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Author Topic: Malta Decorative Glass? Round vase with 'gold' foil  (Read 6998 times)

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Offline brewster

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Malta Decorative Glass? Round vase with 'gold' foil
« on: May 14, 2012, 09:30:36 AM »
Here is a round vase in green glass covered with 'gold' foil. The foil is on the very outer surface and not encased, so it can be felt as surface roughness. The item is 14cm in diameter and weighs 640g. The pontil scar has been hollow ground and the base polished flat.

In another GMB message it has been suggested this may be an item by Malta Decorative Glass, although there is also some disagreement.

Thanks to Sue (chopin-liszt) and Christine (Lustrousstone) for earlier comments. Any other ideas as to its origins?

Trevor
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Online Lustrousstone

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Re: Malta Decorative Glass? Round vase with 'gold' foil
« Reply #1 on: May 14, 2012, 09:33:40 AM »
If it's definitely foil, it's not Malta Decorative glass

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Offline chopin-liszt

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Re: Malta Decorative Glass? Round vase with 'gold' foil
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2012, 11:43:52 AM »
I'll get some pics of mine - but not today, I'm afraid, got far too much else to get done!

Is it cased, Trevor? Christine's right though - if it's actual foil, it's not MDG.

The rim worries me a little - that's a button rim, not normally something either Boffo did, to my knowledge...
Cheers, Sue M. (she/her)

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Offline glassobsessed

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Re: Malta Decorative Glass? Round vase with 'gold' foil
« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2012, 11:57:24 AM »
The decoration is not quite as complex as most MDG seems to be. From memory, that would also be the first bit of MDG to turn up with a ground out pontil mark.

I have seen a couple of bits of coloured glass with foil decoration recently, I think one here on the board and another blue vase I have in the attic, mine is quite crude and has a poorly applied clear trailed rim. No idea where they are from.

John

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Offline chopin-liszt

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Re: Malta Decorative Glass? Round vase with 'gold' foil
« Reply #4 on: May 14, 2012, 03:07:29 PM »
Loads of MDG has roughly ground out pontil marks, John.
There are bases which are polished flat, sometimes with the "crescent-shaped pit" remnants of a pontil scar.

There are bases which look as if they've been flattened on the marver - with roughly ground pontil marks, there's one base which has been marver flattened then had the Maltese cross prunt tool stuc in itk, then it has been further polished flat. It's not fully shiny though, like most others.

Having done a check of every bit I have - I do have a very large blue decanter - the entire base of that is roughly ground flat, (except for a few patches of pontil scar pit renmants) with a roughly ground round pontil mark.

So the base of this is consistent with MDG.
Cheers, Sue M. (she/her)

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Offline brewster

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Re: Malta Decorative Glass? Round vase with 'gold' foil
« Reply #5 on: May 15, 2012, 01:30:52 AM »
If it is not foil, I don't what else it could be (refer replies #1 and #2). It looks just like what happens when foil is applied and the bubble is expanded further. The image of the base shows it looking most metallic. The material looks a bit burnt or tarnished on the upper surface of the vessel, which is one reason to call it 'gold' rather than gold.

It is not cased. The foil material is on the outer surface.

I'm unsure what is a "button rim" (see reply #2) but I did ask myself whether the short neck has been added on or formed by opening out the parent material of the vessel. There is a slightly indented crease around most of the inner circumference of the neck, which might suggest it was added by trailing on. However it is made of the same colour of material as the body of the vessel and there is no longitudinal seam evident, which suggest forming by opening out the bubble.  On the outside, the 'foil' material stops sharply at the neck, but that could happen whether the neck was added on or opened out. On balance, I conclude it was simply opened out.

Trevor
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Offline chopin-liszt

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Re: Malta Decorative Glass? Round vase with 'gold' foil
« Reply #6 on: October 24, 2012, 09:18:41 AM »
Ok, at long last some decent pics and close up of a green MDG bottle; also a green globe vase and a blue bottle.
They are all cased, very thinly, in clear glass.
Cheers, Sue M. (she/her)

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Offline chopin-liszt

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Re: Malta Decorative Glass? Round vase with 'gold' foil
« Reply #7 on: October 24, 2012, 09:43:30 AM »
I've just had a thought - if your globe vase has silver foil on the surface, not cased - it will tarnish.
If you peer at the section in the middle of the bottle close-up, where the jig-saw bits are big, you can see striations in it - from where the silver from the silver chloride has reacted with the clear glass casing, irregularly.
Cheers, Sue M. (she/her)

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Offline brewster

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Re: Malta Decorative Glass? Round vase with 'gold' foil
« Reply #8 on: October 24, 2012, 11:26:28 AM »
Thanks for your persistence, Sue. I'll take some close-up photos in the region you suggest on the weekend when I'm home in the daylight. Then you can give me a chemistry lesson.

Trevor
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Offline chopin-liszt

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Re: Malta Decorative Glass? Round vase with 'gold' foil
« Reply #9 on: October 24, 2012, 12:06:16 PM »
One way to tell if a bit is silver but tarnished, is just to rub your thumb over it. Your thumb will go black, the silver will shine.  ;D

I'm reasonably confident your bit is MDG. I'd buy it if it were for sale at a reasonable price.
Cheers, Sue M. (she/her)

‘For every problem there is a solution: neat, plausible and wrong’. H.L.Mencken

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