Topic: Webb's Alexandrite

[Frank]

Stretching my memory Jim, the piece I handled was owned by Parkington at the time and he was very pleased to have this, and other examples which at that time were on loan to a museum. As I recall he said that the effect was "due to a very percentage of gold in the formula", he had extensive archives and with so many examples of Alexandrite in his possession must have had something to back that statement up. I presume his archives to now be in Broadfield House.

[Jim Sapp]

Hmmm...my memory is stretched trying to remember what I had for breakfast.

Thanks for the additional information. I don't know much about glass formulas but gold seems to make sense.

FYI:  I have replaced the first showing trying to show the blue color with another I think is better (couldn't be any worse).  The new image is on the same website http://www.fairy-lamp.com/Fairylamp/Temp/Alexandrite_Colors.html

Thanks for all your help.  Let me know when you find a matching base for this fairy lamp.  

Jim.

[KevinH]

Frank's keyboard missed a word:

... a very percentage ...

I assume this was either "a very low" or "a very high" percentage ... and I presume "high".

And was Parkinson's remark about the overall colour gradation, which is what I suspect, or was it only about a particular part, such as the fuscia or the brown?

[Frank]

Indeed high percentage. I think in particular he was talking about the dichroicism... so the chocolate edge. But the gold went throughout the metal of course.

[Jim Sapp]

Hi everyone,

Thanks again for all your help.  Thanks to you I was able to put together a short article for the Fairy Lamp Club Newsletter.  Since I made reference to your comments, I thought it only proper that I give you a preview of the article for your review and comment.  Please let me know if I left something out or made a mistake.  

The article is at http://www.fairy-lamp.com/Fairylamp/Alexandrite_Article.html

[KevinH]

Jim,

Just one probable typo for you, at the start of the article ...

At first, I did appreciate the significance of this "rather plain" fairy lamp.

From the context, I think you meant

At first, I did not appreciate ...

[Bernard C]

Jim — At the Cambridge Glass Fair on February 18, 2007, there was a tiny (about 3½") Alexandrite posy vase on display, at least until it sold.   All the colours were exactly as described above, and it weighed very little.

This was of bulbous shape with a very deeply crimped vertical rim.   The body had been decorated using Webb's "Ball Mould" (also known as "Old English") pattern mould, which Hajdamach dates to 1903 at the earliest, slightly later than other suggested dates for Webb's Alexandrite.

It's the first time I've knowingly seen Alexandrite apart from the plate in the 2003 exhibition, which I don't remember, and it gave me great pleasure to handle something so beautiful.

Bernard C. 

[Jim Sapp]

That sounds great!  I am not familiar with the term "Pea dip mold".  Do you know of a reference that shows what it is?

[Bernard C]

Jim — Apologies, I had given the mould the wrong name, now corrected.

Hajdamach shows it on p.433 as a diagram.   I can't find a photograph in either Hajdamach or Gulliver.

It looks like tiny split peas stuck on to the surface, more spaced out than a "Pea" mould.   You would get a similar effect if the glass was blown into a mould with small circular holes in it.

Bernard C. 

[Bernard C]

Jim — Apologies again.   I had made the unwarranted assumption that the pattern mould was a one-piece dip mould.   It may have been, but also it may have been a three-sided opening mould.   I've found nothing in the published literature on this aspect of these pattern moulds, and my own limited experience here in England and on Murano has been solely of one-piece rib moulds, which I have seen in use on several occasions.

The error has now been corrected in maroon to highlight it.

Bernard C.