Topic: Mdina confirmation ( or not ) please - YES!

[davidfish1212]

Hi, I bought this vase on Sunday and was hoping someone could tell me if it was Mdina glass ( or not ) There are no markings to the base and the vase stands roughly 34cm high. The seller told me that he believed it to be from the late 60's, but he would say that wouldn't he
Cheers, David.

[chopin-liszt]

I reckon it's more into the '70s or later, but yes, it's Mdina, Earthtones pattern, one of Michael Harris' designs but not really made while he was there.
It's still a design used today, although the appearance suggests this one is not quite contemporary!
Mdina glass today call this Earth, rather than Earthtones.

[davidfish1212]

Thanks for the quick reply Sue, why would this vase not be signed? thats 2 vases, that I have now, that are Mdina, but dont  have any signatures. Thanks again :thup: D

[chopin-liszt]

They're not all marked, David. It's entirely random. Some still have paper labels stuck on. (Later bits have plastic labels.).

[paulbowen]

I have seen the identical piece signed Mdina before.

[chopin-liszt]

Entirely random. :thup:

But it's NOT signed - it's MARKED - with the Mdina name. 
Signed would be with an artist's name.

[astrid]

One thing that I found handy when trying to determine how old or new a Mdina vase is, is check their own website e-shop at http://mdinaglass.net/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=SFNT&Store_Code=MG. It's very handy, as they give the current shape and heights of all items available per pattern. And knowing what the new price is never hurts...

[chopin-liszt]

Hmmm, some interesting name changes!

Michael Harris colourway designs still in production are the crizzle effect -(now called "Blue crystal"), Earthtones, (now called "Earth"), the one now called "Crystal blue stripe", which doesn't have a Harris name to my knowledge;
Dobson's Tiger is now called "Marble", and.....

Said's own chevron pattern is called "Blue Roman".

[paulbowen]

David, I can't help pin down the age for you, but if you're interested in value estimates, I've seen two of these in the past year or so, both signed Mdina; one was for sale for $150, and the other for $165.  Both sold.

[chopin-liszt]

That seems rather high to me, I suppose it depends where you saw them!
It does depend a lot on how attractively the pattern is executed, this is a nice one, and probably reasonably early. It's quite different to the current style where the background is much paler, almost frothy rather than bubbly, and the brown/red strappy bits are thinner and seem loopy-er.