Topic: Mdina hollow weight

[malwodyn]

Mdina certainly have made hollow weights - I have a hollow magnum - but I have not seen a Mdina weight in colours such as yours.  Could well be more recent production, though.

[chopin-liszt]

A magnum? Sorry, I'm curious, what's that?

I have a big hollow Mdina weight. It's post Harris, but fairly early. Splodgy yellow background, with what I describe as "intestiney" trails over it. The trails are clear glass covered in splodgy orange. It's a bit more complex than the ordinary splodgy stuff, which, I believe, comes later.

[malwodyn]

A magnum? Sorry, I'm curious, what's that?

I'm obviously reading far too many books on paperweights!!  I'm sure several of my reference sources uses "magnum" as a smart way of saying "larger than normal".  The problem is that there are no standards that are generally accepted - so like Humpty Dumpty, when I use a word it means what I want it to mean, no more, no less.  Or to be technical, a magnum paperweight is one that is larger than really necessary to hold down papers on my desk!

[chopin-liszt]

Ah-ha.
My hollow Mdina lurid yellow and orange PW is bigger than normal PWs, I suppose - I'm not really a PW person.

I tend to call the very big ones doorstops, but I wouldn't use the hollow weight as a doorstop - not heavy enough, being hollow!

I thought a magnum was a tv cop, a bottle of bubbly, or an "ice-cream" lollipop.

[malwodyn]

I tend to call the very big ones doorstops, but I wouldn't use the hollow weight as a doorstop - not heavy enough, being hollow!

Some of them aren't really heavy enough to hold down papers in a stiff breeze!!!

[keith]

Both of these,the tallest marked Mdina,have a similar colour scheme, in particular a yellowish green diagonal streak which is just visible on the picture so I'd presume they are all around the same date,Keith.

[chopin-liszt]

I'm afraid I'd have to disagree, Keith. The two marked Mdina, the tall bark effect vase and the smaller bottle, have colour that comes from being melted in the pot, while your PW is surface decorated with enamels which as added to the gather of clear glass, although the streaks you refer to are similar on all three pieces, these come from silver salts, which colour glass, and sometimes, the salts turn to gas in the heat and give iridesence when the glass escapes from the moil during production. I'd say your PW is considerably later than the other pieces, if it is Mdina at all. The base looks completely wrong to me, I'm afraid.

[keith]

Ok the dates are different but the decor' on the weight is not on the the surface but in the glass like the other pieces,all of which are smooth to touch,also when held up to the light the weights overall colour is very close to the streaks in this small vase which is signed and labelled Mdina;I must say the base is nothing like the other 30 odd pieces we have,Keith.

[KevinH]

For info on "Magnum" ...

In relation to a regular, domed paperweight it usually means having a diameter of over 3.5 inch (9cm). Some folk do use the term for anything over 3 inch (7.5cm). Super magnum would be 4.5 inch (11.5cm) or greater. But makers such as Caithness had their own sizes for such as "magnum" - which I don't remember right now.

[chopin-liszt]

I've been collecting earlier Mdina and Harris dynasty glass for about 10 years now, (have over 500 bits) and I still reckon your weight, if Mdina at all, is a much, much later piece. And it really, really looks to me as if the colours are produced by adding enamels and silver salts to a clear gather.
Think we may have to agree to disagree on this one.