Topic: Mdina Mystery object, could it be a jar lid or a paperweight or just a 'thing' ?

[jonchellycain]

Hi all
picked this up a while back and have been meaning to get your opinions, so whilst ive been photographing my Mdina collection thought i would try and ID this one
There is 8 pictures from 50 to 58 https://picasaweb.google.com/112538457954992188877/Mdina#5582088297832124914
Height 9.75cm widest Diameter 9cm, opening 4.75cm, rim 6cm, clear noble 3cm in diameter.
Now im not even sure which way is up, but it has wear on the opening end around the base (the first picture way up), But the clear noble has a cut and well polished 'end'.
There is no wear anywhere else to suggest it has been a lid, plus its rounded so wouldnt have sat very well on somehing else
Is it off of a bigger piece maybe a jar of some sort, or has it been cut down from being something else or was it just made like this.
No makers marks on it, but im sure its Mdina
many thanks
michelle
Here is the link to my whole Mdina album on picasa
https://picasaweb.google.com/112538457954992188877/Mdina#

[glassobsessed]

Very :huh:

I am intrigued, it does look like a bit like a lid though. Something non standard made by the Boffos to sell in Valetta?

John

[jonchellycain]

very odd this one ah John. I wonderd if it was a drinking glass and the foot had been damaged so someone ground and polished the end? but its quite thick and wouldnt be easy to drink out of (although thats not evidence that its not what it was designed as)
cheers
michelle

[chopin-liszt]

The rim is too broad to fit into one of the massive "sweetie jar" (as I call them) stoppered bottles - (I just climbed up and checked) - so it's not a stopper for one of them.

It's weird that the knobble is polished flat, while at the other end, the rim is heat-finished.

It does look like Mdina - but also like some early Phoenician which I often confuse with some Mdina.
I've ever seen anything this shape before.

It might fit onto the top of one of the egg-shaped 7-8" tall Mdina vases.

It doesn't look like a convenient shape to drink from - stuff would get left behind.

Intriguing!

[ahremck]

My thought is that it is related to "amphora" shaped vases which can not stand by themselves but are supported by a metal loop of some sort. 

Thus the ground bit becomes the base and being heavy will be quite stable and the open end is where the "flowers/trinkets/??? go.

Ross

[KevinH]

Well, one thing is certain. It's not a paperweight!

Or is it ...? This is a subject that I can easily get drawn into, especially with all the glass animals and other things that are sold and described as "paperweights". But some may well have been made as paperweights. On the other hand, anything that could hold down paper could be used as a paperweight ... like a house brick, or a computer (for large sheets of paper) and so on, but does that mean they are paperweights?

Seriously thogh, I tend to agree that this item is more likely to be a lid for something. The other way up would be too unstable for a stand-alone item. Sue's idea of a larger vase would seem to be reasonable, particularly if it were a broad shouldered shape - sort of "urn-like" and had a clear glass foot. That would look quite neat.

[chopin-liszt]

Or, and I'm coming round to this, it's been a footed bowl which stood on a knopped stem. the foot has broken off and somebody has introduced polished a base through a section of the knop.

I find it strange that any top bit of Mdina is polished at all - the tops and rims are usually fire-polished.

It also might be a lid (for a wider vase) which had had a normal Mdina round top-knob, which got broken and was polished.
I have never seen anything with this body shape in Mdina glass before.

[jonchellycain]

Thats exactly what i thought Sue, somebody has done a "repair job" on it, the flat polished pasrt just doesnt tie in.
If it was a lid, it wouldnt have sat very well, its rounded and uneven, but thats the only thing i can see it was if that is it was made with any use in mind.
I meant to take it along to the glass fair but forgot, i will bring it with me in september
michelle

[chopin-liszt]

I have never seen a lidded thing in Mdina - not that that means anything - strange things DO turn up - just like this!
But the stoppers on bottles are not often a good fit - I think when they were being sold it was optional to the buyer to choose to have a stopper or not, and the bottom parts of the stoppers were simply made smaller than the necks were likely to be. Many of them are very wobbly!