Topic: IOW Michael Harris signed paperweight help with a problem

[stew2u2]

I have this MH IOW paperweight signed it a very nice weight but i dont know if it has a flaw in the glass. i have ringed it in on pic
i have looked at it a few times under a glass. sometimes it looks like two bits of silver / then it looks like two bubbles then two cracks  it has no sign of any damage. could it be when made it wasnt cooled right but then it wouldnt have made it out of the glass works.
second question does this have a name i know its a pedestal weight any info would be greatful thanks
stew
just looked at it again in the bottom photo there is another silver mark this is the same definitely a bubble

[Lustrousstone]

Does it catch on your finger nail? If not it's inside the glass and a bubble. If it does then it's damage of some sort. The squarish edges look more like damage though. You can generally feel a crack or damage

[stew2u2]

no it is inside the weight there are no marks on the outer face of the weight not a blemish and its a good half an inch inside the weight

[stew2u2]

looked at it again it looks like flakes of silver

[chopin-liszt]

I suspect a bruise, I'm afraid. There wouldn't be silver metal in a weight from this period. Pedestal ones are early.

[stew2u2]

hi
i took it to a dealer friend of mine to have a look he says its not a bruise there are more silvery marks going down the dark coloured glass not as large as those but you can see them. if i look from the side they do look like flakes of something. i am tring to ask on the IOW blog but im still waiting for them to get back with password.
thanks
stew

[chopin-liszt]

Bruises do look like slivers and flakes from the side, I'm afraid.
Somebody recently mentioned the proper scientific name for these.....

[KevinH]

Internal silvery-looking flakes are more likely to be cracks than bruises.

[chopin-liszt]

The cracks that radiate out from a bruise ...
Looking a bit like the inside of an oyster shell - layers of slivery silvery rings?

[KevinH]

A surface bruise will usually result in concentric rings (Herzian ring cracks - as mentioned to us by Alan T. some while ago) around the main impact area. These can penetrate a fair distance below the surface and would appear as rings (but looking quite "silvery") rather than as "flakes".

From the look of the damage in the photo, it seems to me that there are no clear rings, but two "flakes" of somewhat irregular shape. That is why I thought it would have been an internal stress fracture.

But then I guess that "flaky" internal fractures could result from an external impact stress without leaving the usual concentric rings of a bruise.

Whatever the "damage" really is, I don't think it's just air bubbles.

Edited to add photo of what I call a "fairly typical bruise" (in an Antique Clichy weight).