Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: ttttootall on September 20, 2011, 09:17:12 PM
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Here is a vase bought at an antique store in Pendleton SC. Was love at first site. No one new anything about it and neither did I.
Do any of you? It is about the size of a soccerball and weighs almost 8lbs. No signature that I can see. These are about the best pics I can get...but I am getting better. ;D
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Better pictures of texture. :)
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Very interesting piece. Is the top of the vase cold cut (battuto)? If cold cut, you can feel chisel marks and fairly sharp surfaces.
The bottom part looks like it has gold foil in it. If it's cold cut, the both techniques are used in Murano, although Ithat doesn't say the vase is Murano.
How would you describe the quality of the glass and the finishing on the base?
David
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Yes, the top half is as if it has been chiseled and the pontil is mostly smooth.
The quality of the glass to me (though no expert) seems high standard though there are many tiny bubbles through out, if that makes a difference.
As for the "gold foil" it is more of a murky mud brown rather than a shinny gold. :-\
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It's an interesting piece. However, I'm leaning away from Murano. Battuto is increasingly done all over the world (see Dirk's recent post for an example from China). The quality of the glass, the finish on the base, and the weight all say not Murano to me. I'm less sure where it was made, though. Perhaps China, India or Romania, although that hardly narrows it down. That's not to say it's not an intersting and very decorative piece.
As ever, I'm keen to hear what others say.
David
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Since you are in the U.S. I would not rule out any one of the hundreds of studio glass operations we have here 1/2 of which do not sign their work & 75% are here today gone tomorrow operations.
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I don't think I've ever seen battuto on an American Studio glass piece, unless you include Tagliapietra. It's very labour intensive.
David
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Allow me to expand on my original response. In the late 1970s into the early 1980s in Columbus, Ohio we had nine studio operations, two of which grew into larger operations, Eickholt & Kelsey Murphy (maybe you have heard of them) just prior to her association with Pilgrim & later Fenton. She set up her daughter in a gallery in our Short North area when she was operating her Glass Expectations Inc. & sold her cameo glass through the gallery. This is one city in one state & I am discounting all the college fine arts glass blowing operations in Ohio & just about every public university had one. Now multiply the above for the entire U.S. & the Ohio studio movement (statewide) was considered minor league against the likes of California & Florida...you had literally hundreds of studio operations ongoing in the U.S. during this time period, granted most small operations disappeared by the early to mid 1990s, still unless anyone knew what everyone produced nationwide during this time period it would be most difficult to discount who/whom was artistically or technically capable of blowing the piece no matter how labor intensive & that is why I responded it may have been a U.S. studio piece.
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It could possibly be US studio glass. I wasn't minimizing the number of glass studios in the US, simply observing that the battuto I see most of right now seems to come from outside the US, certainly on pieces of this scale. For example, see this link posted on the GMB by Dirk yesterday. http://ambiente.messefrankfurt.com/frankfurt/en/besucher/ausstellersuche.productdetails.html/mf_bata_0028378670.html
David
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I keep a sharp weather eye on contemporary Chinese glass when I get a chance to go to TKMaxx and make a note of all the new techniques and finishes coming out. Foil inclusions and battutto cut are now common - so are properly polished bases and pontil marks - although there is sometimes gouging seen in the rondel as it is here.
I would say contemporary Chinese, with a fair amount of confidence.
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I would lean towards Chinese but have no proof for you.
The colouring on it and the slightly oddly done pontil mark and the size all make me think contemporary production from China. Had it been all one colour I would have also thought India as an option. To me it looks like a department store piece where a few the same would have been lined up together.
Is the glass slightly 'greasy' at all btw? I have a couple of vases that I thought might have been studio pieces originally (and they still might be) but the glass is odd and I now think they might have originated in China.
m
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The vase is not greasy feeling at all.
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Well remembered, m. :)
(I'd forgotten this. When I've been studying in TKMaxx I always end up with stinky, greasy-feeling hands. It has to be the last stop on any trip so that I can get home and washed straight away.)
If you (or your seller) washed it, you may need to leave it sitting for a while before the effect develops again. It develops faster in a shut cabinet than on an open shelf.
On top of any "greasy" feel, what does it smell or taste like?
(only taste it after you have sniffed it well. If it smells "industrial vinegary" - don't bother tasting it - it would only be unpleasant.)
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The post originated Sept. 20, 2011 and the vase was bought several years before then.
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The plot thickens then! I can't swear that these new techniques coming from China are even that old.
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There is a company that sells a lot of glass vases and interior things now over here in the UK called Svaja glass. I think I've seen some of their vases with the browny mottled decoration on them. I'm not entirely sure where their glass is made though although I've not searched the board and I know there has been some discussion on them on the board. Do you recognise that brand name? it's possible they sell elsewhere as well.
The query I have over the vase is the browny decor and the pontil mark - Neither look very studio glass like to me, but as I say, no proof and that's just my first impressions. I love the battuto effect. It may be worth you searching under 'battuto' to see if something similar comes up?
m
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Svaja glass is sold in a posh Art Gallery here. It's pretty well made, although I've never been tempted.