Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => Murano & Italy Glass => Topic started by: Carterofmars on October 09, 2006, 02:30:43 AM
-
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2568632070096610826mLLPBa
Thanks in advance. :)
-
As I also posted in your thread in Glass: This is a very contemporary China-made imitation of Murano. Not sure if these are made on the island of Taiwan or in mainland China. Your clue to the provenance of these imitations is the brightness of the colors, as in too bright or too overly colorful. Hopefully, you only paid a few bucks for it, as they are mass produced on a massive scale and brought to the U.S. by the thousands by Asian-associated importers. Sold in places like T.J. Maxx, A.J. Wright, Dollar General, Family Dollar, Nana Dollar, etc. in the States.
-
Hi Carterofmars,
Have a look again at the main board, since there are a couple of people who disagree that this is Chinese.
Cheers,
Cathy
-
Have a 'google' for Moretti, or Effetre, as they are now known, canes :wink:
-
Hi,
during the last two years I have seen several reproduction of venetian glass made in china and always with less differences from the originals, but I don't agree that this one is china made. I think that it was an inexpensive murano glass, made in wide quantities, probably by Campanella or Dipi. Some of those items are so cheap, expecially if you find the right way to buy them, that they can be competitive in price with the imported ones (obviously considering the import costs).
Sincerely
Alex
http://www.artofvenice.com
-
If you want to see the Chinese milefiore and sommersos, seach ebay for seller thewesternart.
Laura
-
I love the certificates of authenticity that come with the pieces! All by John Lee.
-
They seem to have an Australian agent. See a1-allgoods and razzelldazzell (same family). No nifty certificates, though. :shock:
C.
-
May be, may be...
A pair of weeks agoon the Stazione Sperimentale del Vetro, a public istitution in Murano, had to use chemical investigation to understand if a big stock of lampworks were made here in Venice/murano or from China. Due to the absurd quantity of arsenico (I don't know the english word, sorry :oops: ) they recognize that the stock was from China.
The point is that, in my opinion, Murano glass makes sense if at an high/medium level. The simple and inexpensive works can be made with very very similar features in every country. The plus of Murano is on the pieces made by skilled masters.
Sincerely
Alex
http://www.artofvenice.com
-
Not everybody may be aware that there are factories in Murano who produce canes and millefiori or murrine to sell to other glass makers, in the same way as in the ceramics industry, there are print makers who produce "book" lithos and sell these to any number of producers.
I have often wondered whether some Chinese producers have simply gone to Venice and bought canes there.
-
Due to the absurd quantity of arsenico (I don't know the english word, sorry :oops: ) they recognize that the stock was from China.
The English word is very close....arsenic!
For obvious reasons most glass recipes now have been revised to remove the arsenic. My namesake, Adam D (the other Adam) would be able to tell you the precise use, but I think it was either a fining agentor a flux.
The main reason for removing it was to protect glassmakers on Health and Safety grounds. I don't think any consumer ever suffered from the minute arsenic content within the glass, unless they were circus performers eating the glass, in which case the ground glass probably did more harm than the arsenic! :D
-
Thanks, Adam A. for pointing me to this thread which I would have missed otherwise.
By coincidence in the last few days I was asked about the use of arsenic and this is what I said:-
"Re arsenic, it most certainly was used, and probably still is in huge quantities. “Arsenic” or “white arsenic” are really arsenious oxide. We bought ours in, I think, 2 ton lots. 4 or 5 lbs in around a ton of glass would be quite common. The main (alleged) benefits are helping control colour, especially in 'colourless' compositions and improving melting rates. Quite a lot would go up the chimney to be spread around the neighbourhood. There is, of course, no danger at all from the finished glass. The arsenic, like everything else, is securely locked in. It came in small, strong barrels (it was extremely dense) and I remember my mixing room crew using an empty as a table for their sandwiches!"
You will see that I assumed that it was still widely used. Maybe I was wrong - I have no contacts in the industry now. Although the hazards to the workers are obvious I would have hoped that, in the glass industry at least, common sense would have prevailed.
It is 13 years since I retired from my second career as a Health and Safety Inspector. I am sickened by the way, since then, "health'n'safety" has been used as an excuse for the most outrageous assaults on common sense.
Adam D.
-
The owner of the item, Carterofmars, indicates he paid $10 for the piece, which was originally priced at $20. This means the seller paid something like $3 or $4 for the piece, if that. Sellers don't shave away at their profit margins, unless they paid very little originally. Quality Murano pieces would wholesale and retail for a lot more. Perhaps these are Murano canes sold in a lot by the tens of thousands and transported, but this is not a made-in-Murano item.
-
the price paid, alone, can't really be a valid indicator of authenticity. i've purchased pieces for $10 or less that turned out to be the real deal, a couple of times they even had labels that the sellers didn't think worth mentioning!
also, i've been known to take a loss on items i was selling simply because i don't have the space to hold on to them forever and figure it's better to recover at least most of what i paid rather than get nothing. i know that's not the best business practice but it's only a hobby for me (one that allows me just enough to support my buying habit lol).
bidda
The owner of the item, Carterofmars, indicates he paid $10 for the piece, which was originally priced at $20. This means the seller paid something like $3 or $4 for the piece, if that. Sellers don't shave away at their profit margins, unless they paid very little originally. Quality Murano pieces would wholesale and retail for a lot more. Perhaps these are Murano canes sold in a lot by the tens of thousands and transported, but this is not a made-in-Murano item.