Glass Message Board

Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: daf66 on October 24, 2006, 01:48:25 PM

Title: v large speciman jar
Post by: daf66 on October 24, 2006, 01:48:25 PM: i have a very large speciman jar that came from the natral history museum it measures 38cm square and is 55cm tall its made of 1 piece of glass no seams at all the glass is a bluey greeny coulor very clear a few air bubbles are visable in the glass.the curator that i bought it from told me that it was 135 years old and unique its being used as a fish tank but iam trying to gather some imformation on it so i can sell it as iam worried one of the kids has an accident.ive looked and looked on the internet but am unable to find any thing similer or as large i tryed sothebys who were very keen but didnt think it would meet their threshold($1000)in their actions.so now i dont know how to go about selling such an item without selling it short.any help/advice would be very usefull as i no nothing about glass id love to now how such a thing was made thx.
Title: v large speciman jar
Post by: David E on October 24, 2006, 02:29:59 PM: Hi, and welcome to GMB.

If you can post an image this would probably help with identification:

http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,6522.0.html

It does sound interesting - probably used in a laboratory to keep live specimens? - although whether anyone would pay huge gobs of money I couldn't say. Valuations aren't often given anyway as it might be far too difficult to estimate.
Title: v large speciman jar
Post by: daf66 on October 24, 2006, 05:50:05 PM: http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-3843
Title: v large speciman jar
Post by: daf66 on October 24, 2006, 06:00:27 PM: sorry bit new to uploading pics i know now
Title: v large speciman jar
Post by: Frank on October 24, 2006, 08:02:23 PM: It would be better to save the file as a jpg instead of gif. The former is full colour wgereas gif has only 256 colours hence the odd grainy colours.

It is an exciting and interesting piece of glass but one that would be hard to sell. You could try eBay but posting such a large piece of that shape safely will be very hard and expensive. If you can get a better picture, you could try posting in our Glass Market Place for a month or two - giving your approximate location for collection.

It would be interesting to get more details of its use at the museum. It could have been made at one of several glassworks and I doubt that could be identified without working through the museums archives. If you had the time and inclination to do that it would add considerably to the value and saleability.
Title: v large speciman jar
Post by: Pip on October 24, 2006, 10:37:44 PM: Hiya, I know you said you'd contacted Sotheby's who were keen but didn't want to include it because of their price threshold - but a smaller local auction house might be the answer to selling it. As Frank said, it would be a nightmare to send through the post (and expensive) and for this reason eBay might not be a practical option but I've bought and sold a few items through smaller local auction houses (Chiswick Auctions being one as an example) and they don't have price thresholds like Sotheby's.
Title: v large speciman jar
Post by: daf66 on October 25, 2006, 04:45:26 PM: http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-3854
thanks for your help this is getting interesting!!! we have found one pic of a similar jar just not as big heres some pics of it now in my lounge.sorry i cant get the hang of uploading pics.to many kids running about i think you can view them with the previose link[/img]