Topic: Mdina Sidestripe MH hand or Other

[Greg.]

Interesting Mdina sidestripe which looks to be reasonably early in date.

Measures 14cm tall and wide.

Unsure if the 'Mdina' scripting is my MH or not, looks a little similar. Certainly looks different to the hand of Dobson.

Many thanks
Greg
 

[chopin-liszt]

No, not MH, sorry!
He never used a vibratey drilly thing - he was a highly experienced glass engraver for a long time before he got his mitts on hot glass.
Still a very nice beast!

[Greg.]

Thanks for taking a look Sue.

Good point about the vibro-pen signatures.

The colours seem quite good along with the shape, where would you speculate in terms of date..? I was thinking possibly 70-72 ish...?

[chopin-liszt]

It's got a fairly button-y rim, in combination with lots of cloudy colours so possibly '70-'71?

[Greg.]

Thanks - I do like the mottled/cloudy blues and greens of the earlier years, certainly more subtle than some of the later more vibrant colours that were used.

[glassobsessed]

The dremmel signature is post 72 and to my eye so is the shape of the neck, while Harris was in charge only a diamond point engraver was used. Although the rim is small I think it sits much too high to be very early in date. The rim would be sat almost on the shoulder of the vase not elevated high above it.

I would guess date as just after Harris left and before the rims got higher and wider, then wider again. Not sure how long that process took so perhaps 73 or 4.

John

[chopin-liszt]

I bow to your superior dating abilities, John. 
You're right - and more coherent than I am.

[glassobsessed]

Ron Wheeler mentioned that M H took the engraver with him when he left Malta, presumably why they had to go and buy some other engraving tool for use at Mdina, the rest is observation and guesswork.

[chopin-liszt]

I did know MH didn't dremmel.
I didn't know about his equipment travelling with him. 

[Greg.]

Thanks for the additional info John.

I'll have to try and remember about the dremmel signature being post 72.

Interesting point about the height of the neck on these side stripes. Looking through Mark Hills book and some of the pictures of the Mdina glass shelves, although a little hard to make out a couple of side stripes can be seen on pages 25 and 26.

There is a photograph on page 26 of the Dexam catalogue from 70-71 which does indeed show a button top side stripe, with the button rim is sat virtually on the shoulders, similar to this one in the link:

https://picasaweb.google.com/114212950044348042742/MdinaGlass?authkey=Gv1sRgCLiUq5uRppO8eA#5714203056023296674

Interestingly, on page 25, there are also a couple of side stripes shown on the Mdina shelves, although hard to make out, perhaps these may have a very slightly longer neck? I think the photo is circa 1970 so may be a year or so later than the ones depicted in the Dexam catalogue. The images are a little small to pick out the finer details.