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Mdina Glass : The Early Years

Having been frustrated by the classical and somewhat staid view of glass production in the U.K., Michael Harris, a lecturer in industrial glass design at the Royal College of Art, felt that there must be another way to commercially produce what was the province to date of a limited number of artists producing freeformed hot glass for several decades, mainly in Scandinavia. He had been receiving information from America of the work of a ceramicist, Harvey Littleton and a colleague Dominic Labino, of a new wave of glass artists - working in much the same way as the massive growth of studio potters did in the early 60's. This fired Michael's enthusiasm and spirit for the possibility of success for a one man business and so felt there was a wonderful opportunity to develop and emulate this movement in the U.K.

However whilst his ideas were accepted in principle by the very rigid and staid hierarchy of the R.C.A. and even though they had made moves to incorporate some of those American ideas by appointing one of the exponents in this field, a Sam Herman, from the States. Working with, and learning from, Sam was the start of the wonderful free expression of colour and form that became the embryonic designs produced by Michael from that time on. Michael was impatient to adopt and adapt these principles to his own benefit quickly. This was especially appealing to him as the long and well established

Whitefriars Glass appeared to be succeeding using some of those principles with a peer of Michaels, Geoffrey Baxter.

It did not go unnoticed by Michael that there had been publicity given to the world press and particularly the U.K. that the British protectorate of Malta was keen to establish security in it's new found independence by building it's commercial strength and stability. This the Maltese government felt could only be achieved by attracting new skill and entrepreneurs from wherever they could. This was the opportunity Michael had been seeking and, apart from the attraction of an exciting opportunity, the idyllic lifestyle of fulfilling it on a wonderful holiday island was an added bonus.

So at the end of 1967 with a colleague from the R.C.A. Eric Dobson, similarly fired up, and with the necessary marketing experience and the finance also, they set about taking several tonnes of glassmaking equipment and an old, fully loaded, Land Rover to Malta at the behest of a government so eager to have them that they offered a 10 year tax holiday as an added incentive. Who could resist ! So in 1968 and after many beaurocratic disruptions to establishing his glass making

studio , Maltese Glass Industries, Mdina Glass as it became, was born.

Now, with a ready made eager buying public in the form of tourists the studio was an instant success. Michael quickly fulfilled his obligations to the Maltese government by literally taking any Maltese national with enthusiasm to learn and taught them to make glass his way as they would have no previous experience or set way as to how glass should or should not be made. This they took on eagerly with Michaels guiding statement that 'you may like what you do today but - our best work will be done tomorrow'!

However, his security was short lived and the Nationalist government headed by Dom Mintoff was keen to expel any semblance of British influence and due to the instant success of Mdina Glass they felt Michael had fulfilled his role. So he was pressured to leave. Due to the success of his venture however his influence lived on in his designs and glassmaking skills which still exists today and Mdina is in fact now run by Joseph Said who was Michaels very first, and still the most accomplished, of his trainees.

On saying that there was also input from two other very accomplished glassmakers in Vincente and Ettore Boffo (father and son) who were seconded from no other than Whitefriars They left due to their dissatisfaction of staid and repetitive processes which epitomised the thinking dominating studio glass production in the long established classical glassmaking world including the one they had just left.

After all the glass at these studio's, whilst with a refreshing approach to modern design, was in fact no more than easily produced though coloured mould blown shapes. Whereas Michaels designs were freeformed in the most part with a free thinking intuitive palette of added colours creating a colourful canvas in glass according to relatively loose parameters. In truth, at the end, the finished item was a truly unique piece of art glass.

Now, in terms of collecting, there are a few aspects to take into account which can make building a worthwhile collection an interesting, but sometimes frustrating, experience. The first thing to bear in mind is that once Michael had left there was little or no more artistic skill input as all the designs, colours and ideas came from his talents as an artist. Since Mdina Glass was commercially highly successful in all respects, including export sales, luckily for the studio there was no need of his ongoing input to a large extent. This of course is now, and since 1973 in fact, where the new collector has

a real problem as these designs and in many cases shapes have been repeated many thousands of times on the basis that 'It sells so why change it'.

Fine except that by the nature of intrinsic value you need to know if it was made by Michael 35 years or more ago or by one of the recently qualified glassmakers last week !

So the dilemma is - how do we find out. Well there are pointers, most of which would take far too much to go into now.

However, my real advice would be to fine tune your knowledge by observation whilst building experience. You will quickly begin to recognise those items which have been made over and over again and sold in their thousands as they were continuously made and sold to eager tourists and taken home as a 'suitcase souvenir's. So by simply observing you will quickly recognise those items which were rather more special and in some cases unique. In addition of course there are also some iconic shapes which should never be ignored and include for example shapes such as his famous 'Fish' vase (Michael never called it an 'Axehead' by the way) , the 'Tricorn' vase, The 'Attenuated Bottle' vase the 'Japanese' vase, the 'Minaret (or Onion) Bottle' vase, the 'Chinese' vase and his wonderful freeformed 'Sculptures'. These are all commanding increasingly high sums and even more so if signed by Michael, something he was always reluctant to do, and so now increases the value by a factor of four or five on average just down to the rarity of his signature alone. All of these are wonderfully documented in the definitive book by Mark Hill entitled 'Michael Harris:Mdina Glass and Isle of Wight Studio Glass' . The market place generally and enthusiasts are now recognising Michaels unique contribution to the birth and success of British studio glass albeit that he had to go to Malta to prove it could be successful and prices are rising dramatically as a result so get in now and build a worthwhile collection. Use the guidance of those 'in the know' and you will find you not only will have a collection of true lasting value but something to give you pleasure every time you look at it.

I had the honour and pleasure of being one of the first two freelance reps working with Michael from the very early eighties and typically at the time had no real conception of his lasting influences in the way I do now. With regards to collecting - if only I knew then what I know now !! I suggest you don't make the same mistake !!

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