Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass Paperweights => Topic started by: Baked_Beans on November 25, 2015, 03:11:38 PM
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This paperweight has a polished pontil mark , 2 3/4 inches in diameter and 2 inches tall. Black ground quite a bit of wear to base. Some interesting-looking canes . Would much appreciate an idea of age & maker. Thanks for having a look, ta Mike.
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Some more photos.......
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It is a spoked weight made by Strathearn Glass in Crieff, Scotland. They opened in 1963 and closed in 1980 and were owned by Teachers whisky but made weights by the lorry load for the tourist trade so there are loads and loads around. Go into Ebay and in the search box at the top of the page type in paperweight strathearn and see how many appear.
They made some better quality weights but these do not seem to come up for sale often and these can fetch good money.
A guy called Richard More has set up a fantastic website showing virtually all the various weights and it is well worth a look so go into the Smugmug website and search for Strathearn
Hope al this helps
Dave
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Thanks very much Dave,
Would you have an idea of age between 1963 & 1980 ? I will have a look at the website you mentioned.
Cheers, Mike
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Hi Mike
It sometimes hard to tell the age of these weights as they made the same designs over almost the whole time they were in operation but I would guess this is 1970's rather than 60's
Dave
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But ... it could very easily be Vasart Ltd (1956 - 1964)!
The unevenly ground out base would fit for being pre-Strathearn. The twist canes are of the "chunky" style seen in lots of Strathearn weights, but the blue tinge to those twists could suggest an earlier period.
(Does Anyone have a signed or labelled Strathearn weight that has the blue-tinged twist canes?)
Most (I won't be brave enough today to say "all") of the millefiori canes are early Ysart (i.e. from the 1946 - 1954 period or maybe even pre-war.) However, early Ysart canes were used in all of the Vasart / Strathearn periods right up to 1980.
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Thanks Guys,
I did find this cane which looks very similar.........
https://strathearn.smugmug.com/StrathearnVasart-Ysart-canes/1946-to-1955-Ysart-Vasart/i-3vG5ndJ
Cheers, Mike
p.s. The twist canes have a definite blue tinge not white !
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Hi. I would vote for Vasart rather than Strathearn, especially with the ground base... but it is an inexact science!
Alan
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Thanks Alan,
I've been reading as much on-line info. as I can and came across this wonderful website. There is a paperweight here with blue tint twist canes very similar to this example to the bottom right (same size also , this one being more like 2 1/8 inches tall having remeasured it ! ) . It mentions a blue florescence under UV but on mine it only applies to any blue that is present in some of the canes ;) I liked reading about Michael Parkington too !
http://www.ysartglass.com/Vascat/VasPV001.htm
Ta, Mike
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Hi Mike. It is a useful site - I think several of us here on GMB (especially KevH) have contributed images to it in the past.
Alan
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That blue-tint twist cane weight on the Ysart Glass site is one of mine. I class it as Vasart Ltd, rather than Strathearn because of the lesser visual quality and a rough ground base.
The Blue fluorescence is the reaction under shortwave uv not standard longwave uv ("blacklight" type). The longwave reaction is Green (or Yellow-green). Those reaction colours are standard for the vast majority of Vasart Ltd and Strathearn weights.
The Blue reaction under shortwave is the only way I know to confirm the separation of weights between a) Ysart Brothers period (& pre-war) and b) Vasart Ltd + Strathearn.
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Thanks Kev & Alan,
There is some green reaction in the clear dome with longwave UV but none of the canes are showing any reaction. Thanks for the explanation and for narrowing down the date for this weight, it really does look like it was made sometime between 1956 to 64 from what you say.
What I really like about this weight is the variety of canes , when I first saw it I thought 1960's because of the orange and yellow and multitude of other colours. They had a great imagination in coming up with a seemingly endless number of interesting cane designs. :)
Cheers, Mike
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There is some green reaction in the clear dome with longwave UV but none of the canes are showing any reaction.
In general, coloured elements (including white) that are encased in the clear dome will not show any uv reaction.
Occasionally an older "Ysart" cane with a clear, soda glass centre will be found in a weight for which the dome shows no obvious uv reaction. In those cases the centre of the cane can stand out with a bright green uv reaction within the non-reacting dome!
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Thanks Kevin,
What would the reaction be for the clear dome, under shortwave UV for this weight ? Is it blue ? Are you saying that older pre-war weights don't have this reaction under longwave (green) or shortwave (blue) ? Later ones , including Strathearn , do ?
I understand about the clear soda elements to the canes , as you mentioned above .
I'm just a bit confused about the dome bit ::)
Sorry about this ......I didn't know about shortwave UV until now !! ...and what the significance of this test is for pre-war weights ;)
Ta, Mike
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What would the reaction be for the clear dome, under shortwave UV for this weight ? Is it blue ?
Which weight are you asking about? I guess it is the one that you started this thread with, but, if so, without checking it, I couldn't possibly say what its shortwave uv reaction would be! I suspect it would be the same as my example - Blue - as stated in the Ysart Glass web page. But it might not be!!
Are you saying that older pre-war weights don't have this reaction under longwave (green) or shortwave (blue) ? Later ones , including Strathearn , do ?
My distinction was not simply between pre-war / post-war weights.
The periods under consideration are:
1) Pre-war Ysart 1930s
2) Ysart Brothers Glass (trading as Vasart) 1946-1956
3) Vasart Ltd 1956 - 1964
4) Strathearn 1964 - 1980
The glass batch for 1) and 2) was soda-based (i.e. not a lead glass), with normal UV reactions of:
longwave = Green, shortwave = Grey (to my eyes)
The glass batch for 3) and 4) was lead-based, with normal UV reactions of:
longwave = Green, shortwave = Blue
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You can also get canes in Vasart weights with very pale green/yellow (i.e., uranium) that glow bright green under UV
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Thanks Kevin & Christine ,
I fully understand now and I was referring to the weight which started this thread (with regard to the shortwave UV reaction).
This really does elevate glass sleuthing to a forensic science :D
I will try to invest in a shortwave UV device ...I've got the Ysart bug now ...caught from a paperweight !!
Cheers, Mike
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Welcome to the club - beware the Ysart bug - it will empty your wallet!! ;D
I'm glad you "fully understand" - I have to read it about 5 times and then still get confused with the long / shortwave UV reaction for different ages of the glass ::) ......I try to stay away from weights and stick with the Ysart glass ware. :D
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Hi. If you really want to get confused, read some of the scientific papers of Professor Waldemar Weyl of Penn State University, who showed that the UV fluorescence is affected by (amongst many other things) how the glass is heated in the glory hole, and how it is subsequently annealed. So there is the possibility of variations in results between pieces, between workers, and between different days of production. The fluorescence test is good for telling you whether something is lead glass, and has its uses for other broad differences...but it is a far from precise or analytic tool when employed using cheap uv lights outside a research laboratory.
Alan
Alan
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:o
Thanks Roberta & Alan.........
I 'fully understand' that it's a grey area now ! ;) :-X....especially if made from soda glass ! :)
I guess a rule of thumb would be if it comes up blue under shortwave UV then it's a lead based glass ...
Cheers, Mike