A 'Red Ashay' glass cat mascot, 1930s,

The Beaulieu Sale: Collectors' Motor Cars & Automobilia|13 September 2024, 10:30 BST|Beaulieu, National Motor Museum

A 'Red Ashay' glass cat mascot, 1930s,

frosted glass, (some chips to ears), 9.5cm high, with oval base and original illuminated mount with adjustable coloured gels, currently wired with modern battery pack to display illumination, above wooden base

Footnotes

The original Red Ashay mascots were made for H.G. Ascher Ltd, of Manchester and London, by the Reidel Glass Works in Czechoslovakia. H.G. Ascher first marketed these mascots as Red Ashay in 1930; but they stopped selling them during the War and tried again soon after hostilities ceased. However, a combination of factors, including the fact that glass factories in the now Czech Republic were nationalized and Britain's post-war austerity meant that sales were poor and stock supplies unreliable. Red Ashay mascots were, finally, taken off the market, when H.G. Aucher Ltd. closed in 1952.

Hoffmann Glass was run by Heinrich Hoffmann and Curt Schlevogt, who became his son-in-law by marrying his daughter, Ingrid, in 1928. The series of ornaments, which were to be sold in England as Red Ashay, was known in Czechoslovakia as the "Ingrid Series." Hoffmann and Schlevogt were designers, who used local companies to produce moulds, patterns, blanks, etc. which they then detailed, polished and generally finished for sale. They then sold them.

One of their main suppliers was a large, well-established family-run glass company called Riedel Glass, est. 1850. Riedel specialized in ornamental and coloured glass, including black; and Hoffmann would be a small percentage of their production. They were situated north of Prague in an area famous for the production and sale of ornamental Bohemian glassware – until the outbreak of WWII.

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