Topic: Drinking glass with printed horse.

[Ekimp]

I have this glass that has a horse printed on the side. I think the method used to print the horse might be similar to that used on some printed faceted paperweights that are said to be by Webb Corbett (although there is some doubt on maker). See this topic for discussion on the Webb Corbett type weights with a printed image: http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,71964.0.html

I believe the print is designed to simulate an engraved image and this type of applied design is sometimes described as etched or engraved although it’s not.

There are three layers of enamel as you can see, the most translucent layer is the thinnest and is at the bottom. The most opaque layer is the thickest and is on the top. In the horse’s head you can see a very fine grid in the thin base layer (screen print?) It looks like a block print or screen print done in three layers. Possibly printed on paper etc then transferred to the glass, then fired on?

The colour on the knop is a stain on clear and the foot is machine made. Have no idea who made it.

[Ekimp]

More photos.

[chopin-liszt]

  Thanks for the struggle it must have been to succeed in illustrating this!
So, the decor stands proud of the body.

[Ekimp]

It wasn’t too bad.

Yes stands proud. I had a go scraping some of it off with a scalpel. It is very hard and it can be sort of chipped/ground away, so think it is a type of fired enamel.

[Lustrousstone]

It's likely a screen-printed transfer. It's the printing of the transfer that's done in three stages. Three lots of printing on one glass would be way too expensive. Transfers can be printed hundreds at a time. They are commonly used on glass as well as ceramics (sometimes the same transfers) and can be of varying thickness and will stand slightly proud. (If you have any of the older Chance glass patterns you can tell which ones are the oldest by feel. Deffa printing used a sticky transfer and applied frit and cannot be felt. Newer ones are screen printed and you can feel the pattern.) They are fired on because they are enamel based and would wash off easily if not.

[Ekimp]

Thanks. I had thought of screen printing as something for posters and t-shirts but I see how that could work. Some of the printing on Avon glasses looks like it might be similar.

[Lustrousstone]

Screen printing can be used for absolutely anything flat. Here it's the transfers

[Mosquito]

As you note, he blobs on the mane and the bright outlines look like white enamel added after the main image was made. As to the two etched looking layers, how coarse are they? Presumably they're a clear enamel, maybe doubles to get the more opaque parts? The technique is interesting. Reminds me of a more sophisticated take on Matthey crinkles in the way that the enamel is imitating an etched treatment. Presumably this would have been safer than acid etching, and maybe cheaper in not needing to apply and remove an acid resist coating.

[Ekimp]

Hi, it does resemble etching or engraving (which I think is the idea) but it definitely isn’t. I’m not sure you could get such a fine detailed image with just acid etching - it is very small.

I wondered about the dots in the mane, as they are not all connected to the rest of the image. Also the rear legs look like a stamped image where there wasn’t enough ink which was confusing.

When people talk about transfers, I automatically think of the sort in Airfix kits where you float the transfer off paper in one go - the image of the horse didn’t seem to fit with that type of transfer (because of the mane and leg issues).

From looking online I believe they screen print the entire image (as Lustrousstone says) in three layers onto a rubber type block. This is then pressed against the glass to transfer the image before being fired on. I think they used that process or very similar for the horse and that would account for the mane dots and the rear legs.

It’s hard to describe how coarse two main layers are, not very, but like a layer of varnish or paint rather than a thin stain. There is a texture of a very fine grid visible in the most translucent layer (hard to photograph) that I assume is left over from the screen from the printing process. I can’t tell if it’s the doubling of two main layers that add to the opacity, or if there is more ‘pigment’ in each layer.

There is some info about the type of process here: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=wuD5JHZ7ajIC&pg=PA174&dq=screen+print+transfer+glass&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiumZTpjr74AhXLOcAKHWmQDQgQ6AF6BAgMEAM#v=onepage&q=screen%20print%20transfer%20glass&f=false

[LEGSY]

 
Look a bit like the famous Andalusian dancing horses of Southern Spain
possibly a Spanish manufacturer. More looking at the subject more than anything..