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Author Topic: Malta Decorative Glass? Round vase with 'gold' foil  (Read 7001 times)

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Offline flying free

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Re: Malta Decorative Glass? Round vase with 'gold' foil
« Reply #20 on: October 25, 2012, 07:52:51 PM »
ok, got it and thanks John for the extra descriptive pics as well.
I shall be keeping my eyes peeled now  :)
m

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Offline brewster

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Re: Malta Decorative Glass? Round vase with 'gold' foil
« Reply #21 on: October 27, 2012, 04:42:19 AM »
OK, here are some close-ups of the item in question. The matte appearance of the larger tectonic plates (most evident in image 1) is what inclines me to say the item is not cased with glass over the metallic layer. The most dense plates of metal are pitted into the parent material quite noticeably. The differences in density around the item can be felt, suggesting there is no covering layer of glass to smooth it out.

Images 2 and 3 are at increasing magnifications. There is definite texture to the surface to the metallic particles, while the patches between tectonic plates are quite clear of metal. These are features that earlier lead me to describe it as 'foil'. However, I am happy to be corrected on that issue.

Applying the finger test suggested by Sue in reply #9 has neither of the effects she suggests. Rubbing the material does not make the thumb go black nor does the metallic material become any shinier.

Image 4 is taken near the edge of the base (see the second image in the original query for a wider angle). The metal there is bright and shiny, but does not look much like silver to me. It has a 'gold' tint to it, although as earlier I say 'gold' not gold, because that element would not have the reactive properties to be seen here.

I'm happy to supply higher resolution photos by email.

Trevor
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Offline chopin-liszt

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Re: Malta Decorative Glass? Round vase with 'gold' foil
« Reply #22 on: October 27, 2012, 03:14:37 PM »
Your vase is definitely uncased. I have no bits of uncased MDG. This does not mean they don't exist.
The brownish bits on the surface of your vase DO look like tarnished silver foil - they've got a lumpy surface - if they were caused by the silver ions reacting with the glass, I would have thought they'd be smoother.

The next thing to try on the surface would be some actual silver polish, to see if the tarnishing is not just very deeply ingrained.
If that does nothing to change the colour, then I would assume it is a silver-glass colouration.

Is there any other potential maker who could be considered? The green colour is exactly right, the overall appearance is SO like Boffo's work - apart from the "button" style of rim - but Boffo would have been familiar with button rims from Mdina even though it was the Boffos who taught the Mdina makers how to make neat, flanged rims.

I would still love to own it - I'm pretty sure it's an unusual variation of green MDG. I wouldn't care if it turned out to be something else - I love it.   :)
But I also still want to know what happens with real silver polish.  ;D
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 #23 on: October 27, 2012, 08:52:50 PM »
There have been a couple of pieces made with foil that have cropped up in the last year or so, a little crudely made with wonky rims, don't remember if they were on the GMB. I had a similar blue vase with foil and badly trailed rim that I sold at a bootsale. Right now I vote not MDG....

John

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Offline flying free

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Re: Malta Decorative Glass? Round vase with 'gold' foil
« Reply #24 on: October 27, 2012, 09:40:58 PM »
I vote Phoenician glass ...possibly.
I bought a vase a while ago which I sent back as I felt the rim had been somehow 'remade', and it did also have a small chip on it.  The vase was the same shape as this and the rim was the same or very similar.  It was tomato red, a really beautiful colour.  I've been wracking my brains to think who I thought had made it and I think it was Phoenician ( I think it was signed and also I have had a Phoenician vase in that red before with trails on it - they do a particularly beautiful red).
and I found this one - it's cased but it is a similar bright green - so Phoenician could be an outside possibility maybe?
http://www.designundklassiker.de/Glas/Vasen/Kruege/Phoenician-Glass-Vase::1534.html
The only thing is Phoenician bases dont' have a polished pontil mark - but perhaps they did at some point?
But...my vase could have also been Guernsey Glass - I wish I'd taken some pics of it.  Whatever, it was a very similar shape and rim  :-\

Valletta glass is the only other maker I can think of that may have used this green with the foil?
m

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Offline brewster

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Re: Malta Decorative Glass? Round vase with 'gold' foil
« Reply #25 on: October 28, 2012, 06:17:55 AM »
Sorry Sue, but we don't have any real silver polish - probably because we don't have any real silver (Reply #22). I did try a little Metal Magic, which claims silver among its uses. I went very gently, out of concern for doing damage.

The answer is that the obviously metal material (near the base) brightened up, but the more burnt and pitted material appeared to be unchanged. However I may not have tried hard enough to do a proper test for you.

I appreciate the offers to acquire the item. I'm not a dealer and don't otherwise wish to sell it. As a collector I seem to have an eye for the more mysterious of glassy items. I've just listed another of my puzzles on the Board.

Another piece of information is that this item weighs about 620g, which is quite a bit less than the Phoenician Glass item mentioned by flying free (Reply #24).

Trevor
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Offline chopin-liszt

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Re: Malta Decorative Glass? Round vase with 'gold' foil
« Reply #26 on: October 28, 2012, 11:16:34 AM »
Never mind, Trevor.  :-* As much as anything, I was saying how much I rate/like it.
The Phoenician bit is very interesting, m, but there is no label or image of the mark to go with the attribution on that link. Grrrr! It's the correct green.
Phoenician do do a gorgeous red, not Guernsey. I would rule Guernsey out. They do "pretty pretty" sorts of stuff with frilly bits, I rarely ever "rate" Guernsey - it does nothing for me. Their stuff also tends to be small.
The MDG globe vases I have each weigh 1lb.
Cheers, Sue M. (she/her)

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Offline flying free

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Re: Malta Decorative Glass? Round vase with 'gold' foil
« Reply #27 on: October 28, 2012, 11:25:39 AM »
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/260849791887?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
I found this as well, but I've no idea if it could be connected.
Green seems similar, and they use gold and silver leaf apparently, but I dont' know if they do anything other than paperweights.

The Phoenician I linked to also looks to be cased over? and yes very much heavier at 4kg although quite a bit bigger as a piece.
m

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Offline chopin-liszt

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Re: Malta Decorative Glass? Round vase with 'gold' foil
« Reply #28 on: October 28, 2012, 11:52:30 AM »
That pwt is most likely leftover stock from St John's glass, from the time after they fell out with MH. There's tons of it appearing on ebay over time.
The green is different, I've got a St John's mouse in green, it's more distempery and slightly opaque. It's not desperately well made and has gold foil on, not silver. Gold is much easier to use than silver.

If it's silver foil on your bit, Trevor, this would most likely indicate a date after the technique for using silver foil was "invented" (or is it re-invented, given it has been used in old Venetian glass?) by MH and William Walker when they produced the Azurene range at IoWSG. I do have some very early Azurene bits, made before thy'd got it quite right, and the foil reacts with the glass to produce coloured effects - yet your piece does not seem to have done this in the same sort of way - it's far more sophisticated.

Pic attached. the one on the left does show clearly what the yellowy bluey colour is that appears - that's the sort of bit that gets broken into the "tectonic plates" and can look like the foil itself.

Something very odd has happened with the one on the right! The silver foil must have vapourised, but it has deposited itself around the top of the piece. They both have both silver and gold foil features - the gold is the stuff that's stayed as foil.
Cheers, Sue M. (she/her)

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

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