Topic: Controlled Bubble Jug

[NevB]

I bought this as I thought it might be Whitefriars but can't find it in the catalogues or a in a similar shaped one anywhere. It is 10" tall, weighs 1.8kgs , with a ground pontil and some age wear.

[chasdevlin]

Biot possibly...?

[NevB]

Hello chasdevlin, the bubbles look similar to Biot but not as random, also it doesn't have the typical rough circle pontil where it's snapped off the blowpipe, but it could be by one of the many Biot factories. The colour, handle, pontil and method of construction look typically Whitefriars but the shape isn't. I've actually just found another one for sale on Ebay, typically with no attribution  .

[NevB]

Probably wishful thinking but having seen the blue bubble glass bowl recently attributed to Stevens and Williams could this also be by them? The blue colour, bubbles and ground pontil with rings surrounding it do look very similar.

[chopin-liszt]

I'm with Chasdevin, Nev. I've seen Biot jugs in this sort of colour and the bubbles are right - if slightly unusually slanted, but that could just have been the particular worker not managing to keep them straight up and down.
I've got a tall bottle I'm looking at right here, and the bubbles in the neck are twisted in the same way. The body is fine, the top of the neck is fine.
I am sure the big, round handle is right too.

The base of the bottle is very odd. There's a deep hollow, with what lookes like a heat finished pontil mark right at the bottom, a nice, neat little flat circle.
About 3/4 inch below that, there is a ring of broken glass, then it just sweeps down and up into the rounded rim it sits on. 

[NevB]

Sue, the pontil mark on a lot of Biot glass consists of a rough circle of glass with flat centre, this is because they didn't use a pontil rod but snapped the piece straight from the blow pipe. It's difficult to see but I think the bowl I mentioned has, like my jug, a ground pontil surrounded by rings. I've seen another jug exactly like mine on ebay so it seems like the bubbles were meant to look like they do. Biot bubbles tend to be more numerous and more random but I'll do a  bit of research to check.

[chopin-liszt]

And often with the Biot logo impressed into it.
The bottle I have is kind of akin to the tall Empoli genii bottles - but a bit more sophisticated and hand made, not mould blown.
The bottoms of tall bottles are often different to the other pieces made by the same company. Nearly all of the IoWSG attenuated bottles have broken pontil marks.
The base of the Biot bottle does kick right up in the centre; there's a 2" tall dome inside it.
I don't really expect to find that sort of kicked up bottom on anything else Biot.
I was just trying to add another known version.

[NevB]

This is a bowl I posted which I'm almost certain is Biot. It has the circle pontil set in a domed foot.
https://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,70156.0.html

[chopin-liszt]

That's just like the "broken glass ring" mark I described which sits below the inner flat circle on the bottle. The kick-up in the bottle is bigger - but it's a bigger piece.
Your green bowl has very, very round bubbles - I'm more used to seeing elongated ones as well, with any round ones being a lot smaller. 
Your blue jug has big elongated bubbles and small round ones. 

The only worry I have about Biot is that the jugs I have seen have had round bottoms, not tapered like yours.

[NevB]

I've had a search around and the Biot jugs all seem to be a different shape, the most similar ones have a separate inside pocket? for ice.
I'm leaning more and more to S&W/Royal Brierley but I can't find anything to confirm this.