Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass Paperweights => Topic started by: Della on September 16, 2006, 11:32:29 AM
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Hi all,
Could anyone please tell me why this paperweight has a polished base and yet still has a pontil? It is signed Daum, France.
Also, any idea how old it is please?
(http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/albums/userpics/10026/thumb_daumppw.jpg) (http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-3322)(http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/albums/userpics/10026/thumb_daumpon.jpg) (http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-3321)(http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/albums/userpics/10026/thumb_daumb.jpg) (http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-3320)(http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/albums/userpics/10026/thumb_daumbub.jpg) (http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-3319)
:shock: Click to enlarge :shock:
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Err, I think you are getting confused about what a pontil is.
See this and other topics for broader discussion:
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,945.0.html
In any event I see no pontil scar in your pictures?
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Err, I do know what a pontil is, I just missed out the word 'mark.' (happens when kids are mithering, backspace, re-write, no time to re-read etc., apologies for my sloppiness )
Any how, if this is not a pontil mark/scar, then just what would you categorise it as, please?
(http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/albums/userpics/10026/thumb_pontildaum.jpg) (http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-3323)
:shock: Click to enlarge :shock:
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Certainly looks like it, is it off centre? I suppose they just polished as far as they could without cutting too much off. Did Daum make these themselves or out-source? Perhaps a second.
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On photo 2 in the first post, the paperweight is sat on the polished base and the pontil mark is what you can see.
The weight is signed, but I just can't get my head round the sense of it all, or should I say lack of sense. :? :?
I presume, as you say, it is a second, but then why sign it?
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It's a puzzle for sure... Della, just so as I'm clear in my own head, are you saying the pontil mark is not on the polished base but somewhere on the side of the weight?
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Hi Anne, :D :D
Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. Strange or what :?: :!:
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Strange indeed Della. (That's probably what threw Frank as he probably looked at the base where we'd normally expect a pontil mark to be.)
Is there any possibility that the mark could be something else I wonder... thinking out loud here... some form of impact damage perhaps? I just can't imagine why a maker would have a pontil mark visible like that. :?
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It really doesn't look or feel like damage. It looks as though the maker was drunk and didn't pay attention to where he placed the bubbles. If the pontil mark had been groud and polished, it would have been impossible to display the weight.
I only have one other weight with a pontil mark and the diameter of the spot where it was actually snapped from the rod, is almost identical in size to that of this weight.
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It is definitely a Daum weight. I remember selling these around 1977 seventies (when I was still at school? :D ) in the days when our family gallery, Coleridge of Highgate, was a Daum distributor. I think it could have been in the range from around 1975 but I'm not certain.
It was one of my favourite pws at the time, although terribly expensive, and therefore difficult to sell! I think (and my memory is not what it was) that it retailed for about £45 at the time, which is probably why it stayed on the shelf for a while.
The "gold" inclusion is mica.
It is difficult to see from the photo whether the pontil mark is on the polished base. If it is, it probably should have been ground out and then polished, but probably slipped through the very high quality control that Daum had. This is very unusual.
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Hi Adam,
There is a polished base and then the centre of the pontil mark is 3.5cm higher up.
http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-3321
In this photo, the weight is stood on the polished base and you can clearly see the pontil scar.
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Much clearer.
I think this left the factory intact. Subsequently it has been damaged, rather badly and someone has ground out the damage and repolished, perhaps not as well as they had hoped.
In this pw the ring of bubbles should be level, so the base in the correct place and it should not have the phantom pontil scar, which is probably the remains of a rather serious concoidal fracture. (known colloquially as a fleabite)
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Here is another photo, which I think is the clearest that I can get.
http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-3325
When the weight is stood on the polished base, the bubbles are level. The signature also on the edge of the polished base.
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I hate to say this Della, but Adam is right. That's not a pontil mark, it's a 'bruise'! I know because I have a weight with exactly the same sort of mark. It happened when the cats knocked one paperweight off a shelf and it landed on top of another :evil: :cry: :roll:
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I hate to say this Della, but Adam is right.
:( :(
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Oh, I am not too worried, it cost next to nothing and when it is on display it looks fabulous.