Our collection of glass in really only a fledgling one. Neither of us know much about glass (our knowledge really only lies in West German Pottery and other random bits and bobs), but we liked these things we found enough to keep:

We’re pretending that one doesn’t really look like an ashtray…

I love that one; the colours seem to change as you look at it.

Brightening up our living room are these:

Love it or hate it, the final piece in our tiny glass collection is this ginormous Dartington head:

I’ve done a bit of scouting around the internet, and it appears that our Dartington head is the real deal and potentially quite valuable. Using some information found here, it seems that the original moulds were stolen by a Dartington worker, taken to Spain and used to make reproductions. The ‘lighter’ ‘soda-glass’ style vases are the reproductions; the heaviers ones – like mine! – are the originals. There are a few different coloured version floating around the internet: purple, blue.

Despite the value and rarity of the Dartington Ugly Vase, I actually like the two Murano pieces best. There’s something about the pinkness of them that appeals to me; the changing hues are also rather pretty to look at.