N&K Glass Waer vase

This vase is 9" high x 7.5" widest diameter. The bottom is ground on the edges but the center is glossy glass with no pontil mark. Not sure how this vase was made. It is made of clear purple/blue glass with three three dimensional features. It has an N&K Glass "Waer" label and tag on the side and a round, white N&K label with a number on the bottom. It weighs 4.5 lbs. Probably 1970s-80s.

This is a big, shiny vase, decorated on three sides and I struggled to get decent images, so had to do a lot of inset images to capture the level of detail that I wanted. I tried several different lighting solutions and none were great. It is a busy post.

I am pretty sure that N&K was a Japanese exporter. Not sure who made these vases. I have seen very few N&K vases in the U.S. but they are pretty common on Japanese auction sites, which puzzles me, since they were apparently made for export. Not sure if the spelling of Glass "WAER" was intentional. They are generally well made but a bit gaudy in color and design, I guess just very 1980ish. I have seen these in a variety of colors and designs, all with the same bottom, which I have not seen on any other vases. They do not sell for much on Japanese auction sites, and I did not pay much for this one.

I have not been able to find out anything about N&K, but have started to suspect that these vases may have been the work of Shimada Tokushu. I have only seen one vase by that maker, which later became Toyo Glass, which later combined with Sasaki Glass to become Toyo-Sasaki Glass. The one example I have seen also had metallic foil inclusions, the "fishbowl" decorations (though on that vase they extended nearly from the top to bottom of the vase) and a very similar round white tag on the bottom. That Shimada vase had a flat ground, unpolished base, though. I am going to ask Karen for input on that thought!

The tag says:

"This vase is painstakingly created by skilled
technicians, who carefully layer each piece of
colored glass. It is created by the combined
efforts of human hands and hearts, without
the use of anything that could be called a
machine."