Topic: Unmarked uranium dish

[Zender]

Hi all,

My first post here, and probably not my last. I'm going to be working through my collection and try to identify most items in it, and keep building as I go along. First up is this uranium dish that I picked up at a throft store a few years back. My first large uranium piece. It has some surface scuffs, but no ships or cracks. One or two small air bubbles. And no marks or stickers whatsoever.

So I have no idea on age, maker, or country of origin. A reverse image search using Google lens pointed me towards another on of these being for sale here in The Netherlands, also without mark, or further clues only that it's "Murano"... which, given that that name sells, probably is something slapped on to generate a larger asking price.

Does anyone here have more info for me as to age, maker and country of origin?

[NevB]

Hello, welcome to the board. It could be Murano but I wonder if it might possibly be Val St. Lambert. If possible a photo without any kind of flash would be useful to determine its colour in natural light. The Moderators may well move this to the main Glass identification section. 

[Zender]

Here a new picture, under a dailight lamp, on a piece of paper, and with a universal measuring device.



Upon closer examination there is an inscription on the underside which I never noticed before, but it is very very faint and I can only partially make it out. The partial seems to be:

??LLESYS??

VBR??GR

L's might be I's, etc.... it takes up about 1 by 2 cm's on the bottom and is impossible to photograph properly with my current setup.


ps. Sorry, this should have gone in the identification threads.... not here. Rookie mistake on a new-to-me forum. Forgive me my trespasses

[Ivo]

Defo not Murano, more likely Luxval/ VSL or Bayel. I have something highly similar in Neodymium from Luxval.

[Zender]

In the spirit of learning, how do you know it's not murano? What are key features missing/present in this piece that tell you this?

[Ivo]

Too heavy, monochrome.

[ahremck]

I agree extremely unlikley to be Murano - they rarely use colour in that way. 

My thought is that it may be Czech in origin.

Seeing it has markings lets see if you can gey a useful photo.  It often is not helpful to photo the marks square on as the unternal shapes tens to distort things.  Ditto flash is rarely helpful.  One way is to take it outside and with the sun behind you take a very shallow photo of the base.  The base should be light as it reflects the sky, the writing will be dark as the light does not reflect.  The benefit is that distortion can't happen nor do unwanted reflections in most caes.  Here is an example where I used this strategy and got nice sharp details.  You may need to try several times to get a focussed picture.  Another common trap is to try and get too close and that gets out of focus.  A well focused photo can be blown up many times and still be useful.

Good luck, Ross

[Zender]

Here is a first attempt at a picture of the signature. It's very, very faint and damaged.

[NevB]

I think it reads Vallerysthal the French company. Try searching Vallerysthal art glass.

[NevB]

These pieces appear to have a similar mark.

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/Lot-of-Vallerysthal-Art-Glass-Uranium-Glass-Vases-300-c-FF343AF8F0