Topic: Mdina folded rim bowl. Pattern?

[Marc1976]

Hi all. I recently found this lovely bowl but I'm querying my original colourway attribution. I thought it was tiger but now I'm not sure. Could anyone please help?

[Marc1976]

Two more images.

[glassobsessed]

Don't remember seeing one like that before, I would go with your first impression, the colours are like Tiger it is the pattern that does not match so well. Maybe it pre-dates Tiger, more akin to the yellow ochre items with a Tiger like band.

These bowls are harder to find than many of the shapes, suspect they were only made for a few years, maybe until the mid 1970s.

John

[Marc1976]

Thank you John. Would I be too optimistic by suggesting sea weed? There are many small bubbles as well as the the larger ones.

[chopin-liszt]

It looks more like an experimental version of crystal blue stripe - one with touches of a dark amethyst in it.  Probably more related to the colours used in ice-cut lollipops and then cubes than to something quite as late as Tiger. Not that I think I'm talking years, just that the cubes came from the lollipops, and Tiger was not introduced after Harris left.
I do agree, that these everted rim bowls are very thin on the ground and early.
I suspect prior to the Sea and Sand design of tiger over the yellow background.

It's not what I would call seaweed. (which is not an official name - just what I call it)
That has random trails of blue glass which has silver chloride introduced to its surface.
The trails are the same as on Crystal Blue Stripe, but they're not stripes, they're in random shapes and all over.

[glassobsessed]

The bubbly yellow ochre ground is not found with crystal blue stripe and the stripes of this bowl are not found on the patterns with an ochre ground - so quite a mash up.  This shape bowl can also be found with the chevron pattern - exactly how that ties in with dates I am not sure other than a vague 'mid - late 70s'.

[chopin-liszt]

I agree 100% on date, and on the "bit of a mish-mash".
And chevrons are later too.
And the very dark amethyst is indicative of early '70s, it matches the cubes and lollipops (and that small cylinder I made you look at, at the Fair last November, John.)

Phoenician made small everted rim dishes with both chevrons and bubbly stripes, some of which might have been mistaken for Mdina, if unmarked.

I don't, for one second, think this one here is Phoenician - it's far too different.

The nearest to crystal blue stripe on ochre would be the Onion stripey design, but that was made using silver nitrate, not chloride. Crystal blue stripe was one of the earliest ranges to be put into production and is still going.

I'd still think this dish would be earlier than any with the chevron pattern, so I'd be leaning towards the early '70s rather than around the middle.

It also looks quite big.  What is the diameter, Marc?

[Marc1976]

Hi Sue. I’m out at the moment so I’ll measure when I get home but as a guesstimate it’s about 8”

[Greg.]

Lovely bowl.

Reminds me of my example below, for reference measures 7.5 inches in diameter.

Although not exact they are somewhat similar to the bowl shown in Mark Hill's book on page 28, which is described as a 'Michael Harris design circa 1971'.

[Patrick]

Raymond Sultana commented on FB............... Hello Mark Thomas and All. This bowl is made up from the same materials as with the "Tiger" which in our trade we call it "Marble"
The bubbles come from the way you heat the silver nitrate, the perfect nitrate is with the least or no bubbles at all. As a norm the pattern is made up always the same and when the person making the stripes on the nitrate sees it's not so good, he can freely experiment and makes a different pattern, like this one in question. Hope that I have been of some help.

Raymond is an ex Mdina glassblower.