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Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass Paperweights => Topic started by: Lustrousstone on June 24, 2007, 04:51:49 PM

Title: Paperweight bud vase
Post by: Lustrousstone on June 24, 2007, 04:51:49 PM
I'm fairly certain this isn't Chinese but.... The paperweight bit certainly has a greyish tinge and a fuzzy green (manganese) glow under UV, unlike the vase bit, which has neither! And it a b£&&%^ to photograph
Paperweight bit (http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b217/lustrousstone/IMG_1324.jpg)
Base (http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b217/lustrousstone/IMG_1325.jpg)
Close up (http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b217/lustrousstone/IMG_1326.jpg)
Any ideas please
Title: Re: Paperweight bud vase
Post by: theglassnut on June 24, 2007, 05:21:22 PM
hi christine, most certainly strathearn (1964-1980) the canes look a little late for vasart, and certainly not chinese!

kindest regards theglassnut...
Title: Re: Paperweight bud vase
Post by: Anne on June 24, 2007, 06:18:53 PM
Christine, on the base there appear to be some letters, can you make them out?
Title: Re: Paperweight bud vase
Post by: Lustrousstone on June 25, 2007, 06:27:35 AM
Thanks Glassnut
Anne, whatever the mark was I can't see it now, not with a magnifying glass or the camera macro
Title: Re: Paperweight bud vase
Post by: Sue C on June 25, 2007, 10:02:11 AM
Anne i see them too, just below the pontil scar, look's like a M and then O at the end, is that what you see?
Title: Re: Paperweight bud vase
Post by: Lustrousstone on June 25, 2007, 11:28:56 AM
Just wrinkles in the glass, it's a very wrinkly pontil mark, like a beach at low tide
Title: Re: Paperweight bud vase
Post by: Sue C on June 25, 2007, 11:53:11 AM
A bit like my belly button then  ::) :P i'll get my coat.
Title: Re: Paperweight bud vase
Post by: Anne on June 25, 2007, 02:54:16 PM
Yes, that's the ones Sue, I thought it looks like an M or a W or possibly a V and further along is what looks like an a or an o followed by what looks like an s. Christine, try talcing the base and see if anything else shows up, just in case. They don't look like random marks but are quite feint.
Title: Re: Paperweight bud vase
Post by: Lustrousstone on June 25, 2007, 02:59:47 PM
They're just ripples where it was fire finished, quite normal apparently
Title: Re: Paperweight bud vase
Post by: josordoni on June 25, 2007, 06:08:21 PM
A bit like my belly button then  ::) :P i'll get my coat.

Or my belly... let alone the button.....

Getting my coat to go with you (and an umbrella in case of more rain...)
Title: Re: Paperweight bud vase
Post by: KevinH on June 25, 2007, 09:40:48 PM
Yes - the "mark" is just "ripples" ... but quite confincing as possible letters in this case!

I think the item may be Strathearn. But it might also be later Vasart (1956 to 1964, although perhaps the latter few years rather the earlier ones). I have seen a variety of weights with the later Vasart label but with canes that I used to think were "typically" Strathearn. Also, the red ground is one that I have now seen in Vasart weights, but which I used to think was later. Canes standing well out of the surface of the ground are known in weights from both later Vasart and (earlier?) Strathearn.

I am suprised, though, that the vase portion fluoresces differently to the base section. This seems to suggest that either the company was using at least two different glass batches at the same time or that more than one company was involved in the full making of the item. Neither of these options sounds right to me.

What strength of UV light is being used? And is the test being done in full darkness? For my weights, using my mains-powered UV lamp, even in just dimmed room lighting all later Vasart and all Strathearn show a clear, bright yellowish-green under the longwave UV - I would not really call it a "fuzzy green" (although I have, in my web pages, said that the shade of green does vary).

It may a good idea to re-check the UV reaction of the top of the rim of the vase bit as it can happen that the colour is weaker through the sides of a blown portion of glass. Unfortunately I don't have a Vasart / Strathearn bud vase [I do have a Chinese one though :)], so I cannot check the UV reactions for myself. Anyone want to donate one of these to me? ;D

----------
Incidentally, thinking about all this, I checked my web pages for my comments on the UV reactions of Vasart / Strathearn. And I found what seems to be an error [shock, horror  >:D]. I said in one part:
Quote
... using Short Wave ..., with all the weights in exactly the same position as before,... there is a group of four that do not fluoresce blue. In reality, these four show up as a murky, or dusty, shade of green.
I am sure that I should have said, "... murky, or dusty, shade of GREY." In fact, I have now checked the UV results for those weights, and yes, it's GREY not green under the shortwave.

How ever will I live with myself now ... that error has been there since July 2001. Oh! Woe, woe and thrice woe ...  :'( :'( :'(
Title: Re: Paperweight bud vase
Post by: Lustrousstone on June 26, 2007, 06:50:40 AM
Hi Kev
I've been in the airing cupboard with the vase, a handheld fluorescent tube (that gets a good reaction out of most things that are going to glow) and a piece of black card and am still not entirely convinced the top part glows at all. If it does, it's very faint. It is also not greyish like the bottom. The bottom glows quite brightly. I describe as a fuzzy glow because the manganese glow always seems fuzzy when compared with the bright uranium glow that I'm usually on the look out for.
Title: Re: Paperweight bud vase
Post by: KevinH on June 26, 2007, 11:38:11 PM
Ok, thanks.

"Fuzzy" as opposed to "bright uranium glow" does make sense to me.

Top glowing only faintly, if at all, makes me now want to check some of these bud vases. This is the sort of finding that I think is fascinating and gets me thinkimg, "Now, why is that?" :)