Topic: chalet style uranium centerpiece, murano, candadian?

[stormpebbles]

hi,
please can someone help me id this piece,as i know next to nothing at all about glass,
 it was sold to me as "murano, Designed by Flavio Poli for Seguso as this centrepiece demonstrates the sommerso technique."
i cant find any info on Canadians and uranium  and only murano,cendesse with uranium ,
does anyone know if the Canadians used uranium in their chalet glass ?
 I'm not at all certain where to start searching ,
any help at all would be great or any info on any similar pieces of glass,

its such a beautiful piece i don't mind if someone says its Chinese,(i will still love it just as much !!!!) 

is tri coloured , pink blue, and clear will try and load a link to pic (please let me know if u cant see pics )..
 http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2883117290031740352jttHdm?vhost=good-times
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2883117290031740352jttHdm
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2750504750031740352YWPnuv?vhost=good-times
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2750504750031740352YWPnuv

 :fwr:thanks in advance
Mary 

[langhaugh]

I've seen more than a few Chalet, and the range of its production continues to surprise me. Perhaps it's because Chalet went through quite a few incarnations. My pieces don't respond to uv. I'd expect the formula for their glass was fairly close to a formula you would find in Murano, as the founders came from Murano. Chalet pieces are usually marked with a sandblasted Chalet on the bottom. A site with an ongoing discussion on Chalet is at http://www.canadiandesignresource.ca/officialgallery/?p=594 A site that used to have  quite a few photos of Chalet is http://www.mblaisgallery.com/dynamic/Artists/Chalet_Art_Glass.asp. It was down when I last checked.

This doesn't look Chalet to me, but I wouldn't rule it out either. Another possibility would be Czech.  Poli for Seguso wouldn't be near the top of my list of possibilities.

Good luck.

David

[Lustrousstone]

I don't think that is a uranium glow. I don't think it's bright enough. more likely manganese. All the hot worked pieces with uranium that I have seen use uranium as the main colorant, i.e. they are a pale yellowish green. (It's the pressed and factory blown pieces that seem to use uranium as an extra rather than the main colorant.) Also that is not the sommerso technique, which was/is used by plenty of people other than Poli. In sommerso, the layers are quite distinct; the idea is that one colour appears submerged in the other. This is merely on colour cased over another.

I think, and I could be wrong, on the basis of the colours and the extravagant shape, that what you have may be an early (mid 20th century) piece of Chribska glass. This is a Czech company. I say early because of the glow, if is produced by manganese, which is used as a decolorant. Manganese has become too expensive to used in the way it used to be; cheaper options are available. It is probably still used in higher concentrations to produce purple.

[stormpebbles]

thankyou both for your help .
i will be looking up czech ,chribska glass, asap!!!
thankyou david for those links,
manganese,  thats new??
 i havent got a geiger counter but im sure i can find one ,
will manganese react with a geiger counter?
 is there any other way of testing manganese Vs uranium ?
cheers and thanks
mary 

[Lustrousstone]

I don't think manganese will cause a Geiger counter to react. I don't think there is another way to tell short of going to a laboratory if you are unsure. In many cases it is easy to tell; the two glows are quite different. It is very unlikely that your centrepiece contains uranium; the colours are all wrong.