Mdina Glass was founded in the Maltese town of Mdina in 1968 by Michael Harris and Eric Dobson. The town had no history of glass making but the venture proved to be a success. Its wares, free formed organic glassware, often in colours inspired from the sea, sand, earth and sky, proved very popular with tourists visiting Malta. Michael Harris left Mdina in 1972 and formed a new company, Isle of Wight Studio Glass, on the Isle of Wight, UK, leaving Eric Dobson in charge, but many of the designs he created continued to be made at Mdina Glass after his departure although new designs and patterns were added as well. Ownership of the company later changed but it is still producing a popular range of glasswares today.

The pattern used here does not seem to have a specific name but is sometimes referred to as ‘speckled’ or ‘mottled snow’ and appears in slightly differing versions and in a variety of shapes but the version here seems to be one of the most successful in both form and decoration and perhaps dates to the late 1970s or 1980s.