Topic: Huge MDG flask...or early Mdina?? Help please

[davidfish1212]

Hi All,

I purchased this big beastie yesterday ( jam jar for scale!! ) and at first thought it was a bit of MDG due to the pontil. When I got it into the light and gave it a clean, the colours seem much more early Mdina, also the pattern is a lot more random than I would have expected from a bit of MDG. Also its a good quality bit, the stopper is huge, better quality than I would expect from MDG. Ive included a pic beside a MDG flask and an early Mdina Bottle ( As an aside the MDG flask in the picture has a Malta Craft Glass label that I have never seen before.
All comments gratefully received, thanks in advance.

Cheers, David

[chopin-liszt]

Lucky you, it is MDG. A piece which Vicente Boffo would have been the major/senior maker.
The rough pontil scar was not something done at Mdina, only MDG. The stopper clearly shows the Boffo "grid" formation of Earthtones execution, and I think it shows in the bottle too - although is it a bit squint, I reckon that's just happened during the rotations - perhaps the influence of the less experienced maker he was working with at the time.

It can be difficult to tell, with some pieces whether or not they were made at Mdina or MDG, I simply don't know.
Mdina did make big bottles the same size and shape. They are most often in the Ming colourway, and I have not seen one with a stopper yet.

I only have a big green one and a big blue one. I would be very happy to find an Earthtones one like yours and would snap it up immediately.
I need one.

Isn't the complexity of the strapping just glorious?

[glassobsessed]

I thought more MDG than Mdina too but some of these are very difficult to tell apart. The redder tones and not so flat shoulders push me towards MDG.

John

[chopin-liszt]

And the big rough pontil mark!

Boffo Earthtones made at Mdina also shows a lot of reds in the brown strappy bits.

(Have you ever seen a roughly ground out pontil scar on any bit of Mdina, John? I am sure I have not.)

[glassobsessed]

I have but only on the large textured bottles so far.

[chopin-liszt]

Glad I asked you.
I keep forgetting about them. They seem to be a category of peculiarities, oddities and and different finishes which are the exception to every single flippin' rule we seem to be able to come up with...
including broken pontil scars on vases.

Aaaarghhhhh! (banging head on corner of kitchen cupboard door. I did!)

Ok I strongly suspect this was made at MDG. But is could easily have been made at Mdina.
It was very, highly likely to have been made by Vicente Boffo with somebody less experienced assisting, and would have been made in the '70s.

[davidfish1212]

Hi, thanks for the info both of you, MDG it is! Overthinking is too easy for me, I knew it was MDG, but then started on the colours and size and The non grid like pattern!! I'm chuffed with it. Now, another question, the small stopperless MDG vase in one of the pics has a sticker reading Malta Craft Glass, was this another name for MDG, i can't find any trace of  MCG!

Cheers, David

[chopin-liszt]

It might have been the name of the shop they were sold in?
It certainly looks absolutely Boffo to me, no inexperienced assistant on that one - it is so finely blown and beautifully executed, lovely, straight, slim flange.

But don't go being 100% positive your big bottle is MDG. It might have been made at Mdina.
I think you do have the grid pattern, it's just a bit sideways.

[rosieposie]

Hi David, Please can we have a close up of the Sticker saying Malta Craft Glass? I can't get yours into focus.
Thanks,  Rosie.

[davidfish1212]

Hi Rosie,

Here's the pic of the sticker for every ones info. Thanks for the interest and thanks again for the help guys.

cheers, David