Topic: Blue opaline goblet

[SNJ]

I don't know if this semi-opaque blue opaline is French or not. The bowl has a scroll-type frieze against a stippled ground, between horizontal lines of fleur-de-lys and balls. Height 5", two part mould.

[Mosquito]

My guess: modern production from Stiver, Italy

[SNJ]

Many thanks! Very educated guess by the look of it and matches several other attributions. It came with several blue opaline/opalescent/Pearline pieces from auction so I assumed that there was some age to it. Clearly not.

[SNJ]

I've just seen elsewhere that it was produced by Ivima, Portugal, with a stickered example https://www.antiquers.com/threads/don-tallcakes-stiver-colle-val-delsa-italy.25573/. Within that discussion, there's a lead to 20th Century Glass which, in turns, leads to an older thread on this message board where Ivo also identified an identical example as Stiver, see https://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,42920. Perhaps a re-attribution is needed? Or could these two threads be merged?

[Mosquito]

The one shown in the link with the Ivima label looks quite rough to me, suggesting it's from an old and corroded mold. The plastic label looks 90s era so probably later than Stiver production (60s/70s).

[SNJ]

I know that pottery manufacturers have used old moulds, either bought after factories close down or when they buy them out, a practice that's gone on for as long as ceramics have been mass produced. Could this be the case here, or have Ivima simply copied an earlier design?

[KevinH]

Edited to add: Apologies to anyone who read the comments below in the earlier referenced thread. I chose the wrong thread to add my thoughts to.


Looking at a few details ...

Each of the three items shown / linked here are stated as 5 inch (12.5cm) tall. But comparing the green one with the one in this thread it is clear that the moulds have differences:

a) The central grid in the underside of the foot shows that the Green version has more "nodules" than the Blue one.

b) The central part of the "gadrooning" (for want of a better term), below the plain rim section, has no obvious "nodule" (or "berry"?) in the Green version but a clear "lump" in the Blue one. The same applies to the reverse image of the "gadrooning" at the lower end of the bowl.

c) the Green version has more space between the upper "gadrooning" and the central "acanthus scrolling" than the Blue one.

The Blue one in the older Board thread seems to have an identical mould pattern to the one in this thread. I have not compared the "acanthus scrolling" for each of the examples as it is hard to see the detail in the Blue ones.

I do not know whether those differences are significant but could they indicate a separation into older and newer (i.e. reworked") versions of the moulds.