Topic: Steven & Williams - Waved and Venetian Waved

[David E]

I think I have a few internally optic-waved items. Must check all my Thos. Webb as I think they used this effect as well.

[Sid]

Hello:

To get the internal optic effect for mould blown glass, the glass blower uses two moulds.  The first, which provides the optic effect, is called a dip mould or a spot mould.  The glass gather is dipped into a dip mould that has ribs or some other vertical feature or blown into a spot mould for coin spot or other non-linear effects.  The glass is then blown in the finish mould which provides the final shape.  The optic forms on the inside due to slight differences in glass temperature in the portion of the gather that came into contact with the dip or spot mould design elements. To get a swirl effect from a vertical ribbed dip mould, the glass blower gives the gather a slight twist as he is blowing it into the finish mould.

I am sure that there is somebody in this group who can explain it better than this and maybe even provide some photos/video of the technique.

[Frank]

That makes sense, thanks Sid. Have you heard of those terms elsewhere? - Waved and Venetian Waved

[Sid]

Frank:

I have not heard these terms elsewhere for what that is worth.  This type of glass is far outside of my area of knowledge.

[Frank]

Thanks Sid.

Patricia, how often did you come across the French version of these terms? One or more glassworks?

[Patricia]

Well Frank, I'm sorry to say that my knowledge doesn't come from glass catalogues at all. Remember when we were at your place and you very kindly let us go through 5 crates of catalogues, that in the end I went home with ONE picture!
My knowledge comes from bulb and garden catalogues where in all my searches only once was refered to the actual maker of a glass ( Stevens and Williams' from 1882 ).
Last week in Utrecht I found a glass with the Baccarat sticker on it and about 20 (club) people jumped, it's that rare (picture available as of next week if anybody is interested).
Back to côtes venitiennes: I have from one French bulb supplier almost the whole series of catalogues complete dating from 1872 till WWII. When I looked up all the côtes venitiennes glasses offered I noticed something funny, they offered them big time around 1883 after which it died down and the second surge was from 1923 onwards. I hope it helps your search, good luck

Patricia

[Frank]

Thank you, in that case we are probably back to it being S&W proprietary.