Topic: salvador or vincent ysart pin dish ashtray? ID = Vasart, not a particular maker

[RAY]

just got this one today it measures 3.75" across and 1.5" high, i know it's a vasart weight dish but who's canes are they?

click image for bigger photo

[Frank]

They are Vasart canes, there is no such thing as Salvador or Vincent canes and Augustine could have made canes too!

[KevinH]

Yes, as Frank says, the canes are all "Vasart" - at least for the purpose of differentiating between specific Vasart and Strathearn canes.

But ... it is possible that some canes in known Vasart items were actually made pre-war at the Moncrieff works. It is definitely true that some canes in stoppers of Monart bottles (such as shape IE) can be found in Vasart weights etc.

I'm not sure about Frank's comment that there is no such thing as "Salvador canes" :!: I'll probably be discussing this, and a few other similar ideas, at the Conference in Perth.

Ray, how do you know for sure that it's a Vasart dish? Is it etched "Vasart" on the base? It might be from the Strathearn days, but using canes that all came from the earlier times.

As I have suggested in my web pages, if there is no label, mark or signature cane, then the only way I know of separating early Vasart from later Vasart and Strathearn is by UV testing with a shortwave bulb. If it fluoresces "grey" (or, at least, non-blue), then I say it's early Vasart. If it shows up as blue, it could later Vasart or Strathearn. Using longwave UV (blacklight) is of no help at all with items from the Moncrieff, Vasart or Strathearn works - they all fluoresce as green (although some folk, but not yet me, believe that Moncrieff pieces show as a distinctly brighter green).

Having said all that, from the visual appearance, the size, and the cane quality (or lack of), I would say that this dish is probably an early Vasart item (1946 to 1955).