Topic: malachite B small footed bowl

[josordoni]

I really like this one, it's only small - roughly 3 ins 75 mm tall. The bead and swag pattern is very pretty.

Any help to maker greatly appreciated.

http://www.clarkagency.co.uk/clicpicsept/MALACHITE_FOOT/_local_MALACHITE_FOOT.htm

[Ivo]

It is a/ purple slag (really, gett off this malachite thing!) b/ French and c/ an open salt. As for b/ I dn't think anyone really knows who made these, current information points at a verrerie in the Pas de Calais area, near the Belgian border.

[josordoni]

Really Ivo, don't be so rude.

I may not know much, but I quote Charles Hajdamach:

(ref Sowerby)
Malachite was the name chosen for the well-known marbled and variegated effect.  It was made in blue (Sorbini), purple, green, brown, black, red and grey.

So to refer you to your own words - get off this malachite thing!   

 You also state that purple slag (a word that I don't like as the glass has no slag in it) is normally French, I would like to know your reference for that, as I have had other unmarked glass that was most definitely English.

[Ivo]

I'm not even trying to be rude - but I might consider it if pushed.

Slag glass (Chalcedony, Schmelzglas) is obtained by adding blast furnace slag to the melt - hence the name.

If Sowerby named theirs "malachite" then that is a company name which cannot refer to other makes. As you know, malachite is greeen and there is specifically the Bohemian green malachite glass from Schlevogt and Desna to comply with that definition. 

All Sowerby and Davidson slag pieces I have are marked, some with company mark, some with registration mark, some with both. None of the French, Belgian and Dutch pieces I have are marked.  Sowerby pieces are thinner and darker than the Davidson ones; the French pieces (invariably footed salts) are heavier and thicker walled.
 

[josordoni]

Well, I don't know, I am no expert, and can only spout from any books or websites I have seen, and there isn't any point in that.

So thank you for your input.

[Ivo]

Belgian slag glass producers include Ghlin and Bougard in Manage. In France slag glass was produced at least by Meisenthal, Valérysthal/ Portieux and by Verrerie de Sars-Poteries, on the Belgian border. The last one was a major producer - most open salts found in France were produced in Sars-Poteries. As slag glass is made with furnace slag, it occurs close to smelting operations - hence the concentration in the Belgian/French coal basin, and the occurrence in the North of England.

[Bernard C]

Well, Ivo, that puts Hajdamach, Stewart & Stewart, and Cottle firmly in the dodgy publications heap, along with Manley.   I should have known.   You can never trust museum directors and auctioneers.   Only Dodsworth, Timberlake, Reynolds, Andrews, Jackson WF, Evans, and Gulliver to go, Ivo, and we will be left with just Strange & Rare, Benson & Hayhurst, and Wolfenden.   At least I will be able to carry these three around in my pocket.

AOB

My observation over about fifteen years is that many Sowerby fancy glass moulds had two plungers, one for thin-walled Queen's Ivory Ware, and one for everything else, and they didn't always get it right.

I would be interested to know your advice on attributing unmarked British marbled glass.

Bernard C. 

[Angela B]

I'll put my hand up here to take my share of the blame in relation to the term "malachite". Don't blame Josordoni.
Sometimes it is hard to put your hand on the right book with the reference you want, and just now I cannot find any original catalogue or advert references to Davidson or Greener using the term "Malachite". Sowerby did, and offered it in a range of colours. Lotz did, and offered it in green. And today it is most widely used to refer to the green malachite glass imported from Bohemia and often using molds from the "Ingrid" range.
The term most commonly used by Davidson to describe the kind of glass we are talking about here (as shown in josordini's picture) was "Marble glass" or "Marble vitro-porcelain".
The term slag was very rarely used in the North East. According to Raymond Slack Sowerby advertised slag glass in the early days of opaque glass which was black by reflected light and green or purple by transmitted light (nothing like today's slag glass) and it was a short-lived product.
I'm sure there is a quotation somewhere (possibly a contribution by Adam Dodds) that explains that most of what we call slag glass had nothing to do with slag from an ironworks being added to the glass.
Until I find some original reference to Davidson or Greener using the term "Malachite" I will
have to acknowledge that it looks as if I was wrong, and I'll change the page on the Glass Encyclopedia. Meantime if anybody out there has access to early Pottery and Glass Trade Gazettes or catalogues from the North East, please let me know if "Malachite" was used by anyone else, or if, as Ivo says, it was a trade name used only by Sowerby for this kind of marble vitro-porcelain.
Sorry, Josordoni, if I helped to lead you astray!
Angela

[Bernard C]

Angela — Stewart & Stewart p28 tells us that Davidson termed theirs Marble Glass, continuing It should not be confused with glass made from iron slag, which is a different sort of glass altogether, and was the subject of much discussion in the Pottery Gazette, providing references PG March 1881 Glass from Slag, and PG July 1887 The use of refined slag in the manufacture of Glass.

Simon Cottle never did discover precisely what Sowerby meant by their term Slag Glass before publication, but did discover what it wasn't, as he found primary source material (advertisements, catalogues and price lists) that clearly distinguished it from their Malachites (purple, green, blue, brown, black, grey and red), Jet, Tortoiseshell, Ruby, Vitro-porcelain, Patent Queen's Ivory Ware, Blanc de Lait, Gold, Agate, Sorpini, Nugget, Rubine, Aesthetic Green, Opal, Rose Opalescent, Turquoise, Giallo and plain colours.

Bernard C. 

[Angela B]

Thanks, Bernard, that is helpful. I will see if I can find those early Pottery Gazette issues in my box and if I do I'll quote what they say (you have to imagine the box where I keep my old catalogues and magazines - not an easy place to find things!). :huh:
Or if anyone else has those original issues it would be good to read what they said.
Best wishes
Angela