This issue is devoted entirely to Orange Cloud Glass.

Orange Cloud Glass

Orange is the second rarest colour of Cloud Glass made by Davidson. Most of the Orange Cloud Glass available for sale today comes from Australia and New Zealand. This suggests most of the glass was made for the export market. Orange Cloud glass was difficult to make and more expensive than the other Cloud Colours available at the time. Typically Orange was between 20 and 25% more expensive. Davidson also produced two variants. The first Orange Cloud Glass had trails that were very yellow, appearing like custard on the rims of bowls and vases. Davidson had many production problems with this variant, and produced a modified form in time for the 1934 British industries fair. Here the trails were a definite orange colour.

The first attempted production run of Orange Cloud Glass was made on 20^th March 1933. A glassmaker named Graham made 55 8” No 712 vases. These were all described as ‘Bad Colour’ and rejected. On the following day the same glassmaker made 712 vases and the full range of 279 (column) vases. The result this time was ‘Bad Shapes’ and ‘Seedy Metal’. Seedy Metal means the glass contained lots of small bubbles. Despite this most of the production run was passed by the inspectors. On the 24 and 25^th March the glassmaker George Hall made a large number of different styles of bowls in Orange, including patterns 701, 702, 727, 21, 20, 732, 248, and 696. This time the shape of the glass was fine, but they still had the problem of seedy metal.

Normally glassmakers were paid for each item they made which passed inspection. The amount paid depended on the complexity of the design. Higher rates were paid for Cloud Glass than ordinary flint or coloured glass. As they were having so many problems with the Orange the glassmakers were paid a flat hourly rate, rather than per item.

After the 25^th March they went back to the drawing board and no more Orange Cloud Glass was made until the 8^th May. On this day the glassmaker Graham made 712 and 279 vases and 732 Flower Bowls. This run was more successful, with the records having no comments about seedy metal. Over the next five days, a large range of vases and bowls were made. Only a few had the seedy metal problem. Again there was a break in production until July, when on the 11^th Orange Cloud Glass was once again made. This production run ended on the 26^th July.

The manufacture of Orange Cloud Glass did not resume until the 7^th December that year. It would appear that this was the first production run of the modified form of Orange Cloud Glass. After the 20^th December, no more Orange was made until March 1934. As the modified form of Orange was first shown in the February 1934 British Industries fair, this glass had to have been made in the December.

Large quantities of Orange Cloud Glass were made in March, April, May and June of that year. There then followed a short break and production resumed at the end of August. This run was short lived, Orange Cloud Glass was made on only 6 days in late August and Early September. No more was made until April 1935.  Again large quantities were made in April, May and June of that year.

This is an unusual production schedule. For all other types of glassware, the production was constant through out the year. Typically a particular colour would be made over a period of one or two days followed by a gap of a few days or even a few weeks. The Orange Cloud Glass production schedule could have been the result of trying to keep shipping costs down.  They produced the glass and then shipped the bulk of the production run to Australia in a single shipment.

After June 1935, there was again a break in production until the 10^th December. The very last production run was on the 13^Th December that year. In this final run they made the 204 and 204D posy bowls – the only time this style was made in orange Cloud Glass.

Orange Cloud Glass caused Davidson many problems. It was both difficult and expensive to produced. As a colour, it was not popular at home and the bulk of production went abroad.  The short life of the colour suggests that its popularity abroad was not great. In the records there is also no mention of a Yellow Cloud Glass. This suggests that yellow results from times when they had problems obtaining a good orange colour and probably sold as ‘seconds’.

Fortunately for collectors some of the Davidson records survive. From these we have been able to produce a complete catalogue of Orange Cloud Glass. The table below shows the total number of items made in Orange Cloud Glass for each style. The table includes both the number of items made, and the number of items that passed inspection. The problems with orange meant that the wastage rate with Orange Cloud Glass was higher than any other colour. The information in the table was obtained from surviving glassmaker records. These show what the glassmaker made and how much he was paid (it was an all male profession at the time). There are some errors in the records. For example according to the accounts only 7.5” 204 posy bowls were made in orange, yet 9” ones are known to exist. In other places the No 10 Grid fitting is described as an ashtray! The fact that a wrong style was written down did not concern the glassmaker, providing he was paid the correct amount. On the whole the records are accurate.

Davidson Office staff often were not consistent as to whether a style was classified as either a bowl or a vase. In this table we have followed Davidson’s records and some flower bowls are included under the Vase list.

The column headed Colour Variant shows whether a design was made in Unmodified Orange, Modified Orange or both.