Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: pamohearn on March 02, 2013, 05:33:37 PM
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Hi,
I have had this vase/bottle for ages. It has a great history with me, but I've never known even where to look to find out anything about it, so I am hoping someone here will have some ideas. ??? Back in the '70's, I don't remember exactly the year, but about 77-ish, probably, I found this while scavenging on the rocks/beach in Rhode Island. I was a kid at the time, about 8 probably. There had been an oil spill off the coast, and it was heavy crude that was spilled, which tends to sink to the bottom, become very plasticine and wash up in globs. Knowing nothing about it being unhealthy, I used to love to pick it up and look at the patterns in it. One day, I was walking along the rocky point of Bonnet Shores (giant granite rock outcroppings) just up into the mouth of Narragansett Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. I saw this sticking out, wedged in a big crack in the rocks. I picked it up thinking it was a glob of oil, but it was a glass bottle. I have kept it with me ever since. The best beach-glass find ever. 8) But no one has ever seen anything like it. I've included pictures, but they don't do it justice. Overall, it is just over 8" high, 6" wide at the bottom. The hole at the top is just under 1" across. It is thick glass, and heavy. It weighs about 2lbs. It is hand blown, I can see the scar at the bottom. It looks black at first sight, in part because it is all frosted from being beach-tumbled. It is actually bottle green, and there is a thin swirl of blue that runs horizontally, wrapped around, the middle. You cannot see that unless the light shines through it the right way. the base of the bottle/vase is flattened, curved under from the back and forward at the front, and there is rippling throughout the bottom ear/wave looking part. The opening is not quite level. I would love to have any ideas about what this might be. thanks for your help. I do have more pics, of the bottom, hole, etc, if they would be helpful.
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Fascinating item (and story)! I'm anxious to hear what others have to say about it.
Thank you for sharing and welcome to the GMB. :)
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Could you post a picture of the top and base? I suspect it's either volcanic glass from a lava flow, or maybe slag glass from an iron smelter, or a heavy old glass bottle that's melted in a fire.
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Sure. I've been looking around, and it looks most like some of the Czech glass I was looking at. I wondered about it being melted and deformed, and the one thing is that the inside is not misshapen at all. there are no dents, bends, etc. to the opening. The glass is evenly thick, and so is the opening, except that the 'ear' kind of thing on the outside is added thickness. It does not appear as a bulging or flattening of the inner space.
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I hate to nitpick, but a photo of the top in focus would be appreciated.
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lol! easier said than done with my camera ::) I gave it another go, here. The rest of the fuzziness is coming off of the frostiness of the glass surface, I think.
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Intriguing, someone made it. Can we have another photo of the base please? Maybe from a bit of an angle rather than directly overhead.
John
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Ok, I'm a horrible picture taker, but this one is at least clearer, shows some of the rippling, etc.
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You are not a "horrible picture taker" - glass is very difficult to photograph. It's 3-D. Photos are 2-D.
This is a fascinating thing - I'm not surprised you've treasured it. 8)
Thank-you so much for joining and sharing - welcome! :)
I agree with John - somebody made this. The preservation of the pontil scar and the rim indicates (to me at any rate) that there has not been much damage occurring - it doesn't look as if they've been subjected to any great heat melting it - unless it was deliberate by whoever made it. The ripples look as if they are part of the manufacturing process where it has been flattened on a marver... although there is a bit that does look as if it might have been the bottom of a bottle melted - but I'd still think it was done deliberately.
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The thing about it being melted is that the inner space isn't at all deformed. It's a puzzle. I weighed it on the kitchen scale, again, because it's been so long since I did it, and it's not 2lbs. it's 3 1/2 lbs. That's part of why I thought it might be something from a ship/boat. it's super heavy & thick, with a fat bottom for stability. That and the fact that I found it on the beach.
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When a piece of glass is art, it does not have to be functional - it just is what it is.
I reckon the real problem is;
Is it supposed to be roughly textured all over - satinated - produced by acid or sandblasting; a feature often found in glass, so would having it polished up (possibly an expensive proceedure) reveal something underneath - or ruin it forever. :-\
Sometimes also, with modern art, you can't tell if it's something functional somebody has left in a corridor or an "installation".
(says she, who very gingerly stepped over an arrangement of mats which were colourful material fishies lying on the floor in a museum last week - and studying their (potential) artistic merit while doing so, only to come back later and find a load of schoolchildren lying on them to take their class! "Installations" don't tend to do much for me. ::) )
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the satinizing is a question. I did find it on the beach, so would expect it to be tumbled. The inside, though is totally glassy-polished, but I don't know what would happen to the inside of a bottle that got tumbled naturally. I've only ever found broken things on the beach. The satiny finish, though, does obscure the blue ribbon in the green. I can only see it if I look at it with light shining through it. That makes me think that it was unintentional.