Topic: Signature cane - or serendipity?

[tropdevin]

This Murano paperweight has a cane which may contain letters (DOC?) - or alternatively it may just be flaws in the glass. Has anyone seen similar canes?

Alan

[alpha]

It is unknown to me. The other canes in the weight would date it to the late 2nd quarter of 20th century, which may make research problematic due to the passage of time. My suspicion is that it is a happy circumstance. All Italian signature and date canes with which I am familiar are, how shall we say this, "quite obvious, and not subtle". They are "in your face" with the information. And since this one is not of that style, leads me to my conclusion.

[KevinH]

Fascinating cane! In one orientation, the "signature" could be assumed to read "Joe"

It is certainly not like the usual variety of "C" (always for "Clichy"!) canes which are in reality broken whorls or partial collapses of a circular cane section. I tend to agree that this is some form of "happy circumstance" but I can't work out how the "circumstance" came about!

Perhaps one of us should buy the weight and start a collection of similar things for the purpose of producing an article on "circumstancial signatures". But personally I cant stand the garish colours of many of those earlier Murano canes (even if they may be by Fratelli Toso or other well-known maker) so I would not be too willing to bid on this one.

[alpha]

As to how it might have happened: please note the the background between the canes appears black. If the "letters" were nothing more than air bubbles trapped in the cane when it was pulled then the background would show through as well and look black. Many of the canes appear to have black in them or a black center - and I assure you such is not the case. For those cane designs those black areas are clear glass. In other words there may not be black glass forming the letters, but simply a blank space where the background shows through.

[Frank]

It would certainly be worth adding this type of information into the book.