Topic: Antique glass figurine, antiquity - inbetween or repro? Help needed

[alexander]

Hi, I bought this lady on ebay, wrongly marked as a french end of day paperweight, tho I suspect
none of the bidders actually belived that.

She appears to be quite old, but how old is what I am struggeling with.

Measurements and details first :
5" tall, almost 2.5" wide at the widest.
Parts/or whole of her body has a hole through it - as seen on the picture showing the base.

The body seems to be made up of different colored glass bits, with what appears to be melted millefiore beads
in some parts. The surface is matte, with discolorations. Looks almost like
pate de verre

Her eyes are the most intrigueing detail and also what I expect will help identify (part of) her origin.
Both eyes are face beads, I have seen these attributed to Phoenician, Roman, Venetian etc makers.
They're very well made

Since I know nouhgt about Roman or Phoenician glass or even antique Venetian I hope
someone here can help.

Thanks 

[Andy]

Great fun    and im sure she reminds me of someone

For what its worth, my instincts say its quite recent.
but shes lovely anyway

Andy

[alexander]

I don't think it's very recent, those face beads seem similar to other, older, verieties.

I'm sure someone will recognize them in the end 

[krsilber]

Very interesting!  Quite odd, too, with that hole in it.  Maybe this is a dumb question, but are you sure it's glass?

[alexander]

Quite sure it's glass 

I have a small roman duck figurine dated to approx 300BC, it has a similar hole through it's body.

[Frank]

Take it to a museum, as there are probably more repros than originals circulating now, odds are it i a repro. They tend to be as good as the original but when you see a shop full it is clear that were all aged identically, whereas each original will have unique ageing. Glassmakers making such things are meticulous in reproducing methods, colours and every detail. I presume experience with a lot of originals is needed to differentiate and probably some have even passed that test.

[Andy]

Is it worth popping this in paperweights for a while, maybe one of the PW collectors
will have an idea or opinion on the canes used for her eyes and mouth (and the rest of her)
Alex? if you agree, ask a moderator.

Andy

[KevinH]

The "face canes" seem to me to be much too bright and crisp to have any substantial age.

If anyone knows of any images with "face canes" like those, I would be pleased to know about them. I am aware of some examples included in beads made in India, possibly mid to late 20th century, but the design of the "face" is quite different.

[alexander]

I think both Paperweights and Murano might be good categories for a visit.
Moderator - maybe move to paperweights?

KevH - I agree the face beads are very crisp, googeling I've found quite a few samples of different face beads
that look quite well for their age.

This page holds some beads similar to mine :

http://www.ancienttouch.com/ancientbeads-mosaic-antiquity.htm
If they are trustworthy or not I don't know.

I did see a face bead very similar to the ones in my figurine sell on ebay recently, it attracted a bit of interest.

One theory I have is that this figurine was made outside the beads origin at some later date.

I think a museum visit as Frank suggested might be the best thing in the end unless someone knows
something definate.

Thanks

[KevinH]

Thanks for the link to the page with face cane items. Very interesting.

Below are some (optimised) pics that I took in May 2006 of some of a paperweight collector friend's beads and a plate. The faces are very similar, and in some cases, seem to be identical, to those in the website. My friend bought the plate separately from the beads but the beads were certainly purchased from a shop in India and were not sold (or bought) as "antique".

All images clickable for larger view
Plate with face canes - decoration scattered throughout the clear, but rather bubbly, glass (the apparent tint to the glass is just my not-so-good photograph of that item)
Enlargement from the plate

String of beads, one with face canes
Large barrel-shaped bead 1
Large barrel-shaped bead 2