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Author Topic: Mdina and the Boffos  (Read 46620 times)

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Offline chriscooper

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Re: Mdina and the Boffos
« Reply #30 on: November 17, 2014, 10:37:33 PM »
Welcome Maria and a big thank you for helping to tie some loose ends up we have gone from knowing virtually nothing for years to where we are now.
A big thank you also must go to Wolf Rayner for his tireless work helping to put all the jigsaw pieces together others too of course like  Patrick and Mike for sticking with it.

Maria I have a photo of a sitting dog in amber with a MDG label if you would care to have a look.

Chris

Offline Baked_Beans

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Re: Mdina and the Boffos
« Reply #31 on: November 18, 2014, 11:14:19 AM »
Hi Maria,

So pleased to hear that Ettore's sons found this website  ! Please thank them from all of us here !!

I have always wanted to know where your father and brother worked before they made the brave step of coming here to England . Did they work in Murano ?

It's very kind of you to offer to answer some of our questions and it's so lovely to hear from you and to read your comments   :)

Thanks again, Mike

Mike

Offline WhatHo!

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  • Wolfie
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Re: Mdina and the Boffos
« Reply #32 on: November 18, 2014, 11:05:25 PM »
Hi Maria, the number I had for Jim is no longer working and I just got his mobile number, I will be contacting him soon. I will asking him for his email address but you need to contact me to receive that address, obviously I cant post it on here. Just click little mail envelope icon near my name and you can contact me from there.  Wolfie
Something you like, mail me! :)

Offline Maria Rosaria Attard

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Re: Mdina and the Boffos
« Reply #33 on: November 19, 2014, 05:17:57 PM »
Hello Sue,
                l am over whelmed by what l keep on reading about my father,Vincenzo and brother Ettore,there is so much,new things keep coming up and pictures that take me back to a long time ago.l am happy to see that at a close look you can distinguish  their work.My father was so skilled and at the same time very humble,he always said that in his work every day you learn something,when making a piece of glass if it was not perfect he had the capability to turn it into something different.


The Mdina jugs and small jug l remember well but do not recall the square bottle having a handle.
Some of the MDG in the photo may have been made by my father l do not recognize his finishing touch in others.


Hi Mike,
             my father started working glass at a very young age in Naples,his parents gave up when he just did not want to know about going to school.When my brothers were young they lived for a while in Murano where he worked and returned to Naples just before l was born.After managing a factory for many years and having his own production within the factory,when it closed down he decided to move,that is when in 1969 he started working in UK. Ettore had started working and learning glass making under my father,became a good craftman and was tops at making the swans.


Hi Cris,
           The dog is one of his, l had one but mine broke years back like other things,not by my children by different maids l had.
l have now secured most of his things in a cabinet,under lock and key. (better late than never ).l will in time post photos of what l have.


                                          Best regards to all,Maria

Offline Maria Rosaria Attard

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Re: Mdina and the Boffos
« Reply #34 on: November 19, 2014, 05:24:27 PM »
Hi Wolfie,l have sent you an email,l hope you have received it.Please let me know.
                       
                                       Many thanks,Maria

Offline chopin-liszt

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Re: Mdina and the Boffos
« Reply #35 on: November 19, 2014, 05:38:26 PM »
 ;D
Your Father's finishing touch was very fine and delicate, Maria. It is easy to tell apart from less experienced work.
I know he is not responsible for finishing the rather lumpy and lopsided bits, but I did wonder if he was teaching somebody during the making of some of them - getting the apprentice to form the shapes, but perhaps he did some of the decorating?
On the other hand, the grid pattern he favoured might well have been the way he taught apprentices to do it, and it's one that perhaps isn't too difficult to copy, especially when taught by such a master. :)
Cheers, Sue M. (she/her)

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

Offline rosieposie

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Re: Mdina and the Boffos
« Reply #36 on: November 19, 2014, 07:50:26 PM »
Hello again Maria,  what a lot of interesting information you are giving us, and so much help.
 
Most of my collection is Glass animals and birds. Amongst them I have a dog that is the same shape as Chris's, but it is in green glass. Sadly there is no label, but do you know if your Father made these in other colours or just in the Amber coloured glass?

We are all looking forward to seeing pictures of your collection, and sharing ours with you... and I will just HAVE to find one of Ettore's swans to add to my collection!!  You have given me a new project!
Rosie.

When all's said and done, there's nothing left to say or do.  Roger McGough.

Offline WhatHo!

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Re: Mdina and the Boffos
« Reply #37 on: November 19, 2014, 09:16:52 PM »
Ettore had started working and learning glass making under my father,became a good craftman and was tops at making the swans.

I have been researching Patricks Whitefriars Lehr sheets and Ettore certainly did make swans, here in the 1967 week 24 he made 680!! These would have been in either Twilight, Arctic Blue, Flint or Ruby.
Something you like, mail me! :)

Offline rosieposie

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Re: Mdina and the Boffos
« Reply #38 on: November 19, 2014, 11:27:56 PM »
Oh Wow!  I was thinking of Maltese Swans, assuming they were different to Whitefriars... I have just started to collect those... might that mean that I may have one of Ettore's , and if so,  how would I know?
Rosie.

When all's said and done, there's nothing left to say or do.  Roger McGough.

Offline Baked_Beans

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Re: Mdina and the Boffos
« Reply #39 on: November 19, 2014, 11:35:06 PM »
Thanks Maria,

We so much need your help here ...it's great !

There are quite a few Whitefriars swan collectors that are members of this website so they will have to work out how to identify an Ettore swan. There are  subtle differences in how they are made , depending on who made them ...so it's going to be an interesting challenge  ;)

Thanks very much for the information about Murano and Naples. Did your father work for the same company in Murano or did he move from one company to another ? It might be possible to identify some of his early Murano animals if we knew which company he worked for . There is a fabulous website here called the Murano zoo which is devoted to animals made by all the different companies in Murano , you may have seen it before but if you havn't just click on the blue link below ....there is page after page, all from different time periods...the companies that produced them are all listed down the left hand side and you just click on them to see what comes up !

https://sites.google.com/site/muranozoo/

Also do you have the name of the factory in Naples where your father was manager , it would be interesting to see if any of the members of this message board have examples of the glass that was produced there.

Thanks very much ! Cheers, Mike.

P.s. Sorry Rosie our posts crossed !
Mike

 

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