Whitefriars glass at its bobbly best.

Joy of joys. I was lucky enough to find another knobbly vase to add to my slowly growing collection of coloured cased glass. I rescued the tall kingfisher blue vase from a second-hand shop earlier this week.

I say 'vase' but since I started to research this type of glassware, I have seen this tall, slim shape described as a lamp base. I'm fairly sure that all three of these glass beauties are by Whitefriars and are from a range designed by William Wilson and Harry Dyer in 1963. Known, for obvious reasons, as the Knobbly range, they were in production between 1964 and 1972. The Whitefriars Knobbly vases and lamp bases were made in a range of plain cased colours, like these, and also in a range of attractive streaky colours.

The vases are satisfyingly heavy and are as good to handle as they are to look at. All the surfaces are irregular, randomly bobbled and are silky smooth to touch. Even the neck openings are rounded and smoothed off. This type of vase must be a dream for interior decorators – they look so good in almost any setting. I particularly like the way you get a glimpse of the clear glass at the base and at the edges. And when you get a couple of different colours together, the effect can be quite stunning....