Topic: Old stemware

[Max]

Leni
I have a book The Arthur Negus Guide to British Glass which is full of tips on what to look for and identify stem ware.

During the early years of the nineteenth century a characteristic mark found on the underside on the glass is a Y or T impressed into a flat foot with no sign of a pontil mark. This was caused by a springloaded instrument called a "gadget"

Doris

Crumbs, I have to disagree with Arthur Negus!  :shock:  :shock: I've just read about gadgets you see...

The apparent letters K, I, Y or C that can be found on the underside of a foot are caused by the shears when the glassmaker cuts off the required amount.  A cold, hard ridge is left where the shears cut the glass.  It doesn't melt away, but forms various shapes as the gob is tooled to create the foot.  (Cribbed from Glass Circle magazine No.103)

A gadget mark can leave two parallel lines indenting the upper surface of the foot (quite close together and running towards the stem), as the top of the gadget is a C shape that clips over the foot.  I seem to remember Ed Iglehart using one at Art in Action.  

Hmm...I only said to Peter yesterday that I didn't think I'd learned much this year...maybe something trickled in somewhere   :lol:  :shock:

[liberty1]

Wish I had been a fly on the wall of some of these old glassworks :?

Doris

[Frank]

We had a gadget discussion some time ago - they were usually made per item and there many types as well as being known by lots of different names.

Stuart used sandblasting instead of acid... at least by the time they bought Strathearn. All of the Stuart Strathearn marks are sand-blasted.

[roget123]

Leni

Do get too excited about trying to match makers with your pieces. They are all bulk standard shapes made by many glassworks during the Victorian to early 20th C period.  You say they are not marked, this does mean that explicite identification will be impossible!!!! .

In your group of 4, the left-hand one looks very much like an example I have, which was dated as being circa 1830 - so maybe yours is from that time also. Unfortunately as you are aware, it is not easy to give an opinion without being able to handle the glass and get a tactile impression. The one on the right-hand of the group appears to be circa 1910, and the two inbetween could be circa 1890s - but again the lack of tactile opinion applies.

Hope this helps, if only a little
Geoff Timberlake

[Leni]

Yes, thank you very much, Geoff!  

The dates you give are more or less what I thought they might be.  I guess I'll have to be satisfied with that!   :roll:

Many thanks again  

Leni

[Anne]

 :hi: Leni, Tinypic's has munched all your images, do you still have copies that can be added back into here for reference please?  :X: