Sunday 14 January 2018

Marked or Not....

Like all collectors we have a number of pieces that are not marked but it is very apparent who made them.  Once we find a piece that is not marked it just makes us look harder to find one that is marked, and that is fun.

CARNOTT Art Wares  (copied with permission of the writer)
The Origin of the Name Solved
On page 16 of the booklet “Know Your Medalta: Vases” where I discussed CarNott 
artwares, I suggested that while the origin of this name was likely lost to us, it may 
have referred to a coloured lacquer finish; but, now thanks to an astute reader, we 
probably have the origin solved.   John Shairp put two and two together noting that  
the new owners of the plant in 1929, just before Medalta introduced its artwares, 
were named Reginald C. Carlisle and O. Clair Arnott. What could be simpler than 
the origin of CarNott as coming from “Car” in Carlisle and “Nott” in Arnott? Thank
you John for not only spotting the association that was not obvious to me but also
 for bringing it to my attention. 

The birds we have are not marked but you can see them in a photo in Ron Getty's "Know Your Medalta: Vase" on page 19.  There is a photo of a display of CarNott ArtWare and the bird is on the bottom right hand corner.  As yet we have not seen one that is marked, I am not sure if anyone else has had the pleasure of finding one that is marked in any way.

The birds were made in two different ways - some had holes in the base to make a flower frog and others did not and were just figurines.  One of our birds came with a bowl that appears like it was meant to be the bowl the flower frog bird sat in. 






There is a different bird in the same photo and as of yet we have not seen that one outside of the collection at the Medalta site in Medicine Hat.  The following photo is one that was taken at the Medalta Museum in Medicine Hat.








The same photo of the display also shows the polar bear and on the next page it looks like there is a photo of the same bear in brown.








I am adding a couple of links to internet pages that we have used and they have some great information.  We also use the books written by Ron Getty, they are an invaluable source of information for Medalta collectors.  There are several others but we tend to use Ron Getty's the most and often have them with us when we travel.

https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17142/22847

https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17156/22857

https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/MCR/article/view/17062/22922

http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/sgc-cms/histoires_de_chez_nous-community_memories/pm_v2.php?id=story_line&lg=English&fl=0&ex=00000494&sl=4287&pos=1

And the Search Continues.......