Topic: Even though bust I.D still required

[Otis Orlando]

Hi,  I recently purchased a number of  glasses and to my suprise this wine glass was amongst them.  I am not sure if the maker got distracted whilst blowing it into what should of been a normal fluted wine glass .  An interesting find that has drawn attention.    About half way up  from the base, there is a signature inscribed Rob or Rod.  I am not too sure.  The overall height is 11.2cm, opening dia. 4.8cm and the base dia. is 4.6cm.  The base is concaved, rippled with a smooth polished finished area from outer to the centre.  When glass is placed to certain light the rims around the base of the bowl can be detected, which indicates to me as being blown?  Also the protrusion of the two areas in question,  measures approximately 0.9cm.    It would be interesting to know who made this and when.  Any help, appreciated.

[Paul S.]

hello Otis..............unusual piece, although regret I'm unable to help with the signature.
have a feeling I might have missed the point of your suggestion that this is a 'bust' piece  -  assume you are referring to the projections on the bowl.
An odditity certainly, but the thought occured to me that........... would the glass worker have continued to make the foot, and then grind and polish the pontil area (it appears to have a ground/polished pontil area).... if he considered the piece 'bust' at the time of making the bowl - which would have been made before the foot?         
To my ignorant eyes, this finished shape doesn't look as if it ever had any intention of ending up as a flute (as in champagne) - and looks more akin to a sherry schooner  -  although I agree the 'ears' are a mystery.

[Otis Orlando]

Hi Paul S,

Ears? yes! I do see what you mean, as they do seem to be wide apart.     To be honest though, I have never seen ears with a Mammary Papilla on the end.   Oh! yes,  I meant bust as in damaged in the subject area.   I have no idea which part of the glass 'Sherry Schooner' is made first, but see what you mean.  Sherry Schooner is a new word for me.     Would you say the polished ground pontil with evenly spaced rings was meant as part of the design?  Here is a side profile of the bowl.

[Nemmie]

Wow a glass with breasts. That fulfils all my requirements in life. 

[petet63]

Now we know why 'Bust' was mentioned  I was looking for the wrong bust. Made by a man I assume 

[chopin-liszt]

Yup, it's a sherry schooner wioth boobs.
Perhaps they serve a function at cocktail parties? The glass could be put into a clip-on ring holder on the side of a plate, or perhaps it should have a complementary plate with a purpose-designed hole in it to hold the glass, so that guests only have a plate to hold whilst standing around conversing.

[Paul S.]

It seems that 'schooner' has multiple meanings depending where on the globe you are, but apparently for the U.K. refers to the larger of two glasses (the smaller being a 'clipper') which are used for consuming sherry.        Comes from maritime connections, apparently, and refers to the size of ships which plied between Spain and the U.K., importing sherry.     When sherry drinking went through a bit of an upsurge in the '60's, these 'schooners' were a popular way of drinking irresponsibly (so nothing new then)  -  and I think these boobs were designed as a means to prevent the glass from slipping through your hand, should you have been less than sober.    Nothing better than holding onto boobs if you're in trouble - at least they can cook, do the washing up, and change a fuse in the plug.       Only joking ladies.

And now for the serious part..........as far as I know, all glasses which additionally have stems and feet (i.e. not tumblers), are made by making the bowl first, so I guess if you cock up the bowl part you'd bin it and wouldn't go on to make the stem and foot.     We're talking hand made pieces only.
Otis  -  in your original note you made no use of the word 'pontil' - although we are assuming there is a ground/polished pontil on the underside of the base.                 Neither the pontil depression or the rings of which you speak would appear to be a specific design feature  -  but I'm sure are simply part of the construction process when this glass was made.
Your..........."rims around the base of the bowl can be detected"...........is possibly that optical effect seen within the glass when the bowl is viewed at a sort of oblique angle.       I don't know what these rings are called, but they are common on much modern clear glass  -  seen easily on round clear decanters if you look down the side of the piece.       I suspect simply an optical effect caused by the shape (the roundness) of the piece, and can be seen in your glass which is clear and round.
Best of luck in finding the maker.

 

[chopin-liszt]

   A pontil rod leaves a pontil mark.
Pretty, pretty please, can folk use the term correctly?
When the term isn't used properly it makes no grammatical sense and has no meaning.
If something has a pontil on it, it is still stuck on the end of a rod. 

Hi Paul!

[Paul S.]

hi Sue

I was trying to be tactful with Otis  -  we don't all have a technical upbringing.............but I appreciate fully wot you are implying, and in fact I found parts of Otis' description difficult to understand (don't know even now if I understood correctly all that he was describing).        Agree with you that muddy descriptions make the task of replying vastly more difficult.         Sorry we got it wrong Miss, will try better.

[Lustrousstone]

I'm not sure it has a polished pontil mark (the rings just look like normal cooling rings) and the rim looks like a factory made "safety rim". Perhaps it was a novelty promotional glass