Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. > Malta Glass

Japanese Vase?

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tmmorg:
Thank you for your reply, John, and for the beautiful photo of your vase. Stunning!
I'm glad my photos managed to capture the dipping, I'm not the best at photographing glass. I also love the way the swirls stop where the overlap is and then continue, at a different angle, on the otherside. Would the chemical to make the brown (im colour blind but think they are brown, not green) swirls be added to the blue after it was dipped, maybe picked up off the marver?
It's also full of inclusions which maybe confirms the earlier date? (You can see a large one to the bottom of the 2nd photo)
Thank you again,
Tom

tmmorg:
It does seem from other Japanese vases I've seen, the colours became a bit more uniform. More two tone without dramatic swirls. However, I've no doubt you've both seen many more than me. I wonder if this was a rim they tried out before settling on the button rim. Or I suppose it could be just something they tried one day. I know it's dangerous to try and think about these small differences in too much detail as all pieces are different and unique in their own way.
Thank you both again for your help, I'm thrilled you've confirmed it as a japanese vase, especially as it was a bit of a bargain find and I've always wanted to add a JV to my collection.

chopin-liszt:
Silver salts are used to create the yellows, ochres and browns. Silver reacts with hot glass. It turns blue glass green; clear glass yellows, ochres and browns; and red glass into brown.

A salt is a molecule of metal, chemically bonded to other molecules - for example chlorine or a nitrate. Table salt is sodium chloride.
When these salts come into contact with heat, they dissociate. The bit of metal reacts with the hot glass, and the chlorine becomes a gas - this makes bubbles.
Nitrate seems to create bubbles too, but I don't know if that becomes a gas - it might just provide seeds for a bubble to form around.

The fact that Mdina actually created their own colours was a big selling point initially. They did it less and less as time went by. Said took over and colours became commercially more available and they, in  time, managed to raise the quality of materials used.

Early on, they had trouble sourcing raw cullet. This is why the clear glass used in some early stuff is of a very poor colour - they ended up using recycled milk bottles.

There was also the matter of the silver salts being extremely toxic, especially when heated to the point they dissociate and turn into gases!
The silver metal turns into a gas too. It was getting some of that to escape that creates the silver trails deposited on the outside of some pieces.
Initially an accident, it was a much desired technique for one of the makers there to learn to accomplish. Not everybody could.

I have often wondered if breathing in these chemicals contributed to Mr Harris' emphysema. :'(

Tom, we cross-posted a short while ago, check if you've seen my post, and we're cross-posting again now, but I know about this one.
You are correct. Don't go reading anything into the small differences.  ;D ;D ;D
The whole point of it being studio glass is that each piece IS unique.

tmmorg:
Sorry Sue, I did see your earlier post. I was attempting to extend your comment about experimental by suggesting the rim was an earlier 'test' but I feel I should leave conjecture to the experts.

As I said before I'm thrilled it's a Japanese vase and most liky an early one so I shall be very content with that.

Thank you for your fabulous information about the different salts and chlorides used to create the different colours. It does indeed make you think of the high price some artists may have paid, for working with such toxic substances.

chopin-liszt:
 ;D It's a lovely thing all on its own, I'm very pleased you like it and are happy with the slightly vague attribution. It is about as accurate as it can be. I really don't think we're in a position to be able to say we think it is definitely Harris work. There were other very competent makers brought in, in the Boffos; and Said's competence was gained very rapidly. I might be tempted to speculate that such a neat neck and rim might indicate a Boffo.
But that is all pure speculation. :)

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