A lovely vintage Whitefriars pattern 9676 Sunburst vase designed by Geoffrey Baxter and produced between 1967 and 1973 in the rare and desirable Indigo Blue colourway. As with all of Baxters designs, these pieces were individually hand made by blowing the cased glass into moulds made out of wood, with the patterns being created by radiating metal wire and rods out from the centre. The rim on this pattern is flame polished, and it therefore has the ground out pontil mark where the punty rod was attached to hold the vase whilst the rim was flame treated.
This vase has a number of small air bubbles within the glass which is quite normal, a couple of light scratches to the base foot and a small amount of wear to the base which is expected for a vase of this age.
In 1965 Baxter dragged the Whitefriars glass works in London into the 20th Century with his iconic 'textured range' which used radical production methods whereby many of the moulds were 'patterned' with nails, wire, bark, bits of wood and metal to create the designs, with the mould not only giving the surface texture but also the shape. Each piece is hand blown and no two pieces are exactly the same.
Dimensions: height 6 inches (15cm), max depth 3 inches (8cm), max width 5 inches (12.5cm)