Topic: Found Mary Gregory at boot sale today.

[lyndhurst44]

Hi,
I bought these 2 large (12") Mary Gregory vases at a boot sale this morning.  I was a little hesitant as they were on what seemed to be black glass and I'd only ever remember assotiating Mary Gregory patterns on either cranberry, green or clear glass,at antique fairs. But they were very cheap so I took a chance. On purchasing I held one up to the sun and could see that it was actually a dark amethyst colour. Is this unusual?
I have included a photo of the base as I had expected to see a rough pontil but these were smooth. Any idea what age these could be please?
I was also a bit concerned on my wife's reaction to them as I have been getting a bit of lip due to the amount of "junk" i have been bringing home of late, but suprise suprise, she actually liked them.
As posted in Cafe I am having difficulty with too large file notice for downloading photos.

Cheers,
Bryn 

[Anne]

Bryn, email me copies of the pics if they still won't upload for you.

[josordoni]

Bryn, I've had Mary Gregory style glass on all sorts of colours, cobalt blue, pale aqua, turquoise, celadon green, yellow... but not on black amethyst, although I am sure it is right.

I look forward to seeing the pics - the style of painting of the children tells more about the quality and age of the glass then the colour.

[KevinH]

While we await the photos (hope the problem will be sorted soon), I'll just add a comment about:

I held one up to the sun and could see that it was actually a dark amethyst colour. Is this unusual?

No, it's not unusual and is very often the case. Any dark colour can be used ("thickly") to simulate black. But that does not mean that black glass is always just another colour appearing black - as rightly stated by Ivo in another thread ... see here.

[lyndhurst44]

Hi,
I've sen't the photo's off to Anne, hopefully she will be able to adapt them and get them posted. It's strange though, I've done nothing different that any of my previous successful downloads. Ah well!!

Bryn

[Anne]

Sorted for you now Bryn and added into the top post here - one was too large hence the error - it was 132kb and the filesize limit for the board is 125kb per image. If you have a setting in your image program to use jpg compression, then set the value to 40% and it will normally make the pics small enough to fit under the limit. Just by compressing your pics they halved in size with no loss of quality.

[josordoni]

Bryn those are lovely - the girl in the swing will be particularly desirable.

I can't see anything wrong with these at all, well done!

[lyndhurst44]

Hi,
I am so glad you like them, Lynne. The seller and his helper was just taking them out of his large van along with some furniture as I walked past and i was completely taken by the sharpness of the figures. I asked him about them and was told that he had brought them from a recent house clearance. I gingerly asked the price, expecting some mountinous figure and was amazed and delighted at his reply. 
Thanks so much Anne for your invaluable help, what would we do without you :hiclp:

Cheers,
Bryn

[Lustrousstone]

They're lovely. Base looks fine to me for simple mould blown vases. I have a look later in my Bohemian book for the shape