Perthshire glassmaking legends celebrated in Perth Art Gallery show

World-famous local names like Monart and Perthshire Paperweights will share the spotlight at Perth Art Gallery's GLASS exhibition

By Morag Lindsay

February 24 2025, 6:00am

The Ysart family, from Spain, helped to put Perthshire on the glassmaking map. Image: Culture Perth and Kinross.

Perthshire’s role as a centre of glassmaking excellence will be the focus of Perth Art Gallery’s next major exhibition.

GLASS, opening on April 4, will bring together never-before-seen treasures from Perthshire and around the world for the very first time.

Famous local names, such as Monart and Perthshire paperweights, will be represented, alongside some of the contemporary glass artists who are still putting the area on the map today.

model sheep made from glass — Perthshire Sheep by Carrie Fertig. Image: Culture Perth and Kinross

There will also be an array of dazzling exhibits, some dating back almost 2,0000 years and linking Perthshire to glassmaking traditions in Spain, Germany, Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and beyond.

Piece of glass which looks like underwater coral — Serpulid Worm by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka. Image: Culture Perth and Kinross

The best known name in Perthshire glassmaking is probably Monart Glass.

It was made at the Moncrieff glassworks from 1924, by Salvador Ysart, a Spanish glassworker, and his four sons.

Salvador had been hired by the Perth company to make laboratory glass for the government.

But he and John Moncrieff’s wife, Isobel, collaborated on beautiful ornamental pieces under the Monart label, a combination of their two surnames.

Man holding orange vase — David Freeburn, Exhibitions Officer with an early 20th century vase from the Monart Glassworks. Image: Culture Perth and Kinross.

Salvador and two of his sons later left Moncrieff to set up their own glassworks, which became Vasart Glass.

Another son Paul Ysart stayed on at Moncrieff, developing a line of paperweights, before he left to join Caithness Glass.

PaulYsart leaning over table covered in glass paperweights — Paul Ysart was a Perthshire glassmaking great. Image: Culture Perth and Kinross.

There’s still a Caithness Glass factory and shop at the Crieff Visitor Centre.

Crieff was also home to the Perthshire Paperweights glassworks, launched by Stuart Drysdale, formerly of Vasart, in the 1960s.

Close up of paperweight with tiny drop on green stem showing initials P and Y in centre — A close-up of a Perthshire paperweight, with Paul Ysart’s initials. Image: Culture Perth and Kinross.

The business ceased around the turn of this century, although former employee John Deacons and his family continue to produce glass at a studio in Crieff today.

Perthshire audiences can get their hands on GLASS tickets in advance

Ashleigh Hibbins, Head of Audiences and Learning for Culture Perth and Kinross, said, “We cannot wait to finally share GLASS at Perth Art Gallery this spring.

“This exhibition is a visual feast which will surprise and delight visitors from near and far.”