Topic: PY sulphide?

[SophieB]

This Ebay item (291196702792) is advertised as an early Paul Ysart sulphide by a reliable and knowledgeable seller (I have bought from them before). However, I wonder whether this is really a PY weight and wanted to check here before contacting the seller.

The only PY sulphide bouquet I know (of which there are a few copies in existence) is the one reproduced below (my weight - picture by Alan Thornton). The design of the weights and the colours of the sulphide differs but the sulphide itself is the same.

Although different from my weight, the sulphide on Ebay could be by Paul Ysart but somehow it does not look right to me. Hence my question.

SophieB

[tropdevin]

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Hi Sophie.

What a strange world...!  On Sunday, a Belgian couple showed me images of their collection, which included a paperweight containing what is, I think, the same sulphide as the one on eBay.  Theirs was not coloured, but I am fairly sure it is the same sulphide as the one on eBay - we discussed the differences between their example and the one Paul Ysart used. They were fairly sure that their example was a Belgian or Alsace piece.

The white spatter ground of the one on eBay also suggests to me that Belgium or Alsace is the origin.

Alan

[SophieB]

Hi Alan,

I wondered about Belgium myself. Many thanks for the info. I will contact the seller and share the news.

SophieB

[KevinH]

I have advised the seller that it is not by Paul Ysart and referred themn to my article at http://www.glass.co.nz/ysart.htm - scroll down to "The Main Pictures" and see the bottom right of the first photo. All PY "basket of flower" sulphides I have seen are from the same mould (brooch).

For confirmation, when Alan said "white spatter ground" for the eBay weight, I am sure he meant "ruby".

[tropdevin]

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Hi.  Sorry to confuse...when I said 'ground' - which in the eBay item is indeed ruby, as Kev says - I was meaning the underlying base layer, which seen from below is blobs of white. There is no doubt a technical term for this (? substrate).

Alan

[SophieB]

Hi Kev,

Many thanks for advising the seller. It saves me having to do it.

SophieB

[KevinH]

Ah yes! Alan's comment about the "substrate" is well taken. I had missed the point that there was a ruby-over-white "blobbed" ground.

And that is an interesting point as some of Paul Ysart's weights from the 1930s did use a thin "white chip" ground - but chips are normally closely set together. In two examples I have the white chip ground is used as a base support for close packed canes and chips for each of the layers in double- and triple-harlequin weights.

I have not yet seen a PY weight with single-coloured chips over white chips forming a sort of "double-colour ground".