Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: John Smith on December 16, 2012, 04:14:36 PM
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Hi to you all... A friend brought me this piece back from New York in the mid 1980s. Hand luggage! It's very odd to say the least. It stands 47 inches and the base is 7 inches diameter. The pontil is unground. I have taken a pic next to me car to provide scale. Chuhali, has been mentioned but only as a guess. It.s in the style perhaps, but it doesn't look flamboyant enough to me. Any ideas would be very welcome. I haven't got a clue, except to say it's American, freeblown, and weighs a ton! It has a very slight iridescence to the top. Many thanks. John
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... Sorry, I may have been better by placing this in with the USA glass?
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All queries should start in plain "glass". They can be shifted (lovely mods again!) to the correct place when id. is established.
I'm clueless about this monster of yours - however, I have carted home some Beranek "Tropical flowers" on the bus - in several trips - to get them all home, three at a time. I wasn't leaving them sitting in TKMaxx at £5 each!
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...Haaa, I don't even think TKMAX have shelf-space for this! I don't even know how much was paid for it either. I'd say it was a Yard of Ale, if had not come back from USA! I'll keep an eye on where post things in the future... "sorry again" to The Mod's and thank you chopin-liszt
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Do you not find you're a bit scared of it?
The Tropical flowers are scary - the great long thin rod of glass, with a very heavy top part... my rods are slowly bending under the weight!
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I'm frightened of knocking the damned thing over! Until I find out what it is! A hat rack perhaps? Even though it is hollow, the top is not accommodating for flower stems etc. It's not really my kind of thing, but as it was gift I have to live with it AND feed it... I think I have seen one or two flowers that you mention. I believe they are produced in Malta or Cyprus. Thick-heavy petals??? Are they the ones?
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There are some pics of my flowers here;
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,45707.10.html
I would very much doubt they were made in Malta - Mdina (and related glass) is my area, John.
Beranek is Czech.
What do you feed your beast - and how often? And what happens if you don't?
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Oh My Word! Those glass flowers would eat my piece alive! lol. They are not what I thought them to be... as for my "Beast" it is only ever fed out of doors and from a distance, with shards of PYREX, though it can be partial this time of year to lengths of tinsel, steeped in opalescent brandy...
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How unusual - I thought most pets needed to be kept away from eating tinsel - or there can be a "sausage" effect at the far end later on (that's if the intestines are not tied up in knots and the poor beast is not carted off the the vet) ;D .
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I am reluctant to take that risk with this piece. It has a tendency to morph into a Inwald flower frog... ;D
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Have you been feeding it after midnight? :o
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It must NEVER, EVER be fed before the stroke of 12! I should have mentioned that...
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So that's why there's a knot in its neck - so you can stop anything eaten at the wrong side of midnight getting into the body proper!
Have you any idea of the location it came from? And would it have been made locally to that?
Did your friend, who went to all the effort of carrying it as hand luggage (how did he get it to fit into the set hand luggage dimensions?) not have the slightest clue about it?
Do you think it was an artist just having a bit of fun and seeing what happened if he swung it around a bit?
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Well. All that I can say or know about this piece, is that its was purchased in New York circa 1982 (or thereabouts). I have been a glass blower myself and going by its size & weight, would have required more than just one person to produce it... and a very large annealing oven. An end of day item perhaps, or a bit of fun? I can see the appeal of such a work as an interior display within the right setting. I do not know if it was purchased from an antique mall or an art studio. Never been to New York myself.... having it today as hand luggage would probably get you imprisoned as a terrorist suspect. I'd certainly not chance it.
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Ok, clue number one.
Who, in those environs, HAD a massive annealing oven in a studio, circa 1980?
And you're a glassblower yourself? Pretty please, can you show us what you've made?
(I've had fun trying to get bits of glass through customs myself... I've had to unwrap my parcels and do a glassy show-and-tell a few times. Not that I ever mind a chance to educate folk about the beauty of glass. 8) )
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I have sent a few pics of some of my early works to the post on this site which is discussing Lamp Work. I have less than five of my own pieces remaining. Some may even remember me whilst I traded as "Breaking Glass" in the Drummond Centre, Croydon,Surrey and also in Chruch Street, at INSHOPS. I could make the stuff quick enough, it used to fly from the shelves. Also, as I very much doubt that I shall ever glass blow again (unless someone would care to employ me??? and all of my designs) I have lots of equipment for sale if anybody is interested. Mainly tools (some carbon) lots of borosilicate tubing and a six-burner Oxy/Gas lamp, gauges & valves etc. And sorry, I do not have an annealing oven, not even an American one... :-)