Topic: Vasart vase.

[Anne Tique]

Hello,

Could anybody help me out with this vase signed Vasart please? I have had a look at the Ysart site, but I think I need a specialist eye and opinion, as I find that the differences between models and patterns are sometimes very subtle. Did Vasart use a colour coding as well as Monart? Am I right in thinking this piece dates from 1946-1956?

Besides the fact that it's a very girly vase due to the colours, it's actually a pretty piece, sparkling away with plenty of gold specks and over here we don't come very often across these pieces, if at all. I don't think I have ever seen anything at fairs, expositions or museums here in Belgium. On the image it looks like the lower half is bubblegum pink but it's is actually a bit darker and less bright, the top is greyish amethyst coloured.

I's 21 cm in height and the rim is 16,5 cm wide, images of the pontil and signature are there for you to see.


I would also like to ask, and I don't know if that is the right place to do here in this thread, if somebody wouldn't mind  explaining the differences between aventurines and mica etc. as i have never been able to tell the difference with materials used, recognizing them and their correct terms. Is there a site that explains this?


Thank you very much for any info provided and your time, it is all very much appreciated.


Enjoy your weekend,

Anne.

[Anne Tique]

Two more images ...

[chopin-liszt]

Aventurine is like copper-coloured tiny bits of glitter.
Mica comes in bigger flat, but crinkled, "bits", they're actually flakes of real mica, (a heat resistant mineral also used for making some oven doors at that time) and they are silver coloured.
Mica was obtained by the Ysarts from the (now gone) shop, Woolworth's, and they sold it in packets around Christmas-time. This was before the sort of plastic glitter we get now was invented.
So if you find a bit of Ysart glass with mica in it, you know it was made in the winter - when they could buy mica from "Woolie's".
Vasart had trouble with obtaining ANY coloured enamels, during the war. They had to make do with what they could find or even produce themselves from grinding up celadon glass, the kind of green stuff that was used in kitchens and bathrooms, and I've heard, but this may not be the case (I think it might have been one of those rumours that get out and are around the world before they can be stopped) that they even scraped enamels off old tiles.
Vasart colours are often rather pale. You've got a particularly big bit, a Thistle vase, and you've got some nice deep colours in it too. 

The signature on your vase was made using a matchstick dipped in acid, I think.
This is all off the top of my head, it's an area I know a little about, but my comments are open to being corrected by folk who do know their Ysart glass.

[Anne Tique]

Thank you Sue for your explanation.

It does look like glitter, as you say, but I very often see adds mentioning gold or copper aventurines and I find that confusing. In general, not specifically to this manufacture, was real gold ever used or is this only  referring to the colour of the aventurines? Here it's a bit darker so I guess it's copper but I have seen the clearer, more yellow in colour. Are they still copper but yellow?


I remember you explaining the signature on my Monart vase and remembered that, so thank you once again.


I always love hearing these stories, how people had to make do with whatever they could find and how to improvise and manage through hard times...a sort of social history that I always find extremely touching.

[chopin-liszt]

The copper can be quite gold coloured - gold does come in different shades itself, from very yellow to rose-gold. 
But mica is completely different. It's decidedly silver and in big bits.
I don't know if copper aventurine is actually bits of copper, heating copper changes its colour and it does react with glass. It oxidises to black, but just heating it will make it dull and purple-y.
And I don't know about gold being used as tiny bits either - but I do know that gold was the metal used to create ruby coloured glass.

I don't know about Monart using matchsticks and acid, just Vasart.

[Anne Tique]

I don't know about Monart using matchsticks and acid, just Vasart.

 

https://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,60723.msg342455.html#msg342455

[chopin-liszt]

I did mention my memory problems.   
They've been quite pronounced for the past decade or so.
That was the first Monart one I'd seen.
You don't go for everyday Ysart glass, do you? 

[Lustrousstone]

Aventurine is a special glass containing copper also known as goldstone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldstone_(glass) There is also green aventurine, whiich is made with chromium. You see both in Bohemian and Scottish (ithink) glass. Your vase has copper aventurine - see the round blobs...

But people sometimes, incorrectly IMO, refer to gold or silver foil or gold powder as aventurine. It's easy to tell the difference; aventurine is rounded blobs, streaks or lines (i.e., bits of melted glass) and generally quite coppery in colour. Gold and silver foil break up into irregular pieces and you can sometimes see the shapes of the pieces of actual foil if you take an overall view. Gold powder is very fine.

Mica has tiny squarish pieces and because it is colourless will take the colour of the overlying glass https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mica

[chopin-liszt]

Green aventurine is known in Monart, but it wasn't done on purpose. It came about because of some chromium floating on the surface of something accidentally somewhere.
I think. This is trawling my ancient recesses.   

[Anne Tique]

 

Ok thank you both for explaining, it's interesting and it makes more sense now.


Re everyday Ysart glass … I would not know, I just liked them and they are the only two I have here.