Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Unresolved Glass Queries => Topic started by: PAUL H on March 08, 2009, 09:11:27 AM
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Does anybody recognise this vase its hand made and very mdina like in colour.. however the base doesn't look right,
I always thought mdina ground and polished their bases but I'm probably wrong, it also has a applied rim of clear glass
around the top very unusual.. the colour is blue but has some gold coloured streaks as well. Its 210mm high and has
a diameter of 95mm and weighs 500g. Could it be an early piece by the great man himself?
Thanks in advance Paul.
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My gut feeling is that this isn't Mdina based purely on the way the yellowy/gold has been applied - it looks to have been applied to the surface of the vase (like IOW production) whereas with Mdina the colours are within the glass - not on the surface in this way. I've handled lots of pieces of Mdina but I'm no expert so hopefully Sue will see this thread and comment.
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Thanks for your reply Pip, I forgot to mention that the vase is not cased so would that rule out
Isle of Wight? I'm not to sure maybe its a one off piece from some other studio. Paul
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No that makes it even more likely to be IOW.
Give Ron an email www.artiusglass.co.uk He's an expert.
Mike www.abfabglass.co.uk
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Ron's a member here - hopefully he'll come along and contribute to this thread so we can all hear his thoughts - if not perhaps you can come back here Paul to tell us what he says?
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i'm fairly confident it's not Mdina,
except for :-
The colour is right but not the application of gold etc. having said that I did see a vase a while ago that had the application on the surface the same as I.O.W
but had a Mdina sticker on it.
So having shot myself down in flames I still think its not Mdina, :chky: :chky: :chky:
My gut feeling when I saw this and the other piece I mentioned is it looks like a cross over design. Just whistling in the wind here, but when M Harris was going from Mdina to I.O.W.
This vase has a bit of both in it.
Interesting to see the outcome of this
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Thanks Martin.. the other thing I find unusual is the applied clear glass rim is this a
known technique at Mdina or IOW?
Paul.
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Now to prove my little grey cells haven't been working too well,
The piece i thought I saw a while ago was in fact yesterday.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=260370685712&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=016
Not sure it helps or just makes it more confusing.
By the way, I think you can make out the Mdina label on the other side of the vase
Paul the clear rim had me going, I can't remember seeing the same on a Mdina piece
I have no knowledge of I.O.W to compare.
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To my eye neither look like Mdina. They do have some resemblance to IoW azure Azurene, although the cylinder vase looks like a second. The early IoW designs were much more Mdina than these, particularly as gold and silver leaf didn't come into use until 1978. It would be interesting to actually see the signature and the label on the ebay piece
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Hi Christine thats a good point concerning my cylinder vase it could be a second... there seems to be more
gold on the base than on the walls of the vase.. still its very nice anyway. In Mark Hill's excellent Mdina
book on page 89 is a vase that looks similar apart from being cased and having a flared top!!
Maybe my vase was an experimental piece that didn't quite work so did not go into production.. Its
still puzzling me about the applied glass rim. I have emailed Ron Wheeler the link to this thread so
maybe he will help solve this.
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Hello all you avid's
Afraid this message fom Paul was found in my junk mail box and I just got around to checking 'just in case'!
Anyway before you all find yourselves in danger of becoming anoraks - heaven forbid (!!) I will add some more fuel.
Definately NOT any kind of experimental or trial as it would be correctly known - and certainly NOT from Michaels hand or anyone else from the studio come to that. Afraid that if it had a piece such as this would be grabbed by Mike and the perpetrator would be left to pick up the sharp pieces between his toes one at a time whilst hopping across the broken bits to dispose of them in the farthest bin !
Sorry if that sounds a bit strong but trust I make my point !!
Now the oddity is that in terms of producton it is clearly a mold blown piece. Hence the gold leaf spreading right around the base showing that it could not have been transferred to or held on a pontil iron. This was seldom employed by IoWSG except in some early Golden Peacock items from the late'ish eighties where an oval section vase was in the range. There have been a few others.
Now the odd part is that it is very difficult to add a lip strap, (the trailing around the rim) which is usually a method employed to finish the edge which is scored and cracked off the blowing iron, unless it IS held on a pontil iron.
So my guess is that whoever made this copycat abomination of Michaels iconic Azurene process has cracked it off, stood it on the marver, heated the rim with a torch and then tried to make a half decent job of adding a lip strap to finish it. Unfortunartely he has failed miserably as it should be done in such a way that you would not know it was there unless you knew about glass production.
So just one of the many who tried, and failed, to cash in on the process which was the case particularly in the eighties when we used to take them to task quite severly to the point where they seldom, except under penalty of death OR WORSE, persued it farther.!
Anway hope that puts this one to bed as my soap box has just crumbled under the weight of heavy words.
Glad you all have the passion which has consumed my every waking hour for the past 30 odd years. All strength to you.
Best regards,
Ron
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Thanks Ron.. I'm gutted :( no not really.. its obvious to me now that its not up to Michaels standard but its quite interesting in its own right. It could be a studio piece or maybe a art college students experiment. Saw your stand at the glass fair and must say how impressed I was. Paul
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Hi Paul,
Nuff said then ?!!
Glad you liked our stand. Make yourself known any other time you see us.
Look on our website under 'Fair Dates' www.ArtiusGlasss.co.uk
Add your email address or advise us direct (Wheeler.Ron(AT)talktalk.net - change (AT) to @ to make address viable) to be added to our Collectors Mailing Group.
Regards,
Ron Ann
Moderator: email address protected from spambots in line with board policy
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Will do Ron and thanks for your help. Paul
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Hi,
I'm not 100% sure about this piece. I'm about 70% FOR Mdina during the 1980s, when they also produced a range of, usually, blue glass with applied gold foil. Of course, I would imagine they did this after seeing the success of Michael's globally popular Azurene range.
The colour tone seems right for Mdina at this time, and I have seen a few vases (Side Stripe, Onion and Lollipop) like this one and the one on eBay with Mdina inscribed marks or labels.
What puts me off is the fact the foil goes under the base, as Ron says, and also the applied colourless rim. I'm yet to see a piece of Mdina from this range with an applied rim like this. However, Side Stripe vases have applied trails to two sides in colourless glass, so it's not a stretch of the imagination to see that a glassmaker may have tried applying a rim to a cylinder vase one day to see what it looked like.
Incidentally, I don't think it's Charlie Meaker, as the blue is completely wrong compared to the examples I've seen before.
Is the jury still out?
Mark
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Mark thanks for your input, I am surprised that this vase has caused so much debate. I would of course love it to be Mdina and as you rightly point out the colours are right but that applied clear glass rim keeps me thinking that its maybe a trial piece that didn't quite work out or an apprentice piece by another glass studio. It was nice to meet you in person (Mark) at the glass fair earlier this month and once again thanks for your help and advice. Paul
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No problem! Great to meet you too :-)
Good luck with the website,
Mark