Topic: Black Sabino Platax Vase

[mhgcgolfclub]

I bought this Black / amethyst vase recently, was not sure who made it other than French as the mark on the base is not very clear. I quickly found out its a Sabino platax (Batfish) vase which does not seem to be very common. The few that I can find all seem to be opalescent or white.

This one is mat black / amethyst with a band around the base and the top being glossy as are some of the fish. You can clearly see that all the glossy parts were hand painted as there are a few bits missed and some overlap. I have been trying to find out if it was as made by Sabino or at a later date. If it was done at the factory it was not done as well as you would have thought.

If it was done later then you would have thought it would be possible that it may flake off. It seems that it was hand painted at the factory and maybe fired again as it seems to be 100% part of the vase.
I be interested in what other people think.

thanks Roy

[Mosquito]

Hi Roy,

A very nice find. I've seen a few bits of black Sabino over the years (sometimes with gilding) but don't remember having seen a platax vase in this finish before.

Typically these part-frosted pieces were finished by first painting parts of the pattern with an acid resistant material before then dipping the vase in an acid bath to frost/ stainize it. Once the resist is removed the protected parts remain shiny. I'm sure it would have been done at the factory as this was a fairly typical technique for Sabino. I've had quite a few bits of early Sabino through my hands over the years and I would say the standard of finishing can be pretty variable. Missed bits of frosting and overlap/ etc. aren't that uncommon in my experience.

Steven

[mhgcgolfclub]

Thank you Steven for your reply and almost certainly confirming what I hoped.

Roy