Topic: Unknown (uranium?) jadite bowl. Any help please.

[Sendhandfran]

Hi,
I wonder if anyone has an idea who made this?
This has a faint glow with a UV torch, its not bright but is there.

[keith]

Davidsons maybe ? 

[Lustrousstone]

A "faint" glow generally means it's not uranium. It could be Davidson but I can't tell from the pictures
Have a look through here http://www.cloudglass.com/

[Sendhandfran]

Thanks Kieth & Lustrestone for the link.
I wondered whether its uranium or not. It has a similar faint glow to a MacBeth Evans custard glass bowl i have, but i think because its dark green (& i don't have a great camera:) i can't photograph it. The orange and gold reflections ara also like the MacB bowl, which i believe contains uranium & i was able to photograph, but they're too big to post here at the moment.

[Sendhandfran]

May i ask if anyone knows if this is cast glass?

[Lustrousstone]

It looks like its mould blown or pressed. Very little glass (in relative terms) is cast. MacBeth Evans custard glass will be uranium but that should have a bright green glow, not  faint one, when you shine UV through it.

The orange and yellow against the light are the result of the opacifier - bone ash or similar - not any uranium. I'm pretty confident that this green bowl isn't uranium. Shine your UV light through it - hold it right up against it and look from the other side.

I think it's a 732f in jade; scroll down for an orange cloud one
http://www.cloudglass.com/flower2.htm

[Sendhandfran]

Hi Lustrestone. It still glowed green. It does reflect purple back from the glare of the torch but still has a green glow.
On a completely different bit of glass, i haven't posted yet, i thought I'd try the torch on this too & it glows as well!

[Lustrousstone]

Lots of glass in lots of colours glows green but much of it isn't uranium. A uranium glow is bright green, not yellowish green or orangey green, and it's always visible in daylight (though not always bright sunlight but that masks most things). Unless the glow is bright green, the glow is more likely to be manganese. Another test is to shine any UV torch on an item in a darkened room but from 4 or 5 ft away. Uranium will glow; other things won't.

If your bowl is Davidson jade, it is not uranium.

This is a classic example of a non-uranium glow. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/vintage-uranium-glass-brass-house-plant-sprayer-useful-unusual-/321427687353

[Sendhandfran]

Hi Lustresstone. I'm fascinated by uranium glass but don't know a lot about it. I some that i know is uranium but a few I'm confused by. I had a bowl once i think was manganese, its glow was much weaker. May i ask if you know the MacBeth Eveans bowl has uranium in it? & if so how? Could that be something else? When i shine my torch (i don't have fluorescent UV,unfortunately, i tested the torch on this dark green and the McB bowl but neither were strong enough to glow at all from a distance, they both only glow a little in pitch black & hard to photograph.

[Paul S.]

Hi  -  don't know which uv torch you have, but flagging batteries can make a difference to the strength of visible uranium glow, and it's true that some pieces set the curtains on fire more than others.
From memory I believe the Depression pieces don't have the strength of glow that, for example, some of the earlier C19 uranium glass has - some of which will show their uranium content in bright early morning sunshine - without the need for a torch.
Examples such as this can be seen from a considerable distance at boot fairs and such like (provided the sun is shining )
If you're keen on collecting u. glass, then you should invest in a good quality torch - £10 should buy a reasonable piece of kit  -  nothing worse than getting to the boot sale and finding your batteries are low or the torch isn't man enough.

When it's manganese (and not uranium) the colour produced by the uv torch is a subdued, dull, almost greyish green.

You'd be welcome to borrow my two Barrie Skelcher volumes on uranium glass  -  well worth reading  -  but I suspect you're either in the Outer Hebrides or somewhere on the Isles of Scilly, and nowhere near London.
You can of course buy these volumes from Abe Books, or similar, and if you're keen on this type of glass they're essential.
Best of luck.