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I believe the origin of the term 'dump' for a type of weight is that these weights were made from the poorer quality glass remaining at the end of the batch, which was to be 'dumped' - ie disposed of as unusable. The great majority of green glass 'dumps' were not made in this way, of course, as they were made for sale (eg Kilner and Redfearn sometimes imprinted their names on the base). But the Victorian pieces are generally a dark green, being made from bottle glass.
The problem with attributing these paler pieces to a particular date, manufacturer - or even country - is that almost any glass factory was capable of producing them, whether as products for sale, or as 'friggers' by the workers, until they went over to automated systems. I have seen roughly spherical blobs with bubbles in for sale at various small glass studios I have visited. Most of them make good doorstops if heavy enough - otherwise - IMHO - they would be better thrown in the cullet skip, having no redeeming features (but I feel that way about the many Caithness 'bubbles and swirls' too, which many people collect...!)
Hartley Wood Glass in North East England made and sold typical Victorian style dumps with internal bubble flowers in the 1960s - these were a somewhat paler green than Victorian ones; and a few years ago a flood of very pale blue-green Victorian style tiered flower dumps appeared at glass and antique fairs and on eBay (all being sold as 'Victorian', but still warm from the Chinese kiln, I suspect). These were rather slim, and had flat polished bases as I recall.
Anyway, I very much doubt that this piece is Victorian, despite the rough pontil mark.
Alan
Topic: Victorian? dump / paperweight (Read 7990 times)
