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Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => Malta Glass => Topic started by: flying free on November 28, 2009, 11:00:17 PM

Title: Mdina? but how old please?
Post by: flying free on November 28, 2009, 11:00:17 PM
I 'think' from my researching this is a Mdina vase. 
It has a Maltese cross impressed in a roundel on the front.
It is 6.5"high, 3.5" across the base and 3" across the rim.  The base is ground flat and polished.
If it is (and if it's not does anyone recognise it?) could anyone help with what year might it have been produced and who would it have been designed by please?
Thanks in advance and much appreciated.
m
Title: Re: Mdina? but how old please?
Post by: glassobsessed on November 28, 2009, 11:48:10 PM
Yes made at Mdina, they were made in the early to mid 70s and presumably later too (maybe into the 80s?), but I do not know if they were made before Michael Harris left Mdina (1972). Likewise not much help with a designer, I do not remember a reference to them in Mark Hill's book on Mdina & IoWSG. Other members of the board are likely to be able to help further.

Yours looks to be shorter than some and also a more interesting colour than many examples. My wild stab in the dark for a date would be the early seventies.

John
Title: Re: Mdina? but how old please?
Post by: Lustrousstone on November 29, 2009, 11:02:02 AM
There was some very early green-based stuff. I have a piece and so does Robbo. The question is, is the base truly smooth; if you can see where the grinding wheel has left undulating marks, then so is yours.
Title: Re: Mdina? but how old please?
Post by: flying free on November 29, 2009, 11:44:56 AM
Thank you both.  Christine I think it is polished completely smooth.  It is worn with age but to my eye it's completely flat which I presume, from what you've said, means it is not that early on in Mdina's lifetime ?  
Would you know what year these were produced up until please? And was the cross still put on pieces after he left?
Out of curiosity I was wondering if this had been produced whilst Michael Harris was there?  I really love the colour way as I have this pear/limey green in my sitting room ;D so it's a treasure for me as I find it difficult to find that colour glass.
thanks again
m
Title: Re: Mdina? but how old please?
Post by: Lustrousstone on November 29, 2009, 01:52:43 PM
Looking at it again in less haste, I think its actually blue based, so I would go with the dates John has given
Title: Re: Mdina? but how old please?
Post by: flying free on November 29, 2009, 08:12:56 PM
Thank you both very much  :)  I really appreciate it.
Christine having never seen another piece I am wary of giving incorrect information :) because I have nothing to compare it to, but in terms of colour I held it up to a halogen spotlight tonight.  It appears the effect of presenting as green  is made by a turquoisy base with gold (shiny) and yellow (matt gold) streaks in it along with some opalescent but very thin milky white streaks. So as you say it doesn't appear to really be green  :o

However, as long as it stays looking green I am happy  ;D

m

Title: Re: Mdina? but how old please?
Post by: malwodyn on December 01, 2009, 03:22:03 PM
Thank you both very much  :)  I really appreciate it.
Christine having never seen another piece I am wary of giving incorrect information :) because I have nothing to compare it to, but in terms of colour I held it up to a halogen spotlight tonight.  It appears the effect of presenting as green  is made by a turquoisy base with gold (shiny) and yellow (matt gold) streaks in it along with some opalescent but very thin milky white streaks. So as you say it doesn't appear to really be green  :o

However, as long as it stays looking green I am happy  ;D

m
The yellow streaks could well come from silver chloride, which was used in the early Mdina days - for how long, I do not know.

As for the Maltese cross on a prunt, I have a smallish cylindrical vase with a spiral turquoise/blue trail over an orange body, and a Maltese cross prunt over the end of the trail.  The body colour is not one I associate with Michael Harris' time at Mdina.
Title: Re: Mdina? but how old please?
Post by: Lustrousstone on December 01, 2009, 04:28:05 PM
All the streaks are silver chloride in this, whether yellow, brown or iridescent. The colour depends on how close to the surface and which layer of glass it's in. Silver chloride is still being used at Mdina today. I suspect the shape is post-Harris, although  the cross prunt was used while he was there.
Title: Re: Mdina? but how old please?
Post by: chopin-liszt on December 01, 2009, 07:42:45 PM
This looks to me to be the more "standard" post-Harris style of carafe in shape. The Maltese Cross prunt mark was used while he was there, but also afterwards. Carafes were made when he was still there, but these often come much taller and more elongated than this, or with a larger, more bell-shaped bottom part, or smaller and slimmer, without pronounced shoulders. I have no idea when, or even if, they stopped being produced though.
Lovely markings in this one, I agree!
Title: Re: Mdina? but how old please?
Post by: glassobsessed on December 01, 2009, 10:05:06 PM
Thanks for adding the extra info Sue. :angel:

John
Title: Re: Mdina? but how old please?
Post by: flying free on December 01, 2009, 10:15:44 PM
Thank you all very much.  It is my first piece of Mdina and I particularly like the shape of it as well as the colour.
I have learnt so much through this one post alone! 

m