Topic: Harbridge Crystal

[billben]

I did see an old link the other day which I seem to have lost now but as I have just aquired a lovely Harbridge Crystal decanter I thought Id send some photos before it goes to Ebay as I know many of you like to keep them in your reference material. Something I dont recall seeing before is that the stopper and the rim of the decanter are both hand engraved with the same number (31) ...wouldnt it make life easier if all makers had have done this.
Hopefully the photos will load up, I do occasionally have problems
Stay Safe

Resized images added by moderator

[Anne]

Thank you for thinking of adding images to the page, we appreciate that. The pictures could do with being larger though, as they don't blow up enough for us to see any detail. I know pic's show on posts as small thumbnails, but you can upload images up to about 700 pixels along the longest edge and they should still fit our file size limits. The board itself creates the wee thumbnails from your larger originals for you automagically.  If you need help resizing please just ask - either as a reply or drop me an email via the envelope button under my name on the left.

[billben]

Hi Anne
Have tried resending after re-sizing using 'paint' and one edge at 700 pix but still saying too large ...
Help .....

Resized image added by moderator

[Anne]

Oh dear, I think you've hit the limitation of Paint, it doesn't make small file size images very well, and there doesn't seem to be any way to make it compress images for web use either.  So, you have two options: first is to try using a different image program, Irfanview is free and will do the job for you, and one of our members created and hosts a very helpful tutorial on how to use it to resize images to fit the board.  You can download Irfanview from here https://www.irfanview.com/ and the tutorial is here https://www.glassyeye.com/glasstopics/photos-edit.html.

If that fails then your second option is me, as you can email copies of your images to me and I'll resize them and add them to your topic for you. Let me know how you get on.

[Anne]

Larger images added for billben.

Re the numbers on the decanter and the stopper, here on the board we refer to these as tie numbers, and they were a way of ensuring that the stopper made for the decanter went with it  - due to variations in hand made items there could be very slight differences in sizing, so making each stopper to fit the decanter and marking them both with the same number made good sense. No-one likes a loose, wobbly or too tight stopper.

There's an interesting discussion on "tie numbers" here http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,19831.0.html

[billben]

Thanks again Anne.
I can understand the use of 'tie numbers' I just wondered why they were not used more often, its the first I have seen in 30 years.
It makes perfect sense and i agree with you ...too loose or too tight can both be equally problematic.

[Anne]

I suspect it was down to how each glassworks dealt with quality control, those to whom it mattered would ensure their decanters matched their stoppers properly, those who didn't take the same effort are the ones with the wobbly / tight stoppers. 

[Ekimp]

There’s also some discussion on decanter bottle/stopper numbers here: http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,69081.0.html

[Paul S.]

from experience, matching Nos. occur, usually, on quality bottles only, and finding them - even when you look carefully - can often take time and rarely are they obvious.       Anyone unaware of such a feature might spend years handling the occasional decanter and never know of their existence.