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Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => Murano & Italy Glass => Topic started by: David E on January 17, 2006, 07:25:19 PM

Title: VNC / Veritable Opaline
Post by: David E on January 17, 2006, 07:25:19 PM
The following are photos of glass made by Veritable Opaline (later called V.Nason & C.)

The one point I have a query about concerns the bases. In both cases they appear milky-white, but when backlit they have a definite amber tinge. Can anyone explain this effect?

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/dencill/Nason/opaline1-t.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/dencill/Nason/opaline1.jpg) : (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/dencill/Nason/opaline-base1-t.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/dencill/Nason/opaline-base1.jpg) : (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/dencill/Nason/opaline-base2-t.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/dencill/Nason/opaline-base2.jpg)

See label detail here http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,1749.0.html
Title: VNC / Veritable Opaline
Post by: David555 on January 18, 2006, 12:58:22 AM
Hi David

I am enjoying the debate about V Nason, I can't get through to them so I have emailed a friend in Murano to see if they are still in operation / I have also emailed Nason & Moretti who are good for getting back about other companies.

This is not as good quality as the Nason 'Veritable Opaline' vase you show - I am sure it is not by Nason. It is Italian - I listed it last year with the small worn importers label 'Made in Italy'

vase (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/blackcatgla/images/it1.jpg)

It is I think c 1970s and has the same opalescent foot and stem as yours. It is quite lovely and very well made though a different shape to yours.

The opal effect also turns dull amber when back lit in my vase

Any ideas of a maker for mine


Adam P
Title: VNC / Veritable Opaline
Post by: KevinH on January 18, 2006, 05:22:37 AM
Hi folks,

I have been browsing messages about the V Nason Company for a while. It's not a maker I know anything about, other than what I read here and see occasionally in other sites. However, David's pics made me sit up and say, "Aha!"

The "splashed" vase (wrong term, I reckon, but it's the best I can do at 4:40am) that David shows is something I know from my own items but for which I had never found an attribution.

I have to say that I prefer the shape of my pair of vases:
http://tinypic.com/kewymw.jpg
But it's the sameness of the colouring that's important here. Are these definitely V Nason?

And then David's blue vase struck me as having some close similarity with a strange-shaped blue vase that I have. In the pic below, it is shown with a green opaline vase that I had always assumed was French - I'll come back to that in a moment.

The blue, handled vase seems to have a common form with the body-to-neck section of David's blue vase. And it seems to me that the colouring and depth of the opaline is reasonably consistent, too. So maybe my handled vase is also V Nason? (But I am well aware of the dangers, as pointed out quite often in here, of making bold leaps of assumptions based on similar looks.)

Blue vase & Greeen vase
http://tinypic.com/kewz1v.jpg

The green vase is also opaline and the thing about this one is that it has the same type of white opaline foot as mentioned by David and seen also in my pair of "splahed" vases. This type of foot is indistinguishable from one on a (more solid) white opaline vase I have that is acid etched on the underside of the foot: "Sevres FRANCE". It was this, amongst other reasons, that led me to wonder whether amy other of my pieces with that milky-white foot could also be French, Until I saw messages in this board, I had never even heard of V Nason.  

In connection with the "fire" effect of trasmitted light, seen in the feet of items like these, my Sevres vase, although being thicker and heavier than my other oplaline pieces, is allover white and shows the golden "fire" effect very well throughout all of the body as well as the foot. I have always thought the effect to be simply the reaction that transmitted light has on the "bone-ash / arsenic" mixture of opaline. But I had never wondered any deeper why it reacted in this way - I assume it's something to do with the excitement of the atoms. [Another thread somewhere has mentioned the "fireglo" (or "fireglow") glass that the American Boston & Sandwich company made as a deliberate marketing strategy based on this "fire" effect of opaline.]
Title: VNC / Veritable Opaline
Post by: David E on January 18, 2006, 10:00:47 AM
Looks like I opened a can of worms!

Quote from: "Kev"
But it's the sameness of the colouring that's important here. Are these definitely V Nason?


Just to reconfirm the timeline information in Ivo's book; VNC started in 1967, then became Veritable Opaline and then V.Nason in 1989. So the vases are almost certainly not V.Nason, unless they were still making them after 1989. However, the other thread by Adam does query the start date for V.Nason of 1989...

I must admit the initial similarities of the foot made me assume they were from the same company, but Kev's 'Sevres' vase throws this completely into doubt. I suppose it then depends on how consistent Sevres were with backstamping their wares.

However, I must also concede that the Veritable Opaline vase does not have an all-over amber tinge, whereas the 'splatter' vase does. Again, this could indicate different manufacturer, possibly Sevres as intimated.

Good point about the use of arsenic (as with Pearline) to create the milky-white effect, and hopefully one of the technologists will come back with a definite answer.

Following is a better comparison of the two feet. The Veritable Opaline one is less opaque than the splatter, and note the use of gilt on the 'splatter' vase around where the stem meets the vase.

 :shock: click to zoom :shock:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/dencill/Nason/opaline-base3a-t.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/dencill/Nason/opaline-base3a.jpg) : (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/dencill/Nason/opaline-base3b-t.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/dencill/Nason/opaline-base3b.jpg)
Title: Re: VNC / Veritable Opaline
Post by: Bernard C on September 12, 2007, 11:05:48 AM
David — as this topic dicusses the opaline colouring, I am posting my thoughts here.

My two ewers, see here (http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,5095.0.html), and vase, see here (http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,17352.0.html), share the opaline colour with your two pieces.

What I have noticed, on these examples and elsewhere, is that the backlit colour of amber or golden-amber is consistent and homogenous, whereas the opaline colouring is quite variable in density and can be cloudy, as though it was a final ingredient mixed in at the end.   You can't see it from my photograph but the foot of my labelled vase exhibits quite noticeable cloudiness.   Note the quite different intensity of the opaline colour in the feet of my two pink ewers.    I presume that all this variation is due to its being a heat-sensitive colour.

Bernard C.  8)
Title: Re: VNC / Veritable Opaline
Post by: Ivo on September 12, 2007, 11:31:44 AM
Fiery translucency is a characteristic of true opaline (véritable Opaline) based on bone ash or antimony and not to be confused with the Italian "Opalino" which is any transparent colour cased over milk glass. The "Véritable Opaline" label for glass coloured in the mass is from Empoli, not from Nason as far as I know.

This type of Opaline has also been made by Boom in Belgium and by Valérysthal in France. I would not be surprised if there were other sources as well. But main source remains Empoli.
Title: Re: VNC / Veritable Opaline
Post by: David E on September 13, 2007, 09:38:59 PM
Just found the original post relating to the label:

http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,1749.msg30748.html#msg30748

I did wonder if the 'N' in the red circle could have stood for Nason, but I'll admit there's nothing I've found yet to support this, except it does mention Murano, not Florence, or have I misunderstood this?

Thanks for confirming the main element to provide the fiery appearance.
Title: Re: VNC / Veritable Opaline
Post by: Ivo on September 14, 2007, 12:14:39 PM
of course, if the label mentions Murano then it would probably be Nason.
Title: Re: VNC / Veritable Opaline
Post by: flying free on July 31, 2010, 06:41:14 PM
I have searched interminably to try and identify my opalescent 'splashy' vase and lo and behold, I have finally found one that looks to be from the same hand.  Was the splashy one ever id'd as Veritable Opaline do you know? 18cm tall and 8cm at widest point.

Mine is posted below - It may well turn out to be something else entirely, but it shrieks Italian 1970's to me and I can't  imagine it being anything else ;D  The opalescence is unbelievable and is throughout the entire vase.  
thanks
m
Title: Re: VNC / Veritable Opaline
Post by: flying free on July 31, 2010, 06:41:58 PM
base pic
Title: Re: VNC / Veritable Opaline
Post by: Wayne on August 09, 2010, 08:48:18 AM
Could these 'splashy' vases be by Stelvia from Empoli, Italy?  I came across the following thread which shows a labelled Stelvia vase, which has very similar colours to the vase shown at the top of this thread:

http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php?topic=2187.0 (http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php?topic=2187.0)
Title: Re: VNC / Veritable Opaline
Post by: flying free on August 09, 2010, 07:41:49 PM
ooh thanks Wayne!  Mine is more of an all-over pattern than the 'leopard' type spots shown on that one but they are incredibly similar aren't they?
m
Title: Re: VNC / Veritable Opaline
Post by: Wayne on August 10, 2010, 08:43:41 AM
I've done a bit more digging and found a few labelled examples on ebay, item numbers 300453930021, 280545467154 and 220640474447.  Also found a 'full view' of the leaopard style on another site here:

http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/stelvia-italy-handmade-glass-vase-1950s-60s (http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/stelvia-italy-handmade-glass-vase-1950s-60s)

Still haven't seen any with the opalescent stems though, I'll keep my eyes peeled  ;)