Topic: 1924 Bagley & Co Salt - pale grey blue tinge

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1924 Bagley & Co Salt - pale grey blue tinge
Reg number (742290) gives Bagley 1928
Clear glass with a v pale blue-grey tinge. This photo exaggerates the color somewhat.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/avalonsmile/Researching/P1116129a-1.jpg
3 straw / shear marks on the base.
Is it a "Master" salt ? (2" high x 3" dia)
Or a small finger bowl ?
Is there a name for this very place blue-grey colour ?
Anyone know the pattern name ?

I don't know why this piece has fascinated me for so long !
Thank you

[Tony H]

Hi Peter
The small salt you have is called Pendant Pattern 742 it came cupped square octagnal or round like the one you have.

I am not sure about the colour, I have a copy of Angelas book and as far as I can see Pendant was not made in colour.

You can buy Bagley Glass book from the Glass Museum on line it is a great book well worth having.

Tony H in NZ

[Adam]

If the picture exaggerates the colour, I would guess this was just a bad day, colour-control wise.

Adam D.

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Thank you Tony
I think it's the only piece of Bagley I've got and as I collect mainly Czech glass these days, the Bagley book will be of limited use.
I had no idea what it was when I bought it and I've had it so long I can't even remember where it came from.

The color
I do like the simple design of it but I guess its the color which has fascinated me for so long. The pic is accurate on the shade ...but the colour is just not so noticable "in vitro", but it's definately there.

I thought at one time that it was sun purpled but according to my research manganese ceased to be used in glass in around 1915. In any case this "sun purpling" would be a more pinkish tint.

Adam, What chemical would cause this off-colour tint ?

[Adam]

Peter - First, use of manganese for decolourising did not stop in 1915.  I was still using it until 1961 and I can't think why my successors would have stopped.  It was mainly used (in our case at least) for pot-melted soda-lime-silica.

For tank melted soda-lime silica a combination of selenium and cobalt was used.  We used it and I think the bottle people did too.  The cobalt in particular was used in minute quantities - under 1 gram per ton of glass.  If we made mistakes it usually showed up as a slight pink (the selenium) but there is no reason why the cobalt might not have been mis-weighed.  I'm assuming in all this that the colour is something like a cobalt blue - it's not too clear from photos when the colour is as weak as this.

Of course Bagleys might have made the same mistake we at Sowerbys once did.  We bought some cheap arsenic and found out the hard way that it was a by-product from a cobalt mine!

Adam D.

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Thank you Adam
What an interesting insight into the complexities and pit-falls of glass chemistry ! So the cobalt mine arsenic would have had colbalt in it resulting in overdoping of cobalt.

Well it is a definite blue. I've just notice looking again that the best way to show it will be a photo from from direcly underneath where the different thicknesses of glass are most apparent and I'll take a pic of that for interest.

I have seen a very similar very pale blue tint in Scandinavian glass but I think it was deliberate there ......or was it ?  :evil:

[Anne]

Firstly, Peter, can you add your photo back to this topic please as someone's been trying to view it? Thanks.

Secondly, looking at Angela's Bagley book (page 142) it says "Most items in Pendant were made in clear flint only." so some were in made in colour but no details of those are give. [Source: Bagley Glass, Angela Bowey, Derek and Betty Parsons, published 2004, OAR Publishing, NZ. ISBN: 0-473-09836-9.]  Perhaps Angela can add more about this range's colours?

[Angela B]

I haven't seen the photograph.
The pendant pattern number 742 was originally only made in Flint (clear) glass, but in later years some designs were offered in the following colours: Flint, Green, Blue, Amber and Amethyst and in frosted colours as well as clear colours. The 1964 catalogue offers Pendant fruit sets and dishes in all these colours, pierced (for adding a metal handle) or unpierced. There is also a lovely example of a pink frosted lamp in Pendant 742 pattern on page  120 of my book on Bagley Glass (the lamp belonged to Bernard C at the time - remember that day Bernard?).
Mostly Bagley just called their colours "blue" or "pink" or "amber" or "green". But in the 1933 catalogue for their "Crystaltynt" range they refer to "Emerald Green - Sunglow - Amber" and in their colour catalogue for Crystaltynt produced around 1934 they offered the colours "Green, Blue, Amber or Rose Pink".  One page of that catalogue shows a group of items that look like frosted grey, but underneath it says
"Crystantynt" is manufactured in four colours - Green, Blue, Amber or Rose Pink."
Sometimes their blue is pale enough to be taken for grey.
Often cleaning Bagley frosted glass with a cream cleanser for kitchen benches will reveal a delicate pale colour underneath a layer of grey that has accumulated from years of being wrapped up in newspapers!
Hope that is helpful. It would be good to add the picture back, please, Peter.

[Bernard C]

Angela — Yes, I remember it well.   You snapped both my pink Bagley lamps on the lawn outside the fire exit.   It wasn't long after selling the two that I found a pink 934 with a captive tilting shade fitting, similar but not identical to the Davidson Good Companion lamp fitting.

Bernard C.     

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