Topic: Isle of Wight blue Azurene

[chriscooper]

Bought these 3 pieces off the same person all same colour blue or Royal blue ? the cylinder vase with impressed flame pontil mark I have seen and the globe vase cannot find any examples of the the footed bowl unless I am not looking in the right places
Thanks for looking.

[chriscooper]

Base shot

[chopin-liszt]

The footed bowl was a short lived design. Can't find my book right now, but the shape is in the catalogues at the back, you'll get the year(s) there.

All 3 bits seem to be the very inky dark blue that was actually "Black Azurene".
Blue Azurene is more cobalt in colour.
Pic of the blue for illustration.

Your pieces do appear to me all to be quite early - there is a lot of the silver has reacted with the glass, going into a blue sheen on the surface, suggesting they were made before the technique had been fully refined.
I often find them more interesting than the later, more "perfect" ones.

[chriscooper]

The blue showing through looks dark inky blue almost black. Looking on Anton's site I see 2 blue's 1 just say's 'Blue' the other 'Royal Blue' but with no photos for either so I presumed the darker blue would be royal blue Having checked all 3 pieces the foil seems to be predominantly Gold and no Silver just the silvery blue sheen which actually though was the colour doh!  was it just the silver that reacted with the glass the gold looks fine.

[chriscooper]

Oops forgot a thank you forgot to mention the 'blob' of glass for the stamp is a bit sloppy too

[chriscooper]

No labels on any of the 4 pieces either.

[chopin-liszt]

It looks like almost all of the silver has reacted, or at least melted (a full chemical reaction with the glass would produce yellow). Blue appears because of the silver metal being deposited, possibly inside/under the glass rather than on the surface, like the silver "iridesenct" trails you find on the outside of Mdina and early IoWSG.

I have no idea what is meant on Anton's site with regard to Blue or Royal blue, when talking about Azurene.
There is the very deep inky blue, used in a mesh-like formation in the glass, which is what was Black Azurene, (which is what what your 3 bits are) and there is the much brighter blue which I showed.

[Lustrousstone]

I suspect the gold id just silver that has oxidised a bit, i.e., the glass was too hot

[chriscooper]

Now you have really confused me Christine as these were made using Gold and Silver why then cannot the Gold be 'Gold' rather than Silver that's reacted to the hot glass ? and the blue sheen is the Silver that's reacted ?

[chopin-liszt]

If silver metal is on the surface, it will tarnish and go a little dull and goldy, but I do think that in the case of these three pieces, almost all the silver has melted (or reacted just a little - there is no yellow after all) and the gold has just behaved itself properly as gold tends to do.
Silver is the one that does all sorts of different things with glass.

Silver melts at a much lower temperature than gold.

If the metal is under the surface of the glass, that is the colour it will remain, but if there is some silver on the surface, it will tarnish. It can be gently cleaned with silver polish, but you do risk losing the metal in the long run if you do it too often. It's very thin!

The gold foil on these bits looks fine, broken up in a jigsawy manner. Some may be silver, but I do think most of that has "done things".