Topic: ID sought for Amethyst cased Cranberry Glass Duck Paperweight

[Tina]

Hello,

Is anyone able to identify this glass duck please. It stands 4 inches tall and I think it likely dates back to the 60s

Thanks,

Tina

[Lustrousstone]

Don't know who, but I suspect the amethyst glass is neodymium glass. If so it should appear blue under a fluorescent light. www.mindspring.com/~reyne/neowhatsis.html

[Tina]

Reading that article was so interesting!  Thank you

Do you mean the kind of light that photographs Uranium glass? I've often wondered where I might buy such a light?

Tina

[johnphilip]

You can get them in Maplins the electrical store .jp

[chopin-liszt]

You need an ultra-violet light for making Uranium glass glow bright green, Tina.
I used to have a wee thing that attached to a key-ring. It was pretty cheap, and enough for my purposes. Try searching "UV light" on that internet auction site.

[johnphilip]

I would say Italian in the style of Barbini or Seguso .imho . jp

[Tina]

Thank you kindly folks! 

I bought a cheap pen like one online, it held together by a prayer and didn't work, or didn't seem to.

I'll try Maplins. Forgive my ignorance but what's imho ?

[TxSilver]

Neodymium glass is also known as alexandrite. It is lavender under incandescent light and blue under flourescent. These are your normal house lights -- bulbs vs tube lights. Uranium glass is the one that glows under black light. Other minerals in glass can glow under black light, too. It is a handy thing to have, but not needed for neodymium.

I don't know who did your duck. It is Murano style, but I don't recognize the form of the bill. Sorry.

[Lustrousstone]

As Anita says, with your duck you just need to try him under different light bulbs in the house. Low energies, halogens and tubes, he should look bluish, even bluish green. Under the old fashioned sort with a filament, the ones they are phasing out, and daylight he should look purple.

If your UV light didn't work and yet came on, then what ever you were testing didn't contain any uranium. You also find UV lights in kid's secret writing sets, security marking kits and in Halfords in oil testing kits for mechanics.

[Anne]

Forgive my ignorance but what's imho ?

Tina, it's short for in my humble opinion, you could also have imnsho which would be in my not so humble opinion!