Topic: How do I know if theses floats are authentic fishing net floats?

[islandbearpaw]

Picked these at an estate sale of a very elderly person, box marked "Japanese Floats"  I was going to sell them as a group, but from the research that I have done, the bright red, yellow, amethyst, cobalt ones might actually be very rare, rather than recent reproductions.  I have read through lots of information and still can't tell for certain.  No markings at all on any of them.  Even though I am probably asking for the impossible, I would greatly appreciate help.  I am near Seattle in case there is anyone in the area who appraises or authenticates them.  They each measure about 3 inches.  Happy to send photos of individual ones the file was too big.  Many thanks!

[Scott13]

Hi and welcome,
I asked essentially the same question, about a couple of weeks ago, about a float which I’d found.
Have a look on page 2 - the info provided by ‘ glassobssed’ (John) and the links may be of some use—
of course you may have already seen this post!
Hope you find someone locally that can have a look at them.
Anyway good luck 

Scott

[glassobsessed]

Click on the link for that previous topic: https://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,67449.0.html

I have no experience of Japanese floats, we just don't find them in this part of the world. Floats were made to be used, they were utilitarian rather than decorative so I tend to assume bright colours are from more recent decorative production. With glass the colour is the expensive part and that costly colour was unlikely to be used if it was not needed. What do your floats weigh? Floats needed to withstand a fair bit of wear and tear and so tended to be relatively thick walled and heavy, at least in comparison to decorative only examples.

John

[chopin-liszt]

Three inches does not seem big enough to have been a working float. 

[Penelope12]

...That's what I thought Sue, which brings me to another conundrum, how do you tell the difference between a witches ball and a fishing float?

The red/orange one in the photo looks similar to the ones in Islandbearpaw's collection and also measures three inches, it is also quite heavy, but there are no signs of any wear or bubbles. I've placed it against the east facing front door to ward off any evil spirits, but it doesn't appear to be working! 

The blue one on the other hand is not perfectly round, has a large area of wear on one side, lots of bubbles and appears to be missing its top. It nearly finished up in the bin until I read Scott and John's posts, I never realised there was so much to learn about fishing floats... absolutely fascinating!

Penny

[chopin-liszt]

Witch's balls have had wet sticks poked into them when still hot, to make strands of glass appear internally. They're the bits that the witches get tangled in.

It was the lack of these which accounts for the failure of your ball to stop them.
I just hope the ones that found you were only a little bit naughty.

(sorry about the appearance of my thumb in the pic, it's not a long, dirty nail. It's looking down from my knuckle and the image has just gone very peculiar. )

[Penelope12]

Ah...thanks Sue, that explains it then, I must get one with some of those dangly bits in to catch the little blighters, they’re wreaking havoc! Nice example by the way.

I should have done my homework, it does say in one of John’s links that some fishing floats were quite small, 1 ˝” inches!

Does anyone have any ideas on the origin of this 3 “ inch heavy weight one...Japanese...modern replica?

Thanks Penny

[Scott13]

Hi,
If it’s not a float, I suppose it could be some sort of ‘glass target ball’ - used by shotgun enthusiasts -
before the ‘clay pigeon ‘.
Just a wild guess 

Scott

[Scott13]

Hi,

Forget about ‘ Glass Target Balls ‘ I can see I’ve just ( unintentionally) succeeded in muddying
the waters 
As you know the smaller ones were used for fishing, but this would probably have been a form
of line fishing, so they probably wouldn’t have been subject to the same wear and tear as their
net float cousins.
This might explain the good condition of your red one.
So it could well be an authentic Japanese one. 

Scott

[Penelope12]

Thanks Scott, I think you are probably right, but I see what you mean about the 'glass target balls', I certainly wouldn't want to be a spectator at one of those events!