Topic: Uranium Opaline Vase

[NevB]

This is a solid lump of an opaline vase. Just 6" tall it weighs in at 1lb. 12oz./ 800gm. It has one small chip on the rim, the rim has been ground flat with a slight bevel on it. I would say it's French, I don't think it's Bohemian, and it's difficult to date but I think it's pre 1920.

[flying free]

A nicely ground and polished rim but also with a polished pontil mark?

Is that a bit strange?

Do you think it might have been a taller trumpet shape and cut down?

m

[NevB]

It might have been a bit taller m. I would guess that if it had been a lot taller it wouldn't be so heavily made, it's 8-10mm. thick at the rim, and the proportions look OK to me. I've got a 60cm. vase which has a ground rim but that has a raised foot.

[Ekimp]

Just wondering, would they have made the cone shape with straight sides, then cut off the top and attached a pontil rod so that they could flare out the top of the cone? The other thing, is the foot flat? Is the foot wear on the outside diameter of the foot, or is the wear on the outside edge of the polished pontil mark? Maybe it wobbled without grinding away the middle? Also, out of interest, is the foot hollow so that you can access the inside of the foot from the top?

[NevB]

Ekimp, I think it would have been mould-blown using compressed air, a method used by Baccarat and others in the 19thC. and later, and then would have attached a pontil rod to then finish the rim. The base is flat with a slightly raised 1cm. wide ring around the pontil, all the wear is on this ring. I have other vases with the hollow foot, this one is solid, the inside goes down to a point.

[Ekimp]

Thanks, I suppose if the glass was thinner then the foot would have been hollow.

I am interested in items in their original condition that have a polished pontil scar but also a cut/polished rim.

[flying free]

I have two French pate de riz mid 19th footed bowls and I think one has a foot like this. Will dig out later and report back.

Here's one piece with foot formed in similar way iirc.
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,46353.msg260293.html#msg260293

m

[Ekimp]

I think it’s called a ’Roman Foot’. If the foot isn’t hollow would the mould blowing work? Not sure how they would mould blow items like this anyway as how would they get the glass bubble that forms the foot past the restriction of the stem? Maybe they close the mould on the bubble or have a separate part for the foot.

[NevB]

I think the molten glass would naturally flow in the base of the mould and high pressure compressed air would then push it in, or they may have simply used a conical metal press.