Topic: help can you identify please

[Paul S.]

your piece is glass Penelope - mica is a mineral and the assumption is that the sparkly silver effect in your glass is due to the presence of very small pieces of mica incorporated into the glass during manufacture.       The mineral was much used in the C20 in radio valves and, due to its near transparency, for the small windows in boiler and other heat sources.
Mica has v.g. capacity to reflect light and is alleged to have been added to some glass to give decorative effect.
However, can't guarantee your glass contains mica  -  the effect might be from foil, as you have already suggested.

If you read Gulliver (where he speaks of C19 'spatter/marvered' type glass), he comments that   ....'encasing a layer of silver foil or gold foil, or fragments of them between two layers of glass.'     In fact I don't think Gulliver mentions the word mica.

The shape of this piece is unusual  -  it looks overly tall for a C19 design, and might be of later manufacture.

sorry this isn't helpful.

edited to add...............     oops apologies ...... - Gulliver does mention mica....."mica flakes or aventurine"
However, my opinion would be that if these inclusions are very silvery then it's perhaps more likely that your piece may contain silver foil rather than mica.

[Lustrousstone]

It's not really tall for an egg-shaped rose bowl at 3¾ in. An ovoid version is bound to be taller than a round version. Johanna Billings (Collectibel Rose Bowls) believes these what she calls spangled (i.e., with mica and spatter) rose bowls are probably Victorian

This is a tall one at 6 in http://lustrousstone.co.uk/cpg/displayimage.php?pid=1507

[Paul S.]

and who am I to argue with that

I would think it's a lot easier to separate mica from foil if you have the glass objects in the flesh so to speak.        Looking at Gulliver's examples where the inclusion is obviously foil, it's easy to see how small sheets of foil have been picked up, and then how they have subsequently broken and fragmented under pressure and heat.
With mica this would not happen since the mineral is already in lose granulated form when added to the glass, and the type of torn edge you get with foil doesn't occur.

I can't see in these pix what the inclusions really look like.           Would be interesting to know to what extent there is any wear on the base of this one.

[penelopepitstop]

yes can see wear round the rim.

[Paul S.]

that's the foot rim presumably?

I've tried blowing up the pix but still unable to see any silvery bits.          Have looked again through Gulliver and unable to see any pieces with mica specifically, or any with this type of coloured spatter/marvered formation, which lends support to Christine's suggestion that this is 'possibly Bohemian'.
As a form of coloured decoration, spattered/marvered wares seem to have been more common from that end of Europe than other places  -  thinking of Ruth A. Forsythe's book, which covers post 1920 Czechoslovakian glass - although don't think any of her pieces show sparkly bits, and are mostly very different in general colour.         

[penelopepitstop]

yes the rim.  I looked on Ebay and it does look similar to the Mtarfa Maltese glass.  Did they do it with silver foil?  Very small pieces so difficult to show.

[Lustrousstone]

It wasn't made at anywhere on Malta.

[Paul S.]

without even looking at anything on ebay most people will know that it's those largish off-white and slightly plum coloured marvered flakes that mislead - so understand the reason for some confusion with Mtarfa.
Then again experience shows that the shape, the base, pontil scar, the crimp and probably the sparkly bits mean that it's not.
Not my area, but I just get a gut feeling this is not late C19.

[penelopepitstop]

ok thanks, I will try put a photo up of the rim and the sparkly bits.  Not a lot of them.

[orangeglass]

Hi,,
Sorry can't add anything to who made your bowl, but here is a shot of some mica flakes in one of my Monart vases if it helps in any way