Topic: Lovely 'Mdina Style' vase , 4 part pontil, poss early, maybe Herman or Harris?

[Andy]

I know a few of you will love this little beauty, but who made it ? Its not signed !
Unusual 4 point broken pontil , and ground base. I seem to remember reading somewhere ,the early London studios and designers had this ??
The base colour is purple, enough silver chloride to get Sue excited  ! A nice little hot worked button top.
Just under 5 inches tall, and 3 1/2 inches wide.

Opinions invited.
Cheers
Andy
edit. not really button top i suppose , more small flared flat top 

[chopin-liszt]

I've got itchy mitts - I need to get my paws on this, to feel it.

The 4-point pontil mark is throwing me.... 
I have just checked all my early (ie late '60s- early '70s RCA/Glasshouse pieces (Sam Herman, Dillon Clarke, Annette Meech, Pauline Solven, Wayne Filan and a couple of Sam Herman Jam Factory bits) -  no evidence at all of a 4 pronged rod, although various other finishes - some rough, some polished, some with a fairly neat heat-finished pontil scar in the middle of a shallow hollow, the glass all shiny around.


BUT..... I also have a Norman Stuart Clarke goblet, purchased from the lovely Michelle Guzy, who told me it was a fairly special bit, because it was made at  the London Glass Works in '83. It is fully marked as such.

IT has a 4-pronged pontil rod scar.

He was there for a very short time, in '83, my memory is failing me - something to do with it being a short course on goblet-making ?

[glassobsessed]

Quite a few of this lot have a four part pontil mark: http://picasaweb.google.com/Johnmj100/StudioGlass

I wouldn't expect it to be exclusive to LGW though.

John

[Greg.]

Interesting find Andy 

The style does indeed seem similar to Mdina. If it wasn't for the base, my first thoughts would have been possibly Phoenician Glass or perhaps Alum Bay or Gozo Glass. I wonder if it could possibly be an early piece from one of these, before they introduced different base finishes/treatments. Certainly seems to have a bit of Harris influence to it.

[chopin-liszt]

I don't know of a 4-pronged rod being used anywhere near Mdina, Mtarfa, Phoenician, Gozo, Isle of Wight Studio Glass, Kerry or Guernsey (Island) Glass..........
I know the 4 prong things are around in general, but they're not desperately common. 

[Andy]

Thanks all, here's a few more snaps, couple of close ups for Sue , and next to the closest thing i have, the base colour is a similar purple, this ones a bit thicker than the inside out vase.
Sue, do you have any examples with this much patterning/silver chloride in it? Its got more than anything i have.
Greg, I've seen similar Phoenician, but , again , that base seems to make it unlikely.
Curious one 

[glassobsessed]

A wild stab in the dark, how about Chloe Woolvett? http://www.glass-blower.co.uk/

[chopin-liszt]

It's not so much a matter of how much silver chloride as how it is used.... I haven't seen anything Harris-related yet with this sort of "patterning".

The stuff on the outside of your your Inside-out has "leaked out" of the vessel while being blown - this was a sort of "happy artistic accident" (not such a happy event for the health of the blower). which occurred when the hot gob of glass accidentally came away from the rod a bit - silver metal in gaseous form escaped from the insides of the metal and deposited itself on the outside - the rod was obviously being turned all the time - so the gas deposits itself on the surface of the vessel in that lovely "shower of comets" trail around the piece.

I don't know how it's been worked in your mystery piece, sorry.

[Andy]

Thanks chaps, Sue , my first piece of Mdina, i think from ebay, probably 2004, when i joined, had this effect on it,
I liked it because it looked like 'Space' , stars and galaxys ,never heard of Mdina then ! Its got rings around it
where it was rolled, it looks a little in places, that its not supposed to be there, and something went a bit wrong !
Have to keep it, as it helped fire my interest !
 
Andy

[chopin-liszt]

I would suspect, from the glorious trail you have on that, that it is possibly a reasonably early bit of Tortoiseshell!
Does it have a small base that raises it a bit from where it is sitting?

Lots of things went "wrong" in early Mdina    (but I'm sure they did later too).