Topic: marbled glass vase..can you help with I.D. please?

[flying free]

Some further information and open to correction if I'm wrong  :sun:
polishing the pontil mark is a final finishing step- but it requires an extra step in the process of making the piece, which takes time and time is money.  So I think, 'generally' speaking, the best producers polished their pontil marks or ground and polished the base of the piece.  Others ground out the rough snap off mark but didn't do the further step of polishing and yet others leave it just snapped off.  
Obviously there are some that snap off the pontil mark neatly, others not so.  
However.... all this said, there are caveats - some very expensive pieces have a snapped off pontil marks, left unground and unpolished.  Equally studio glass makers often either leave a (mostly neat in my experience but not always) snapped off pontil mark, or grind the base of the piece and don't polish it.  So I guess really what I'm saying is that as I understand it, a pontil mark alone cannot be the only thing to judge a piece on.  The whole piece, finish, effect, decor, quality etc, has to be looked at to be able to judge where something may have been made  
As I said, I'm open to correction.
m

[Ivo]

I think lafiore...

[scavo]

Don't intend to upset anyone with my musings. I don't pretend to be an expert - but I do say what I think and am always happy to learn.

[flying free]

you didn't upset anyone 
I only wrote that because I just remember how long it took me to get my head around why the base, the pontil mark and the finish of the pontil mark was so important to aiding identification of things, not just on the board here, but when I wanted to buy something I'd found and needed to try and identify whether it was worth the outlay or not.  Then longer again to realise that there weren't any rules lol, but somehow the pontil mark and base finish were still important, but only in conjunction with all the other aspects. 
m

[scavo]

you didn't upset anyone ...

good.

and in the past I've let 'shoddy' pontil marks influence my buying. Hopefully in future I;ll be able to contextualise and not it put me off.

[KevinH]

Definitely did not upset me. But I really should have added a background comment to my own remark, which was brief reaction to an old (and possibly still used) idea that almost anything with a neatly polished out pontil mark would be Whitefriars. I had heard that a few times on UK TV "antiques" programs as well at at antiques/collector fairs.

[scavo]

Ok, when I post my photos of the jug with the cracked handle I'll put a photo of the pontil mark. I scanned Whitefriars catalogues until my eyes fell out using the maxim you quote ...

I don't know about "almost anything ... would be Whitefriars" But I am lead to believe that Whitefriars is always well finished including the pontil being nicely ground out, and that it is an indicator.

[Lustrousstone]

Whitefriars generally is well finished with a polished pontil mark (but some ranges don't have a pontil mark at all and some have a polished top rim) but the blown stuff can be a little wonky shape wise.

The point is that an urban myth has arisen that if it has a polished pontil mark it must be Whitefriars, which is patently not true. Then there is the theory that if the pontil mark is ground but not polished, it must be Chinese.  That is not true either.

So yes, you have to look at it all in context and study the areas you are interested in and then those you're not as well.

I'd certainly look into Ivo's suggestion of Lafiore