Topic: Unknown Nouveau Alexandrite color changing vase

[Balancejones]

Unusual glass vase that changes color. About 8" tall.
It's red and green glass , sometimes more red, other times more green.
Excellent craftsmanship. Top is nicely polished. Base is cut in a starburst pattern.
Sides look like they were impressed when glass was still hot.
Or perhaps mold blown and hand finished.
Unsigned and age is hard to determine.
The bottom is such that it's  hard to tell if there is any wear.
Could be art nouveau era, could be 50's.
Help!

[Paul S.]

Hi - welcome to the GMB, and attractive piece by the way.

I could be way of line here, but had some idea that Alexandrite was that deep lilac shaded stuff as per this link .....
 http://www.mindspring.com/~reyne/neowhatsis.html

This one may well be dichroic, but we have folk here who are far more likely to know than me.             Very sorry but can't help with attribution or age, but IMHO I would have thought unlikely to be late C19, although would agree mould blown probably.

[JohnM]

I agree with Paul. I have only a handful of neodymium pieces but this piece doesn't look like neodymium/alexandrite to me. It reminds me of a bowl in which the outer layer is made of peach coloured glass and the inner layer of green uranium glass.

[Paul S.]

I did wonder, if rather than being light reactive, this one was heat reactive - along the lines of the Davidson Pearline process, and it had been re-struck in some way.           Also wondered if the green reacted at all to the u.v. torch.

[Lustrousstone]

I think the outer layer is uranium glass. Test it under a UV light and it should glow a very bright green. I think it's mould blown, including the base.

[Balancejones]

Hello and thanks for all the comments.
Yes, it glows under a black light, but not the bright green I've seen in other uranium glass.
This glows more of a bright yellow color and it becomes completely opaque. Ive added a few more photos.

[Balancejones]

Also, I agree the vase is mold blown, including the bottom starburst pattern.
The top is cut and polished flat with a slight bevel.
Its a thick heavy glass weighing nearly 3 pounds.

[Lustrousstone]

Looks like uranium glass to me

[Paul S.]

Christine is ahead of most of us when it comes to glass that glows, but I'm not convinced on this one, and to my very uneducated eye this green - as the op says - seems to lack the brightness of uranium, and in comparison, it's too dull and has more the look of perhaps massive amounts of manganese, or even selenium.             
If the latter, this might also tie in with the op's comment that in reality it has more yellow than we're seeing in the pix - plus selenium would account for the red base colour, do people think??             Thoughts on a postcard please to ........

[glassobsessed]

Uranium for sure, manganese is never that bright and it will glow a faint dull green not that bright yellow/green. The proof is the UV and daylight photo, you will never get manganese to show up like that on camera.

John