Topic: Can you please help me identify this weight / signature

[Florence]

I have had this weight a number of years, I love the clarity of it and the daintiness of the flower, I have to admit all of my weights it is one of my favorites.  I have often wondered if it was Indian, but there is a signature on the bottom which I have been unable to decipher.  I like to catalogue my weights with as much information as possible so any help on this one would be gratefully received. Thank you in advance

[chopin-liszt]

Phoenician, a glassmaker in Malta which arose from Mdina.
This kind of flower is called an ice-pick.
(It is early Mdina that is my major interest, I know what the maker's marks look like.)

[Florence]

Brilliant thank you Sue - I am so happy, I have wondered about this weight for some time.  You say it arose from Mdina, does it have any age? or is it quite modern?

[chopin-liszt]

'80s. Possibly towards the end, when Phoenician were really starting to make their own mark on the designs produced. The other makers all just carried on with the takes on designs that arose at Mdina.
But these Maltese glassmakers are part of what was a completely new art movement which only arose in the '60s, Studio Glass. It's quite a long story, and I can rabbit about it until the cows come home, but I don't want to get boring and take over your thread, which will be put into the paperweight forum rather than sorted by country or manufacturer.
I'll see if I can find other threads which tell it, if you are interested.
Brief summary, off the top of my head.  ;-
It started off when two Americans, Dominic Labino and Harvey Littleton got together and invented a small kiln which could be used to melt small volumes of the hot glass metal so that artists, inexperienced in glasswork, could finally use hot glass as a material to work with.
It also had depended on finding the right recipe of metal, which would suit the small kiln. (Which turned out to be the kind of glass used for making marbles.)
On the 23rd of March, 1963, they gave lectures about this new kiln in Toledo, the students loved the idea and the Studio Glass Movement was born. The artist glassmakers had to invent the ways of working themselves.
One of the students attending those lectures was Sam Herman, who fell madly in love with working glass and brought it over to the RCA in London, giving lectures and demonstrations, Michael Harris was the director of the RCA, and he "got the bug" from Herman.
Harris decided to pack up himself and his family and go to Malta to set Mdina up. Making this new kind of art, Studio Glass.

https://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,50103.msg282951.html#msg282951

[Florence]

Yes I would be very interested, thank you.  My learning curve over the last few years since starting collecting has been shallow and difficult, but suddenly I seem to be getting somewhere. 

[chopin-liszt]

I added more to my reply while you were answering me.
This is a pretty good place to find out and learn about glass, hang in for a while and get to know us.
We never, ever give up on trying to find an answer.

[Florence]

Wow there is a lot there for me to read and take in - Thank you