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Author Topic: A bit of showing off  (Read 8010 times)

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Offline Ivo

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Re: A bit of showing off
« Reply #50 on: July 25, 2014, 05:11:19 PM »
Trichroic according to my info

Offline Frank

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Re: A bit of showing off
« Reply #51 on: July 25, 2014, 07:00:45 PM »
Makes little sense as only the chocolate colour is affected by angle of view. Other colours are constant.

Offline nigel benson

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Re: A bit of showing off
« Reply #52 on: July 28, 2014, 04:46:46 PM »
Hello everyone,

I was so exercised by this and a couple of other threads I even had to get myself a new password to make a comment  :o  ;)

My understanding of Thomas Webb's Alexandrite is that it should be four colours - citrine yellow, going to rose pink, then blue with a chocolate brown rim. I wouldn't have thought they are dichroic - that is to say no piece that I have handled has changed colour according to the light source, rather all the colours remain available to the naked eye.

If there are only three colours (with brown missing) then it is regarded by all long term collectors as a poor version and consequently of lesser value to them. Still most of us would be happy to get one of those lesser examples  ;) :)

TTFN, Nigel


Offline chopin-liszt

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Re: A bit of showing off
« Reply #53 on: July 28, 2014, 04:52:57 PM »
Now you're here, Nigel, and mentioning "long-term collectors" of (presumably) Webb's Alexandrite, do you have any idea of how many of those collectors there are?

Is there enough to go around for there to actually be a collector base?

I do seem to remember we had suspected there really was not a lot of it around.
Are you able to enlighten us in any way?
Cheers, Sue M. (she/her)

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

Offline nigel benson

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Re: A bit of showing off
« Reply #54 on: July 28, 2014, 05:12:29 PM »
I have had several collectors of Webb's Alexandrite for over 24 years.

The fact that it is scarce means that some folks want to form small select collections. Think of it this way it takes less space and overall uses less money than broader collections - although each purchase may well be expensive as not all are as lucky as Sue was with her find.

Both Frank and are were lucky enough to see and handle the largest of these - Michael Parkington's. Certainly a dozen pieces of which one created a record price in the Christies sale when it was sold after his, and Peggy's deaths. It went back to the original seller!

Nigel

Offline chopin-liszt

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Re: A bit of showing off
« Reply #55 on: July 28, 2014, 05:19:55 PM »
It was Christine and then DavidE. and then John who found some. Not me, Nigel.
I haven't been that lucky yet. :'(

It's just that there has been talk before of something (and I can't remember what now, but it was very high quality) something that there wasn't a lot of - and the prices did not reach the skies, simply because there wasn't enough of it around to support any sort of collector base - it was just too obscure.

(ps. give Celia a hug from me!)
Cheers, Sue M. (she/her)

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

Offline nigel benson

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Re: A bit of showing off
« Reply #56 on: July 28, 2014, 08:40:33 PM »
Sorry all. I was visualising Christine and thinking your name Sue, doh!!

Something I didn't detail earlier was that there were five items of Alexandrite in each of the Parkington sales, making a total of ten, but split into six lots (three in each sale). The largest (tallest) piece was a single drinking glass with a hollow stem, having a ribbed foot, but bowl and stem were plain it - this was the one that achieved the highest price. The ten pieces split into five plain and five with diamond moulding.

Noting the split of moulded and plain items it is therefore not a characteristic that should be used for identification of Webb's Alexandrite.

Blimely Sue, she doesn't let me hug her, so................  ;) :)

Cheers, Nigel

Offline glassobsessed

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Re: A bit of showing off
« Reply #57 on: July 29, 2014, 09:01:10 AM »
Thanks Nigel, it is very useful to have more information, it all helps to add context.

I could end up making a hash of the following but in for a penny...

As I understand it (which is not a lot) a dichroic effect in glass is seen when the glass is viewed from different angles. It is akin to a polarizing effect as far as I can tell (not that I really understand that either).

It is a different process than that seen in say neodymium glass where the effect appears when the light source is changed between incandescent/daylight and fluorescent light.

John

Offline flying free

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Re: A bit of showing off
« Reply #58 on: July 29, 2014, 09:47:14 AM »
hmmm, mine shows a fine chocolate rim in every light ... and whether lit from behind or in front, and whether viewed from top or side.  It's a very very fine chocolate line but it's there at all times.  It doesn't look like a dichroic effect to me (is the Lycurgus Cup classed as dichroic i.e. shows green when viewed from front but with light shone behind it, but shows as a red piece when light is shone from the front onto it and therefore refracted off the glass?)
However, I've no idea how the chocolate rim was created (although pretty sure it wasn't 'added' on in anyway).  I presumed it was the colour that resulted from the reheating of the glass at the edge. 
m

Offline Frank

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Re: A bit of showing off
« Reply #59 on: July 29, 2014, 10:53:36 PM »
It is only an edge effect but is usually visible because of the way the lip was curved. As I recall it was possible to turn it to an angle it did not show. I know we (Michael and I) talked about the dichroic aspect as I saw these shortly after having the first and only dichroic Monart in my hands for a few days.

 

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