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Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => Malta Glass => Topic started by: davidfish1212 on July 11, 2014, 09:45:52 AM

Title: Huge MDG flask...or early Mdina?? Help please
Post by: davidfish1212 on July 11, 2014, 09:45:52 AM
Hi All,

I purchased this big beastie yesterday ( jam jar for scale!! ) and at first thought it was a bit of MDG due to the pontil. When I got it into the light and gave it a clean, the colours seem much more early Mdina, also the pattern is a lot more random than I would have expected from a bit of MDG. Also its a good quality bit, the stopper is huge, better quality than I would expect from MDG. Ive included a pic beside a MDG flask and an early Mdina Bottle ( As an aside the MDG flask in the picture has a Malta Craft Glass label that I have never seen before.
All comments gratefully received, thanks in advance.

Cheers, David
Title: Re: Huge MDG flask...or early Mdina?? Help please
Post by: chopin-liszt on July 11, 2014, 11:45:50 AM
Lucky you, it is MDG. A piece which Vicente Boffo would have been the major/senior maker.
The rough pontil scar was not something done at Mdina, only MDG. The stopper clearly shows the Boffo "grid" formation of Earthtones execution, and I think it shows in the bottle too - although is it a bit squint, I reckon that's just happened during the rotations - perhaps the influence of the less experienced maker he was working with at the time.

It can be difficult to tell, with some pieces whether or not they were made at Mdina or MDG, I simply don't know.
Mdina did make big bottles the same size and shape. They are most often in the Ming colourway, and I have not seen one with a stopper yet.

I only have a big green one and a big blue one. I would be very happy to find an Earthtones one like yours and would snap it up immediately.
I need one. ;)

Isn't the complexity of the strapping just glorious?
Title: Re: Huge MDG flask...or early Mdina?? Help please
Post by: glassobsessed on July 11, 2014, 02:43:08 PM
I thought more MDG than Mdina too but some of these are very difficult to tell apart. The redder tones and not so flat shoulders push me towards MDG.

John
Title: Re: Huge MDG flask...or early Mdina?? Help please
Post by: chopin-liszt on July 11, 2014, 02:49:53 PM
And the big rough pontil mark!

Boffo Earthtones made at Mdina also shows a lot of reds in the brown strappy bits.

(Have you ever seen a roughly ground out pontil scar on any bit of Mdina, John? I am sure I have not.)
Title: Re: Huge MDG flask...or early Mdina?? Help please
Post by: glassobsessed on July 11, 2014, 04:03:28 PM
I have but only on the large textured bottles so far.
Title: Re: Huge MDG flask...or early Mdina?? Help please
Post by: chopin-liszt on July 11, 2014, 04:21:48 PM
Glad I asked you.
I keep forgetting about them. They seem to be a category of peculiarities, oddities and and different finishes which are the exception to every single flippin' rule we seem to be able to come up with...
including broken pontil scars on vases.

Aaaarghhhhh! (banging head on corner of kitchen cupboard door. I did!)

Ok I strongly suspect this was made at MDG. But is could easily have been made at Mdina.
It was very, highly likely to have been made by Vicente Boffo with somebody less experienced assisting, and would have been made in the '70s.
Title: Re: Huge MDG flask...or early Mdina?? Help please
Post by: davidfish1212 on July 12, 2014, 07:53:51 PM
Hi, thanks for the info both of you, MDG it is! Overthinking is too easy for me, I knew it was MDG, but then started on the colours and size and The non grid like pattern!! I'm chuffed with it. Now, another question, the small stopperless MDG vase in one of the pics has a sticker reading Malta Craft Glass, was this another name for MDG, i can't find any trace of  MCG!

Cheers, David
Title: Re: Huge MDG flask...or early Mdina?? Help please
Post by: chopin-liszt on July 12, 2014, 08:00:02 PM
It might have been the name of the shop they were sold in?
It certainly looks absolutely Boffo to me, no inexperienced assistant on that one - it is so finely blown and beautifully executed, lovely, straight, slim flange.

But don't go being 100% positive your big bottle is MDG. It might have been made at Mdina.
I think you do have the grid pattern, it's just a bit sideways.
Title: Re: Huge MDG flask...or early Mdina?? Help please
Post by: rosieposie on July 13, 2014, 01:11:00 PM
Hi David, Please can we have a close up of the Sticker saying Malta Craft Glass? I can't get yours into focus.
Thanks,  Rosie.
Title: Re: Huge MDG flask...or early Mdina?? Help please
Post by: davidfish1212 on July 13, 2014, 08:56:30 PM
Hi Rosie,

Here's the pic of the sticker for every ones info. Thanks for the interest and thanks again for the help guys.

cheers, David
Title: Re: Huge MDG flask...or early Mdina?? Help please
Post by: chopin-liszt on July 14, 2014, 10:20:03 AM
Just for comparison, here is a reasonable image of the MDG label, on a mini stoppered green bottle.
(typical, I'm now on the next page, ::))
Title: Re: Huge MDG flask...or early Mdina?? Help please
Post by: davidfish1212 on July 27, 2014, 11:22:59 AM
Very similar labels!!!! Is there any history that they might have called it Malta Craft Glass at any time in its production. It almost looks like they altered the labels, maybe they got a wrong batch of labels, you would think that they would want their own stickers on their products not a sticker of the seller.

The stopper on the big bottle definitely shows the Boffo grid pattern, and the more i look at it, i can see it in the bottle itself ( although its like the clouds, if you want to see something you can always find it!!) thanks again for all your help guys  ;)
Title: Re: Huge MDG flask...or early Mdina?? Help please
Post by: chopin-liszt on July 27, 2014, 12:27:21 PM
I really do not know. 
The only difference appears to be the substitution of the word Craft for Decorative.
I don't know which came first; if they were the same; or if they were concurrent or consecutive or if it was just a batch of labels that were printed with a different word.
There does not appear to be a way of telling from the actual glass, or could it be somehing to do with glass that may have been imported from China and marketted from Malta (like the moulded upright fishy dolphin things, or Christine's Conch shell).
Title: Re: Huge MDG flask...or early Mdina?? Help please
Post by: Lustrousstone on July 27, 2014, 01:28:57 PM
I do not believe my conch shell was made in China.
Title: Re: Huge MDG flask...or early Mdina?? Help please
Post by: chopin-liszt on July 27, 2014, 01:57:31 PM
No, (it's too good ;) ), but I'm not really sure it was made in Malta either. It's thin and delicate and layered and doesn't bear any resemblance to the thick and chunky sorts of things that were.
Then there are the myriad of paperweights - not just the ones in known designs such as the grid pattern, but ones with canes - and we have no clue if the canes were made at MDG or MCG or imported from somewhere.

I've just bee trawling your gallery to check whether it's MDG or MCG, but what I found was this image, which should help David's attribution here.

This is a bit of your MDG which has a not-quite-a-true-grid sort pattern very like David's.
http://lustrousstone.co.uk/cpg/displayimage.php?album=17&pid=575#top_display_media
Title: Re: Huge MDG flask...or early Mdina?? Help please
Post by: Lustrousstone on July 27, 2014, 02:00:15 PM
It's not thin and delicate either. Well constructed but chunky and with typical MDG better base grinding. Unfortunately I've sold it, so you can't see it
Title: Re: Huge MDG flask...or early Mdina?? Help please
Post by: chopin-liszt on July 27, 2014, 02:05:16 PM
oh.  :'( I'd have liked to have copped a wee feel, but never mind, you found a good home for it and got it out of your way. :-*
Title: Re: Huge MDG flask...or early Mdina?? Help please
Post by: Lustrousstone on July 27, 2014, 03:28:14 PM
I didn't actually expect it to sell!
Title: Re: Huge MDG flask...or early Mdina?? Help please
Post by: chopin-liszt on July 27, 2014, 04:25:15 PM
Why ever not? A scarce and beautifully made item, probably by Vicente Boffo?

Ok, not my taste, but bound to be somebody's.  :)

I did think it was going to be very thin and fine - it looks it from it's pictures.
Title: Re: Huge MDG flask...or early Mdina?? Help please
Post by: Lustrousstone on November 12, 2014, 09:44:49 PM
David, could you add a picture of your Craft Glass flask to here please
Title: Re: Huge MDG flask...or early Mdina?? Help please
Post by: Lustrousstone on November 14, 2014, 07:38:12 AM
Oops, forgot the link http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,58505.0.html for David