It's an Itsy Bitsy Spider Vase

 Look away now if you don't like spiders!

Sherwood Spider Vase - Side one

The original spider vases, with the hand-painted black spider, were made during the Sherwood era, sometime between 1949 and 1954 at Waitakere. A rather realistic spider waits patiently for its next meal on a web strung between two branches. Pinecones sit at the base of this triangular vase. 

Why do I like these vases? They remind me of webs sparkling with dew at dawn in our native garden we planted over twenty years ago. I try to be aware of them not only for their beauty, but because they're soooo sticky if you walk into one at head height. Never been one for spiders though, especially the huntsman that come in unexpectedly through our windows. I've only briefly met a white tail spider and that was inside the hood of my raincoat I'd just put on. Danny spotted it and told me, 'Stand Still!! Stand Very Still!!' before flicking it away.  

Sherwood Spider Vase (Side two)

With the early examples you can easily make out the crisp patterning from a freshly made mold. With the slip being poured in and out over time the details of the molds soften. Depending on the mold design they may only last fifty pours. On this example the muted colours have been thoroughly airbrushed so as to achieve full coverage of the outside. 

Spider Vase V.104 (photo ©Philip Moll)

Titian Studio spider vases, up until 1957, look identical to the Sherwood pieces except for the reduced amount of airbrushed colour on the web and the addition of the high gloss clear glaze. On the base is the easily recognisable green slash, whereas the Sherwood example was painted in white glaze, except for the firing ring.

Sherwood Spider Vase base / Titian Studio Spider Vase base

Post 1957, after the Brown's move to Henderson, the Spider Vase was given a makeover. It was bigger, and had Titian Studio (in script) plus the product code, T.104 impressed into the base. The colourful versions were still available for purchase, however white was 'all the rage'. Cam Jnr tells me that the request from distributors, who knew the market best, were for pieces to be glazed in white, and finished in a gloss clear coat. White glazed pieces were their 'bread and butter' for quite some time.

White Titian Studio T.104 Spider Vase converted into a lamp

Some of the later versions, post 1957, were fitted with plastic stems, leaves and flowers illuminated with bulbs. The vases were modified at production by drilling out a small hole near the base, prior to glazing so as to accommodate the bouquet's wiring. Floral Lights purchased the glazed spider vases and set them up as lamps. Though an interesting story, there is no truth to the flowers being wired up by gypsies and sold at fairs. The public were able to purchase the Spider Lamps from various retailers, including lighting specialist shops and florists.  

 

Drilled hole for the installation of the wiring on a coloured T.104 Spider Vase

Floral Lights paper label on base of a T.104 Spider Vase

N.Z. MADE BY FLORAL LIGHTS LTD.

P.O. BOX 6074 WELLESLEY ST. AKL.

240 V  10 4.5 V  12 WATTS A.C. ONLY

The Spider Vase was to be included in another blog post I was writing. But, like so often happens, this piece needed its own post so its story could be told. I hope I haven't scared too many people off with this lovely piece. It's the only scary one in all of Titian's pieces. 

Happy days,

Louise

©Louise de Varga 2022 - Content and pictures in this blog