Topic: Surprising Elephant - mixed UV-reactive glasses

[TxSilver]

I picked up this elephant a few days ago. It looked like a simple yellow opalino elephant calf (developing tusks). Strange thing is that it had transparent ears and one transparent leg that are not opalino. I thought the leg was an oversight until I put the calf under black light. This one needs to be shown under black light for sure. I don't know who did the elephant, but my inclination is toward Aureliano Toso because of the look of the yellow. It is about 7" tall to the tip of the trunk. It has an old square "Made in Italy" paper label on its back. Any thoughts on this strange critter?

[Lustrousstone]

Well the orange is cadmium I think.

[TxSilver]

I think you are right about the cadmium. It helped a lot when you mentioned it for the Scandinavian-like vase that glowed orange (a short thread in another group). The transparent glass of the elephant and the vase looks very similar. It made me wonder if the vase might be Murano. I've not been able to figure out where it came from.

I don't know what the yellow might be. It seems to be too yellow to be vaseline. The elephant glows orange in the joints of the limbs to the body, so I think the outer glass might all have cadmium. But I wonder why the orange in the opalescent parts is suppressed.

Some fairly simple concepts came together to give a comic look. I wonder what the makers could have been thinking when putting together pieces like this.

[Lustrousstone]

Cadmium is quite common in bright yellow glass (that's not uranium  ). Presumably whatever causes the opalino effect results in the masking.  :huh: