GLASS
Keith Murray is known to have produced over a thousand designs for glassware. A number of shapes were very similar to some of his ceramics. The natural fluidity of hot glass working meant that many of his pieces tend to look organic, although a large number which included heavy surface cutting, do have the more characteristic architectural feel that we associate with his designs. Murray experimented with a wide variety of glassworking techniques, creating bowls, vases and tableware's. Hot glass methods included optic mould blowing, used to create vertical and horizontal rippled effects and also to trap air bubbles between layers of glass. Cold working techniques included engraving, lathe cutting and intaglio lathe cutting (the latter for finer cut work).
Decoration ranged from simple cut motifs to entire landscape scenes. Some of these designs include:- stylised flowers, swimming fish with air bubbles floating to the surface, charging rams, small floral motifs, stars, cacti and a lanscape of aeroplanes & airport buildings. The original pattern books show that aeroplane scene took nine hours to engrave. One of his most popular motifs was the cactus design. The pattern books also show that this design was used on decorative and functional glassware, including bowls, vases and decanters and bathroom sets.
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The cactus decanter (above) would originally have had a shallow, domed stopper with rectangular cut lines to match the body of the decanter. |
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The tall decanter (left) is heavy and facetted with the entire surface having been cut and polished. Murray also designed a similar decanter where the main portion of the body is left plain and uncut. This is shown in an advertisment dated 1935. The bulbous decanter has simple, unpolished concave cutting on the body. The stopper is lozenge shaped and cut flat on both sides. Both of these decanters have been mould blown and hand finished. |
The vase (right) was made using transparent 'batch'* green glass and is both elegant and simple. The handles have been made using an optic mould to acheive the ribbing. The piece stands on a substantial wide, circular foot. There appear to be no mould lines apparent on the surface of the body suggesting that the whole piece was free-blown. Horizontal lines,inside, at the top of the vase are tool marks left by the glass-maker when the glass is still hot. Keith Murray appears to have designed a number of vases with applied handles. These can be found in a variety of shapes and sizes as well as being made using a range of techniques. * 'Batch' is the term used to describe the dried chemical formulae of glass. Certain chemicals are added to batch to give it it's various colours. e.g. cobalt gives a blue colour. |
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Collectors of Keith Murray's glass will have noticed that there are many variations in the colouring and weight of pieces. This is not an unusual. Colour variations would have been the result of slight differences in the batch mix. The weight of pieces could have |  |
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design or could have been as a result of experimentation. We have noticed that some cactus
vases (above right) are really quite heavy while others of equal and larger size, have
been much thinner. The density of glass is not a guide to it's quality. |
GLASS |
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