Topic: Decanter with internal bunch of grapes - Bimini style?

[Littleblackhen]

I bought this decanter from a boot sale last week, and I was wondering if it might be Bimini?

I haven't been able to find anything exactly like it.

Does anyone have any idea of a maker, please?

[Littleblackhen]

I have done a bit more research, and I am now wondering if this may have come from Lauscha?  Is anyone familiar with this style?

[Lustrousstone]

On this thread http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,23419.0.html , Ivo said he thought yours might be Italian, scroll to the end

[Littleblackhen]

Thanks, I had missed that  :thup:

I haven't really seen anything quite like it to give me any clues to where it was made.  I also am really curious as to how it was made, that is, did they make the grapes first and then blow the decanter around them, or did they make the decanter and then make the grapes through the hole in the bottom?

[Lustrousstone]

A question for Adam I think

[krsilber]

Can I have a guess, and Adam can tell me if I'm right?

It looks to me like the grapes and their pedestal were made separately.  The big bubble was opened on the bottom while still on the blowpipe.  The grapes were put on a punty of some type and held into position in the bubble while the bottom was closed around the base.

It's hard to see what the bottom looks like from the photos, but that's my guess.

Haven't seen Adam around much for a while.

[Littleblackhen]

I think the grapes have to have been worked on seperately as you say, it would have been almost impossible to do from the outside, especially the leaf at the top.  The bunch of grapes reminds me very much of the thin walled glass christmas ornaments, which is why I was thinking of Lauscha. 

It is hard to see in the photos, but there is a hole in the base of the decanter, so the grapes form part of the base, with the hole being the inside of the grapes, rather than them being a separate piece added on  - it is hard to describe too!

The technique you describe would work, but there is no sign of a join between the grapes and the base, it really looks as though it was made in one piece. You have made me consider whether the grapes and base were made together, then the walls of the decanter joined onto the base.  That would be more plausible looking at it.

[Frank]

I think it was done by inverting the bubble over the grapes, a variation to the techniques used for funnel flashing illustrated here http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,1247.msg7855.html#msg7855

[krsilber]

Frank, do you mean from the bottom or the top?

I may not have made myself clear before.  This sounds like how I imagined it:  "You have made me consider whether the grapes and base were made together, then the walls of the decanter joined onto the base". 

[Cathy B]

It would have to be from the bottom. Frank, did you mean the second image of funnel flashing?