Topic: Smokey grey Murano vase?

[busterj]

Hello everyone,

I recently bought this piece from e-bay and am looking for a bit of help in trying to identify it's origins.
At first I thought it was Murano but once I received the piece I'm not completely convinced that it is, although I know I have seen similar glass in this style but my memory isn't what it use to be, sadly.

So I hope that you folks will help me out bit with your wisdom and experience.


rob

[antiquerose123]

Hi there, and Welcome my Canuck Friend, EH?     :pb: 

I will see what I can find -- but the bottom does appear to have some good wear to it as for age.  See IF I can find anything, I hope  :X:

[langhaugh]

Hi:

Welcome. The piece is interesting looking but doesn't look very Murano-like to me. Is the base fairly rough?  In the photograph it looks not very smooth with the marks being more recent scratches than accumulated wear. My guess would be recent and made somewhere like Eastern Europe or China.


David

[busterj]

Thanks for your input Rose and David.

The bottom has been grounded down but not polished with an indented pontel. There are some scratches and ware on the bottom and a few on the outside of the bowl itself.
When the it arrived it had a lot of paint splatters  and grime between the folds of glass, which might suggest some age or someone just being very industrious in trying to give the glass the appearance of age. You never know.

I should also mention, as with all my pieces of glass, it is small. It stands 4 and 3 quarters tall and about 5 inches at it's widest.

I guess I shouldn't rule out it being Chinese (not that that's a bad thing, just not what I'm collecting) but I know I have seen glass with this similar technique but for the
 life of me I can't remember where.

The plot thickens!

rob

[Ivo]

to me it does not look Muranese in the slightest and I think you'd have a better chance checking out the Canadian manufacturers of murano lookalikes.

[antiquerose123]

Hi there:

I am not sure either -- but I have an unknown Smokey heavy vase here too (old post).  Will keep a look out for something similar.  Quite often here in Canada, I see a lot of Smokey colored glass bowls, and vases when I go to a show.  Not sure if it was a Canadian thing or just a *retro* color done in the past.  

I wonder if Birks sold any other glass years ago.  I know Birks sold Murano glass, but I wonder if there are any details anywhere about any other Glass they may have sold or importer from.  

Just a guess... :t: 

Know it is not Chalet    http://www.chaletvintageartglass.com/marks--lines#!__showcase---top by the bottom, and I have never seen this color in Chalet glass.  So that is out of the question....

[busterj]

Thanks Rose.

The piece came to me from the southern states, not that that would exclude it from being Canadian but like you, am sure it's not Chalet glass.

I was on line last night looking at Chinese glass and am confident it's not Chinese. Although I can understand with the rim being very similar but the bottom of the pieces I was looking at were polished and not ground like mine is.

I'll spend a few hours at the reference library going through their books and see if I can find anything. They have great resources!

Thanks again Rose for your interest.

rob

[langhaugh]

Some of the newer Chinese pieces have polished bottoms, but not the older pieces. What makes me doubt Chinese for this is the presence of the knobs around the bottom. It's too fluid for Chinese glass.  Studio glass is a possibility, although I would expect it would be signed.

David

[busterj]

That's a good point David.

The other interesting thing about this piece of glass is the rim of the bowl seems to have been done with two separate bands of glass. Where the greenish/grey colour ends there is a convex band of glass and then another piece that is fused to the convex band forming the rim. You can best see it in the third photo. Or am I just trying to make a silk purse from a sows ear?

I've been out of the collecting circle for some time. Really only reignited my interest as of January of this year.
A question I have is when did the market start to become infiltrated by the Chinese imitations?

rob

[langhaugh]

Rob:

I don't know about the silk purse, but I don't think it's a sow's ear. It's certainly worth figuring out how it was made.  I'm not at home right now (on a short holiday in Cannon Beach, Oregon), so I don't have access to my books or files, and I can't recall seeing anything exactly like this.

If you put Chinese into the search function here, you'll find lots of info. Briefly, there's a long history of Chinese glass, and some of it was very high quality. The market was flooded with reproduction (some very clumsy) Murano from there in the 90's, and they're still coming. However, it's got to the point where you can't really generalize about the quality either, as some of it is good. I notice you were in Venice in 2009; you would have seen tons of Chinese glass there then. I was there the same year and some shops had nothing but.

Also had a look at your collection. Some very nice and interesting pieces. I like small pieces, too.

David