Topic: Help needed please from a Mdina collector......

[Patrick]

I doubt the ducks in question were made at Mdina, if you can find one in classic Mdina colours then that would be interesting.

Hi,

I am sure the fat one on the right in the image below is 100% Mdina as it has Silver Chloride collecting around the bubbles.......... The tinted flint glass can also be seen.
 I will try and get a better image of the confirmed Boffo duck that is not the Whitefriars shape. This image was sent to Joseph Said who confirmed it was made by Boffo whilst working at the factory.

Regards,
               Patrick.

[chopin-liszt]

If it is, it's the only known bit with a controlled bubble mould used.
Personally, I think the use of the mould would preclude Mdina, and probably MDG too.

Strictly speaking, even ducks made @ Mdina are not official Mdina stuff. The Boffos made animals and jugs in their own time, using the facilities, but these were sold in the general tourist shop in Valetta - not in the Mdina factory shop.

I suppose it is feasible that the Boffos may have had their own bubble mould, but I'm only playing at devil's advocate on that one.

The only one I'm convinced is likely to have been made at Mdina is Trudy's. Because of the colours - and only because of the colours.
(I'm really not sure about the accuracy of JS's memory. In the history section of the Mdina website, he says the "Italian maestros" arrived in '71. It was October, '69. There is no mentiopn of their names, no mention of Michal Harris, no mention of Eric Dobson).

[Lustrousstone]

From John

Nothing I can think of from Mdina has controlled bubbles, plenty of bubbles were introduced deliberately but not controlled via a mould

From Sue

I really don't know if  controlled-bubble creating moulds were used at all in either Mdina or MDG, at any time.

Plenty of companies use/have used silver chloride, including Phoenician, which also has produced items containing controlled bubbles and silver chloride. I have a paperweight you'd swear was Mdina, apart from the bubbles.

[chopin-liszt]

 :sm:

Oh, no I wouldn't!   I'm used to that one now. The Phoenician ones are far better made.

I don't think I've seen any Phoenician with these pinprick controlled bubbles, though Christine. I'm fairly sure the elongated bubbles which appear in association with silver salts are an artifact of introducing the salts to the glass........
But yes, there was a lot of silver chloride being used in the early studio glass movement - it was used by Sam Herman at the RCA at the time Michael Harris was there/ just leaving.
I've got bits by Pauline Solven, Dillon Clarke, Annette Meech, Wayne Filan and, of course, Sam Herman himself all with silver chloride salt features.
I have a Louis Le Loup ('99) piece with silver chloride features.

It was also much used in the States. I've got a John Lewis ('71) Moon bottle, a bit by Prof. Richard Laisner ('71)a bit by Del Matta ('81), a truly fabulous Ariel piece by Jim Megura ('85).
I also have a bit which needs a bit of research, maker is Copeman, there are numbers after the sig. but the artist seems to have vanished from the face of the earth.  
All of these have silver chloride features. These are just the earlier bits I happen to own - there must be a lot more!

[Lustrousstone]

I may be confuddled as usual, but what about my paperweight, are you saying it's controlled blobs of silver chloride with bubbles rather than controlled bubbles with silver chloride blobs. (I'm thinking I need to keep my trap shut a bit more, seem to be getting myself into deep water lately.)

[Patrick]

Hi,
 I hear what you are both saying...................  
but it is that classic design that was introduced at Whitefriars by Harry Dyer in the 1950's that is the possible link that Boffo might have brought with him?

If only we could somehow return to the days when these pieces were made , it would answer all our questions .

Best wishes,
                     Patrick.
 

[chopin-liszt]

Christine - I strongly suspect that tiny little solid bits of silver salt will introduce bubbles on their own - no need for moulds.
Tiny bits of solid something give any gas dissolved in the molten metal something to seed from - like imperfections on the surface of the inside of a glass of champagne give rise to the bubbles in that.

That's why I think the yellow texture in Mdina glass is bubbly/frothy.

I've just been through the weights in your gallery, I'm not sure which weight you're talking about - and I'm suddenly wondering if it's some sort of unknown origin one you have, or is it the "usual" sort of beast?

Patrick - are you saying the WFs duck-style is a Harry Dyer design - but you're into ones made by Boffos? I'm getting confused.
Glassmakers who teach others pass their styles on - it can't really be helped - if two workers are working away successfully, linked to each other through the molten metal, the subtle little movements the learner has to make must be in harmony with those of the teacher - and so tiny little quirks get passed on.

I don't honestly think they're could be a horribly difficult sort of thing to make - and might have been good for training purposes anyway.

[Lustrousstone]

It's the one you commented on as probably being Phoenician in November. (I've dug it out of PB) A similar bubble thing is seen in Murano glass but with bits of silver foil.

(Sorry  :hj: )

[chopin-liszt]

Ahhh - yes. That was the one gently waving to me from the recesses of my brain.
Studying it, I honestly still don't know if a controlled pinprick bubble mould would have been required.

Each bubble there seems to be seeded from a "largish" bit of silver chloride.

I don't know what medium, if any, was used to carry the silver chloride onto/into the glass. I really wish I did!
Your weight there, looks as if it might have been made by laying out a regular pattern of salt crystals on the marver and rolling the gather in it. But that's only if the salts were used "raw" - not carried in any medium.

I don't think we're really hi-jacking - we're getting around to discussing the possibility (or not) of the use of a controlled bubble pinprick mould, and whether or not there might have been one in use in Malta, somewhere, at some time, in the past -> the present!

Silver chloride salts were also used at Mtarfa - certainly in their early days.

[Patrick]

Studying it, I honestly still don't know if a controlled pinprick bubble mould would have been required.

WOW......... that paperweight is certainly made with a bubble pin prick mould !     and I think the silver chloride migrates towards the bubbles.

It would be great if you could count the number of bubbles around the circumference . My duck has 16 in each row ( even 16 around the head ) but I think yours has about 24 so that does not really help.

I am happy if this topic goes anywhere ............. especially when it throws up things like this.

 I think you are quite right in saying that this shape would make a good teaching model and certainly the fat one was made by a novice hand.  The others though have been made with a lot more skill and by the same hand.  
Thanks,
               Patrick.