Faglaviks of Sweden "Spiral" Marigold On Vaseline Vase

I purchased this vase on Ebay during November of 2015 from a seller in Sweden who advertised it as a "Super Scarce Swedish Carnival Glass Vase". He advertised it was rare and had not seen another one like it. I had never seen the pattern before either and I really liked it because it was pretty, yes, but the shape was odd as was also the way it was made.

The eight "spiral" designs going around reminded me of the oval dangle earrings we wore back in the 70's except they were curlicues like doodles. The top was ground nicely with no chips and the bottom showed no signs of having a pontil so I decided it was blown in the mould. It looks as if it should fit into a type of holder because of the shape of its base as you can see better in the last photo. The price was right so without further hesitation, I bought it at the "Buy It Now" price listed.

When it arrived, I was pleasantly surprised of how pretty the iridescence was. I could see the top was ground nicely and had a green look. It wasn't until my home lost power one evening, due to a car striking a pole, that I blindly found a small flashlight which actually turned out to be my little black light so when I turned it on to look around, the only thing to really show up in my kitchen was this vase that glowed a beautiful green. So, it was vaseline glass all along and I never thought to check. It was a pleasant surprise.

It measured 4 3/4" tall, 3 5/8" across the opening, 2 1/2" wide at the base, and 5" wide at its widest girth.

I had put it on a shelf and just this last week I decided to email Glen & Stephen Thistlewood to ask if they were familiar with this pattern and who may have produced it. To my surprise (or should I say, I should not be surprised) that Glen was just a wealth of information and was as excited to help me write my article as I was with her. She wrote this just for Showcase and I am happy and excited to present it to you here.

Faglaviks Glass Works 

By Glen & Stephen Thistlewood

It was 1874, and the snow was deep and piled high on the rail track. Swedish glass wholesaler, Anders Andersson, must have been frustrated by the delay when his rail journey out of Gothenburg was halted by the drifting snow in the little town of Faglaviks. But Andersson turned the unplanned stop to his advantage as he investigated the local area, and a long-held desire to start his own glassworks became a reality. The Faglaviks glassworks was born out of serendipity – good luck.

And it was good fortune – serendipity – that led to our discovery of the glassworks in 2012, as we were researching for our e-books on Nordic Carnival Glass (from Sweden, Finland and Norway). One particular vase had been tantalising us with its distinctive and unusual characteristics. Our searches led us to the Faglaviks glass works, situated some 70 miles north east of Gothenburg. Faglaviks was one of the major glass works in Sweden in the early 1900s, finally closing its doors in 1980. One of the master glass-blowers there, who was still at the factory when it closed, was Ingemar Nilsson. His expertise coupled with factory archives, local knowledge and catalogues, enabled us to establish that Carnival Glass was made at Faglaviks.

The first piece that we were able to attribute to Faglaviks was the one that had been intriguing and captivating us for years - the Poppy Spray vase. This had been a mysterious puzzle for decades, and we were thrilled to finally be able to give a name to the maker. The second piece (another vase) was trickier, and at first we had felt that it might be a Czech item as it had specific characteristics which included a ground top rim and the pattern continuing over the base (as does the Poppy Spray). Further investigation revealed the maker to be Faglaviks. We called the vase Spiral. Another distinctive feature of most (not all) Fåglaviks glass is that it appears to have been blown into the mould rather than pressed in.

The colours of Faglaviks Carnival that we have studied are green, marigold and purple (or a lighter amethyst), and now, thanks to Christina’s recent discovery, we can also add vaseline. ~ Glen & Stephen Thistlewood

I would like to thank Glen & Stephen for the wonderful education about this little known Swedish glass manufacturer and for helping me identify my vase. I could not have imagined how wonderful this adventure with them would be in the writing of this article with them together. I am so very grateful.~Christina

The Christina Katsikas Collection

To see and learn more, please visit the Thistlewoods at Carnival Glass Worldwide.

Faglaviks "Poppy Spray" Purple Vase