Topic: Cylindric brown vase with bubbly, powdery and metallic inclusions

[rocco]

Please help with ID of this vase!

Clear glass with red-brown and white powdery pattern plus air bubbles and metallic inclusions; height 20cm, clear casing, uneven fire-polished rim, mould-shaped(?) base.

Bought because I liked the technique (reminds a little bit of Ikora), but not so sure about the quality, so could be quite modern...?

Thanks!
Michael

[astrid]

I can only echo your own feelings, I'm afraid.

The colouring looks like the sort of techniques that Wiedmann used for WMF in the Ikora range, and even more what he did later at Gral Glas, but either of these factories would have produced a thicker quality and a much better finish. Could be modern, somewhere in Asia for instance, or perhaps 70s but by a smaller factory.

Astrid

[Frank]

It looks fairly standard hand-blown and shaped to me. Clear gather, marvered enamels and charcoal or similar to create bubbles followed by a final clear gather then shaping. Could be factory or studio but although not very clear grinding on base looks to have been done on a larger grinder than found in the average studio. One characteristic of hand blown glass is horizontal ripples that can be seen both internally and externally with light at the right angle. These being an artefact of the shaping tools. Although technically the rim is fire polished, that term is used more for mould blown glasses that are subject to an extra process of fire polishing after the rim is cut. The open end would have been where it was attached to the blowpipe and cut of after transferring to the ponty iron. During shaping and reheating the edge becomes naturally rounded.

[rocco]

Astrid, Frank, thanks a lot for your contributions!

That is what I thought -- Gralglas should have a more quality finish. So maybe Eastern Europe?

Unfortunately I am still not very firm when it comes to glass working techniques...

What I might add is that the outer clear casing is smooth and shiny, I can't detect any horizontal ribbing (if any ribbing it looks more spiral, but hardly visible); the inside is very uneven (the inclusions and bubbles can be felt through the surface), and glass thickness is increasing signifantly towards the bottom. The base shows no sign of grinding as far as I can see.

By accident I saw a small vase yesterday whith the same pattern, but a completely different shape (inkwell with ruffled edge); so I would think not a studio piece.

I had hoped that the rather special technique would make this one easier to ID (even if it was just contemporary Romanian glass)

Michael

[Frank]

Ripples not ribbing and could appear spiral but should be almost invisible it is only an artefact of hand smoothing. Uneven interior would suggest not much tooling done to smooth it and the bubble formation would leave such an effect without smoothing. Mostly I see this approach smoother internally so this was perhaps a less skilled bit of work. If there is no grinding of base, thought it showed in pic, then you are probably looking at a studio piece from almost anywhere in the world.

The piece in this topic http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,41718.0.html is a an example of what can be achieved in this method of decoration. As is of course a lot of Monart.