Topic: Could this be Isle of Wight blue gold leaf Azurene

[chopin-liszt]

John, the silver is all the yellowy shiny stuff. Silver reacting with the glass turns clear into yellooow/ochre.  
The gold shows as broken bits of foil.
Here's a pic of some very early Azurene, made before the silver technique was properly sorted, to show you.

(even though I know you're not really into it  )

[glassobsessed]

Surely the yellow shiny stuff is the gold leaf Sue? Silver leaf takes on that bluish tone when overheated which has shown up well in your photos.

[chopin-liszt]

Look carefully at the enlarged image of the first cylinder John - there is gold leaf over the yellowy stuff!

The blueish tinge is silver which has not actually had enough heat to react with the glass - like the strange band around the top of the second cylinder - it's technically a diffuse silver "deposit".

It's the reaction between glass and silver that is yellow - hence yellow in the crizzle bits' crizzle - and all the yellow just about everywhere else in Mdina blue and yellow bits, or yellow alone bits.

[mhgcgolfclub]

Sue

Thank you very much for the ID and the pictures of your piece.

My pictures were taken with a flash and does not show the gold leaf around the base .The same blue and also a similar clear glass neck.

I wonder why these large pieces were not signed.

Thanks again Roy

[chopin-liszt]

I can see gold leaf on your first pic, Roy.  Towards the bottom on the right hand side of the middle.

It's the bits which are kind of like cracked sheet ice on water, they would jig-saw back together, but they're definitely gold coloured and they're OVER the more melted and reacted yellow silver stuff.

Why did any glass artist not sign their work.  :spls:

[davidfish1212]

Hi Sue, do you still have your Meaker Vase, and has there been any more information on him turned up? The vase I spied is exactly the same as yours, priced at a very reasonable £40 ( hope it's still there when I go back for it! ) Is this vase one he made when he was in Denmark? What studio did he work out? So many questions ( as ever

Cheers, David

[Fuhrman Glass]

I had some contact with Charlie about 4 years ago and he was in Copenhagen at that time. I'm not sure he is still producing but his son was at that time. I had spent some time with them both in Novy Bor many years ago.

[chopin-liszt]

I still have it David,  and the only information that has turned up since I got it is what was here earlier on - that he was latterly a director of a glassmaking company in Copenhagen and his obituary, that he is no longer with us.

[aa]

So far as I can see from the images of both pieces, this is silver leaf. I use a lot of it and have been doing so for years. A number of factors lead to discolouration. As Sue correctly says there is sometimes a reaction between the hot glass and the silver which turns the silver yellow or gold. Also if the silver is overheated in the glory hole it can oxidise and then reduce back into a lustrous effect, particularly with some colours. However, most of the time the sort of discolouration as seen in these images is a result of age - some people call it tarnishing, but I prefer patination. Be very careful if you  try to clean it, as the leaf is microns thick and you will wear the silver away.

Gold leaf, as used by glassmakers, is almost always between 22 and 24ct gold. It is much more expensive, much more delicate and thinner considerably more is needed to get an equivalent coverage. As a general rule, gold leaf will look like much more gold than you can see in these images.

I don't remember Charlie Meaker using silver leaf, but he may have done. However, he was quite particular about signing his work. This isn't a shape that I would normally associate with him, but it doesn't mean that it couldn't be his. I knew him well in the eighties and then when he moved to Denmark we lost touch. He was a wonderful chap and it was good to run into him in Frankfurt at Ambiente around 2004. His son Erik became a glassmaker http://www.erikmeaker.com/ and does very interesting work as well as teaching in Denmark.

[chopin-liszt]

I have seen a pair of signed vases exactly the same shape as my big one, but a good bit smaller.
I have been led to believe that he worked at IoWSG for a while, and would have been at least aware of the use of both silver and gold leaf from there, and I was told these pieces were made shortly after he was at that studio. I don't know where. This was what Duncan Robinson told me when I bought it from him. The id of my piece was confirmed by Ron Wheeler as well as Duncan.

Those black cylinder vases above are early IoWSG, Adam, that image is posted just to illustrate loads of silver foil effects. The blue pieces on the previous page are the Charlie Meaker ones.