Topic: Heavy, bubbly ashtray with copper inclusions

[rocco]

As I am rather hopeful that this piece is from Murano, I am posting my query here:

Pulegoso, a bollicine (or whatever the technique may be called) ashtray, 13 cm long, 7 cm high, weight around 1.1 kg.
Purple cased in a thick layer of very bubbly glass with copper inclusions.
Well finished base with big round circular polished pontil mark, and quite some wear to the stand.

>> This Barbini for VAMSA ashtray has a lot of bubbles, too, and a very similar shape; but that's about how far I got.

Any help highly appreciated as usual!

Thanks
Michael

[TxSilver]

The shape of the bowl reminds me of the ashtrays made by Kamei of Japan. The ashtrays were made using a variety of Murano-style techniques. It would be my first guess for your bowl just based on shape.

[rocco]

Thanks a lot, Anita!

The Kamei glass ashtrays I have seen (and the ones I could find on the web) are rather thin-walled, while mine is thick and heavy. Do you have a link to one of the Kamei pieces you think of?
And would their bases be finished like mine? (The nice big polished pontil mark was the main feature which led me to think Murano, and not Japan or Romania)

Michael

[Wayne]

Have to admit, the same thought occurred to me about Kamei, although yours is much nicer than most I've seen Michael.  I've seen the common ones similar to Alrose (bright colour with thick white stripe) that had a large concave polished pontil mark.  I've also seen some large chunky ones in a wide variety of patterns, example below:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230556864869

[rocco]

Thanks Wayne, so Kamei seems to be an option..
Did you ever see any of this bubbly type glass by them?

The design of my ashtray seems a little "rougher" than the Kamei glass pieces I am able to find on the net.

(And thanks Kevin for moving my thread to the main board)

Michael

[Wayne]

I don't think I've seen any with this bubbly effect, no, so it's hard to say 1 way or another.  It's a shame there isn't more info around on Kamei, they have made quite a wide variety of glass I think, some of it is very nice, and almost always described as Murano on ebay.

[rocco]

Thanks again, Wayne!
So I will leave it down as possibly Japanese, but in need of confirmation...

Michael

[flying free]

The base reminds me of old French paperweights - what is the small round mark in the middle of the base that shows on the photos?  is that the pontil mark?  so is the base polished slightly concave with a fine rim around it and then the polished pontil mark in the middle? I was just a bit confused because the pontil mark doesn't look overly large to me if that is what it is.
Is it possible to have a photo from the top view to see the indents please?
I always think of Kamei bowls as having more than two indents but I could be wrong, perhaps the smaller ones only have two.
m

[rocco]

Thank you m for looking into this, very much appreciated.
To answer your questions:
the base has a big polished concave pontil mark, just leaving a stand ring of a few millimeters.
The thing in the middle cannot be felt from the outside, and I would think is some feature from the pontil which couldn't be polished away sufficiently...

Will post a top view when I get home in the evening. The overall shape is rather similar to the Barbini ashtray I linked to in my first post.

Michael

[rocco]

Here a top view, and a close-up of the "feature" in the centre of the base, which is smooth (the bubbly bits are inside the glass), apart from the margin which feels slightly rough to the touch.

Michael