Bob Shaw's Stained Glass
July 2014

The late great Bob Shaw, author and fan extraordinaire and a friend of TAFF, took up stained glass as a hobby in the early 1980s. For his own home he created a large panel showing a future city, which I hope is in good hands somewhere. At Novacon in 1982 (I think it was) he exhibited several small panels in the art show, three of which are to be auctioned for TAFF and GUFF at Loncon 3 and perhaps Shamrokon. Here they are.

My modest camera skills don't do justice to these. The sky/space in the two Twin Planets panels is a deep transparent blue, with the planets nearly opaque and showing swirls and veining that doesn't photograph well. All the glass in Out of the Vortex is semi-opaque. Please note that the stained glass panels are shown at 500 pixels width for this page but are of considerably different sizes, with the smallest first: see measurements in captions. Click on any of the images to see a larger version.

Two other auction items appear below. The unrelated Mystery Box, which is, er, a mystery; all will be revealed! Also a presentation box of cartoon-decorated soap by Jim Barker (who frequently illustrated Bob Shaw's later fanzine articles). – David Langford

Twin Planets. 11cm wide x 15cm high. Signed with glass scriber: "BoSh '82"

Twin Planets 1

Twin Planets 2. 15cm wide x 18cm high. Signed with glass scriber: "BoSh '82"

Twin Planets 2

Out of the Vortex. 15cm wide x 21.8cm high. Unsigned. Small crack in glass visible at top right.

Out of the Vortex

Mystery Box. 15cm wide x 12cm high (6cm deep). The unusual item within – not the original contents – will be revealed at the auction. The box itself is of retro-science and Prisoner interest: it used to contain a "Rover".

Mystery Box

Jim Barker Cartoon Soap in presentation box. 13cm square x 2cm deep. Text on the other side: "Fine quality • Hand decorated / Used with care the picture will last the life of the soap. / 100g // Arlespenny Ltd. Kirkintilloch Scotland."

Jim Barker Cartoon Soap