Topic: Early Mdina cobalt blue sidestripe button rim

[flying free]

thanks the pics are the best I can do to show that the fish looks deep dark turquoise to the naked eye.  However, it definitely has cobalt swirls all over it - even across the neck bit in some parts there is a fine veil or shadow where the cobalt layer has cased it and in the wings you can see it most clearly in the backlit pics.

I always thought your amethyst/blue mixed fish was a mix of amethyst and cobalt - but once I realised how my fish vase showed up as cobalt on the monitor I realised how difficult it is to tell unless you have a piece of cobalt there to compare it in person.
Does the blue look the same as your cobalt fish blue when you hold it up to compare it?  the blue in my wings looks like the cobalt on the sidestripe but it's much less obvious than the blue in your swirly amethyst/blue fish because it's thinly veiled over the turquoise I guess rather than mixed in with it.
m

[flying free]

http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,50103.msg282961.html#msg282961

Sue, does your fish vase have cobalt swirls in the wings or is it all one colour?
m

[flying free]

this is the best I can do on pics to show the difference in colour.
The fish displays as a much deeper jewel like colour of the turquoise that can be seen on the very top edge of button rim of the pic (the cobalt from the fish is reflecting upwards to the bottom part of the rim).  I used the rim single layer only because there is the least contamination of cobalt in that area.  Photographing just one layer of the glass at that part does show the turquoise colour but in real life its a much deeper version of that turquoise.
 In comparison to the very ink dark colour of the sidestripe I held next to it, you should now be able to see the difference hopefully.

The pic that shows the V part of the fish is distorted really as in real life to the naked eye the wings do not show as that cobalt colour, the whole piece looks like a dark jewel intense turquoise on display in real life, because the cobalt interacts with the turquoise base and deepens the colour. 
But the pics should show that the fish base colour is a very different colour and tone to the cobalt that is swirled through it and that is used also in the sidestripe.  On the fish I think the cobalt has been mixed into the base colour turquoise to case it.
I used a tungsten bulb and the shadow behind the pieces to try and get the best outcome.
m

[glassobsessed]

Does the blue look the same as your cobalt fish blue when you hold it up to compare it? 

I think it is but it is difficult to be certain even comparing them side by side.

[flying free]

have you tried comparing it to your cobalt charger?  I can't refind the pic of that at the mo, but that has cobalt swirled into the base glass iirc from looking last night doesn't it?

m

[glassobsessed]

This one? https://picasaweb.google.com/Johnmj100/EarlyMdinaGlass#5684180413909505330

It is difficult to tell, but, the glass in the centre is quite a bit thicker and so the colour is more concentrated there. Some of the darker colour is amethyst but it also looks like a small amount of cobalt was used too, one or two small distinct patches are quite visible.

[flying free]

oh that's intersting - I assumed the charger displayed as cobalt blue - but isn't it?  does it display as the same colour as the neck of your cobalt winged fish?

And I'm very interested in the cobalt fish photographed in MHill's book - has anyone actually seen it in person?  I also wonder if that is a similar design to your fish with the neck and v being a different colour and only the wings actually being cobalt blue? 
(it looks not far off the colour of my fish in when I compare it to the picture laying my fish against the page btw - and my fish only has cobalt swirled in the casing)
m

[glassobsessed]

The 'base' glass of the charger is the same blue as the neck of my cobalt fish and the majority of your fish, I suspect that that is the same for the cobalt fish on page 31 of Mark Hill's book (not seen it in person and no idea who it belonged too).

[flying free]

In all honesty, (huge controversy coming up now) perhaps the photograph in Mark Hill's book is distorting the colour, but I think that fish he shows as cobalt, to my eye at least, is not cobalt blue   
or at least the base glass used for it is not cobalt blue.
 It might have cobalt blue in the wings but even then I would have expected it to 'show' as cobalt in the photograph, in the same way as my fish vase does because my fish vase contains the cobalt blue in the wings.
I've photographed my fish in various conditions under various types of lighting bulbs and each and every time, it picks up as cobalt, never that jewel deep turquoise that it actually displays as to the naked eye,  despite having the cobalt swirls in it.
m

[glassobsessed]

It would not be surprising to me if it was not cobalt but I would rather sit on the fence on that one at the moment. Not surprising as many of the photos in the book are poor, they do not show the glass well. Another error (in my mind anyway) is the description of the fish vases on page 30 & 31 as 'brown' when they are amethyst, depending on the light sometimes the amethyst can look brown.

Like this one: https://picasaweb.google.com/Johnmj100/EarlyMdinaGlass#5752076461391603362

John