to improve it might help. I have spent the last fifteen minutes trying to find out how to leave you this comment..."REPORT" is the last thing I expected. Alternative would be "RESPOND". The title page of the site bleeds way off the screen. Is there a setting I need to alter to keep it tidy like the inside of the site?

Hi Centaurfix1,
I assume your computer is set at 800x600 in your screen properties. The normal resolution for whitefriars.org is 1024 x 768.

If the preference of many people is to use the lower setting I can redesign the pages to fit within that smaller width. The photos lower down on the screen probably also appear too far to the right and you have to use the scroll bar I guess.

PS: I have fixed it now so that 'Guests' can add replies without needing to login. But you will have to be patient if you are a Guest and your post will be moderated (checked for acceptable content) prior to it becoming 'live' on the board. Members posts are not moderated if you login.

Thanks,
Peter

Wonderful, wonderful site - as always. As an incurable nosy knickers love the 'curtain twitching element'. Would it be possible, Peter, to have the site email members notifying them that new messages have come in? I remember with the Yahoo format I'd go into my mailbox and find message notifications from the Whitefriars group. I was immediately curious - would almost always head to the site to find out what was going on and would join in on the discussions. What do you think? PinkyX

Hi, I'm with Pinky on that one..always thought the 'new message' thing keeps things fresh..
I suppose there should be a facility for it to be switched off- for anyone that finds it intrusive though ?

Great site, I just bought my first computer this year and this site has been invaluable for identifying some of the glass vases and dishes in my collection. It's a shame the factory closed as it seems that the designs and designers are at last being fully appreciated.
Good luck
Harry

Hello, thanks for all the lovely pictures.. I have found out that I am apparently a very lucky woman indeed, having picked up what I have been told is a 'Large Bark Vase' (9") in Lilac!! I bought it for a modest £4, not knowing what it was at all.. just falling in love with it on sight! Anyone have any idea what it's real value might be?? Andm thanks again.. the pictures are beautiful!! Stazi, X.

Hi.
Have been collecting Whitefriars, when money and time permit, for the last 4 years but am frankly nowhere near you guys! Have about 100 pieces but not the big and rare ones, just bark and bubble bowls, sodas, optics, knobblys, molars etc. I've about 50 Baxter textureds but unfortunately they go no bigger than small bricklayers and mobile phones.

Was particularly interested in your photos of 'other' glass. I've often been tempted but have only bought a few pieces that bhave been good value as I'm not sure what is what. Can anyone advise me of a good site or book where I can improve my knowledge, particularly on Scandinavian? With Whitefriars the price it is, although I note that it's dropping lately, I'm buying less and less as what I need is the rare colours and big sizes - and that means money. Would love to get back the thrill of buying something I love that can grow into a collection. Any ideas?

Purple Scarf

great site

Hi, think this site is brilliant. Started buying last month, only managed to get five pieces up to now (nothing too expensive yet!). Love the bit where you report on how much pieces have sold on ebay, this is a great help and lets me know that I am not overbidding or how much to bid to. Will be a frequent visitor to the site. Thanks very much
Maureen

Wow, Maureen. FIVE peices in just one month is very good going. Took me ages to get my second piece of whitefriars. But the GOOD news is that the more you know about it, the more you find. I am quite sure I passed up loads of Whitefrias at first because I didn't know enough about the hundreds and hundreds of different designs. good luck. emmi

i love this site, it has helped me a lot.
Many thanks

Joy Cann York
New Member
I was born at 44 Whitefriars Avenue 1951
The Whitefriars Factory was at the bottom of our garden.
I own 6 peices of blue glass. One still with its Whitefriar sticker

A good site well done. I have several Whitefriars paperweights as I knew the factory very well and Geoffrey Baxter was a friend and i was a frequent visitor to the Harrow Weald factory in the 1980's. Roy Lakin and Bill Wilson were also colleagues in the industry.
One amusing story about Whitefriars was when they were attending a British Expo exhibition in San Francisco. They had their stand next to ours ( Nazeing Glass Works), and they had a very special display of 20 different paperweights locked safely in a cabinet about which there were paranoid.
Our Sales Director John Macer noticed this and each evening used to" help" put the display away in the locked cabinet. As Roy or bill used to hand him the paperweight he would count 1, 2, 3.4 etc. but making sure to skip one number so that 20 would be counted but one less put in the cabinet. Imagine their consternation next day to find that one had gone missing during the night!
At the end of the show, when 5 'weights had gone missing, John found them mysteriously tucked away in a box under their counter, much to their relief!

Sadly, the company lost its way towards the end. To illustrate this whne they were closing I got a 'phone call from Geoffrey to ask if we were interested in some 3,500 blank lead crystal decanters. I shot over there and examined them. there was about 12 different sorts, but no stoppers. they wanted £15 per decanter!
We would have to make the stoppers and after moaning that our colour lead might not match theirs, we offered £3.50 each , a cheque for over £10k. They accepted.
A month later I got a 'phone call saying they had found boxes of about 3,500 decanter stoppers! They wanted £3 each! We offered 50p, so ended up with three years stock of decanters which we had cut and sold at £20 to £30 each costing us £4! All because of their appalling stock control!

Hello Stephen, two very interesting stories there. And nice to hear them. So there are about 3,500 cut glass decanters out there that are neither pure Whitefriars, nor pure Nazeing! Have you got a photo of one of them?

regards Emmi

Hi Stephen

It's always good to hear first hand stories which bring the glass to life!!

How about posting some pictures of any Nazing glass you have.

Regards

Hazel

What a fantastic site and what a lovely surprise to find out that my 'jos-stick/ spare key holder' vase which I purchased in a charity shop 3 years ago for £5 is infact a 'meadow green banjo vase'!!
I had seen a similar vase on a tv programme which instigated my interest and search...bingo!

It is naturally held in far greater esteem now, and has even had a good wash and shine. Thankfully those keys which were often thrown into it never managed to cause any chips or scratches...

Am going to have to kind some companions for the banjo now, though don't imagine that I am likely to find anything as affordable again in a hurry. Though my mum informs me that an aunt has what she thinks is a hooped vase in aubergine, so here is hoping she is fond of her nephew...

Keep up the excelent work - I really think you ought publish a book with your obvious knowledge and the most impressive extent of your collection.

V BEST

MARK

hi , your website was a great help in identyfying the vase i bought my mum in the late sixties. after watching the antique programmes on television i thought it was whitefriars but had never seen the lead crystal shown, only coloured vases. now i would like to know what it may be worth, so perhapes we'll go to the auction room !! thanks again
val symonds

Hello, not sure about the site yet as this is my first time on, but ok so far.
My name is Harry and i am currently undertaking a dissertation on Whitefriars, Geoffery Baxters textured glass, which has got me hooked and i have purchased 3 items so far, and would be grateful for any information at all on this subject, so if anyone can help me please contact me here or at antiqubull@hotmail.com

Thank you all

Harry

Wow! What an amazing collection. Thank you so much for sharing it, and for providing invaluable information to this newbie collector. I'll be popping in often (too often, my partner will no doubt say! ). Keep up the good work!

Hello from australia,
thank you for a very interesting site. I think the idea of posting auction prices a valuable resource.
You have to amazed at the whitefriars collection of different coloured glass and shapes.
a great site keep up the good work!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello! I'm Jenny Darling, an enthusiastic collector of Whitefriars. I have nearly a dozen controlled bubble bowls, in various colours, some are definitely seconds, but nice to look at and touch. I also have one pewter coffin vase and covet another in either meadow green or amethyst! Can't afford it yet.....

What a super collection.
I bought (after a great deal of consideration being an impoverished student at the time) a large cinnamon waisted Geoffrey Baxter vase in 1967 at the Army and Navy Stores in London and have loved it ever since. I'd be interested to know if it has increased in value.

You can look through the auction results for prices of Whitefriars. Your waisted vase will have undoubtedly increased in value!!!

http://www.whitefriarsorg.org/memb1/a6-auctions/auctions.htm

Vidfletch

Hello from the US! I've just started collecting Whitefriars pieces last year and this site has been a great resource in providing identification and valuation info. Thanks for your efforts! Acquired so far: several barks and one each of the cello, sunburst, pot belly, hourglass, and hambone patterns.

Great going, Scott! Why don't you post photos on the site? I'm sure lots of us would love to see them (and, in my case, drool! )

This post has been edited by Romy on Feb 4 2007, 06:26 PM

I was most impressed with your collection, I know absolutely nothing about Whitefriars, but I bought my first piece yesterday, I normally collect Carlton Ware, so it is a bit of change for me.

Not doubt I paid too much but the piece is lovely.

And after seeing the wide range of colours and textures, I think I just might be hooked.

In our Episcopal Church in our Missouri town of St James, we have a 1931 Whitefriars memorial stained glass window that is quite magnificent. I would like to send you a photo of it and ask for any documentation you would have on that creation. It was ordered and purchased by Mrs. Lucy Wortham James for her
uncle, Robert Grahm Dun of New York, Dun and Bradstreet. It is a vertical gothic shape two feet wide by ten feet high, with vivid colors, green dominant.
I will work on sending you the image.
thank you
Johanna MacPherson
secretary of the Episcopal Church Women
of Trinity Episcopal Church
120 East Scioto
St James, MO 65559
johannamacpherson@gmail.com

Hi, my names Ian, to those who new me, I was known as Bloggsy, I worked at the Whitefriars Glass factory from 1965 to 1980 when it closed, I worked with the famous Ronni Wilkison as what was known as a footmaker making the very items on your web site, I new Jeffry Baxtor, and was involved with the very first examples of the studio glass that is now very collectable, the very first moulds were actually made from wood and real bark. I am now going to look at the rest of the site. If anyone would like to no more about the days then, you can contact me at Ian.Blagden@ntlworld.com

Hello Ian and welcome. I ama sure some of the members here will make contact with you to hear about the old days at Whitefriars.

In the meantime, I wonder if you can help me. If you look at the post in the "Identify my Item" section with the heading "Mystery Knobbly" I have mentioned some names whom I am told worked at Whitefriars at least until 1977 -78. If you know of any of them, it would be nice if you could reply on that thread, as I am trying to establish if my vase is authentic. Thank you in anticipation. Emmi

PS I see you are "unregistered" so you may not be able to reply on the forum, but you can do so here if you dont want to register.

This post has been edited by vidrioclaro on Feb 16 2007, 09:24 PM

Hi, Emmi, Im waiting to be accepted as a registered member by the administrator, I will be known as Bloggsy, which was the nickname I was given at the classworks, it was the nickname given to my farther who work there for 45 years and my older brother who worked there for 10, your vase looks like a "baggintime" (lunchtime) frigger, as it was made with the same tool used to make the kobblies, that being a metal shaped letter "S" pressed and twisted into the softer molten outer glass, and when re-heated, blown, and shapped, created the knobbly effect, the workers often used to experiment with the works designs and colours creating variants on the originals, and in them selves, they often became new patterns, so yours has rarity value, I have quite a few friggers of my own, that myself and others made, thats how it used to work, workers and designers like Wilson and Baxter, feeding ideas off each other.
I do indeed recognise one of the names you mention, Jonny King and myself worked together a lot and were good friends, I have one of the tools he passed onto me, which was in tern passed to him by the well known glassmaker Charlie Hill, it was Jonny who taught me how to make swans with this tool, which was one of my job in the last few years of Whitefriars. I was also friends with his two glassblower brothers Eddi and Dennis, his farther also worked there as well, his name I can't remember at the moment, he worked more on the glass preperation side, creating the mix for melting. I hope this has been of some help.
Ian

Hi Bloggsy,

Welcome to the message forum.

Peter

Hi Ian,

Eddie King sends his regards. Have a look at my post about our Whitefriars Day. Give us a ring on 020 7610 3344 if you would like come and meet up with Ray and Eddie and maybe Johnnie.

Adam Aaronson

Hi Adam, send Eddi my best regards as well, having only just joined I don't know how to look at your post and find out about the Whitefriars Day, perhaps someone can gen me up on how to do these things, but I am very interested in coming and meeting all the people you mention, I will give you a call on the number given and find out the details.

regards

Ian

Ian,

Adam's post is in the "Curtain Twitching" section of the forum.

See the link below;

http://whitefriarsorg.org/mf/index.php?showtopic=607

Vidfletch

Hi, Thanks for the info on the curtain twiching section, I found the posting on the Whitefriars Day and have been in contact with Adam, I have also been looking at his very impressive web site, it made me quite envious of the people still in the trade, I would love to get back into it, they were the best years of my working career, I still have quite a few glassmaking tools up in the loft which I have been looking at today, a little polish and they would be ready to go, I may not have mentioned it before, but I was also a Gaffer for a few years, starting with running a tumbler team and later with a small team making the Swans that people like to collect now, I still have the tools for making those as well, I still have a couple of the Swans I made sitting in a display area now with a few other WF bits.

All for now, will keep visiting the site to see whats going on, Iv got the time, as Im out of work at the moment, and employers don't like wrinklies.

Look forward to meeting old pals on WF open day

hi Ian. I was clearing out my desk yesterday and I think I've lost your phone no. Can you give me a call tomorrow or email me adam atsign aaronsonnoon dot com.

Thanks

Adam

Hi, very intersting web site. Easy to move around in and look at the beautiful glass objects. I currently have a piece of Whitfriars glass. It's an ink well made in 1848. If you can help me with finding out some information about it, I would appreciate it.

This is a great site, really useful in identifying what is Whitefriars glass. I didn't realise that the wedding anniversary present I bought my parents 30 years ago was going to turn out to be a collectable item.

Hi,

I have been using this site for a number of years and find it an invaluable resource in increasing my knowledge and identifying the glass. Congratulations on spending the time to provide a great website. Long may it continue.

Thanks
Des