Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => British & Irish Glass => Topic started by: peejyweejy on January 21, 2010, 05:52:53 PM
-
I think this bowl is Bagley and on first appearance it looks clear. However, when you hold it to the ligh it has an icy blue tinge all over. Is this a particular colour or technique?
Thanks
Peejy
-
It's Sowerby 1933 Iris vase and supposed to be that colour = powder blue
Mod: Another member has said that 1933 is the launch date, not the ID number, which is #2505
-
Thanks once again Christine - should it have a frog?
-
Frog and plinth methinks. :)
-
Thanks Anne - better start looking :huh:
-
Plinth depends on the size. Frog yes, a star-shaped one
-
Peejy — See http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,2463.0.html
Bernard C. 8)
-
Thanks for he link Bernard - very interesting :kissy:
Peejy
-
Peejy — Also see http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,21029.0.html
What size is yours? L, S or Posy?
Bernard C. 8)
-
Good morning Bernard
Mine measures 4" in height and approx 7" in diameter across the top - so I think that makes mine L - please crrect me if I'm wrong.
Peejy
-
Peejy — If it's a 3 3/8" base, the fitting size for a 2506 plinth, then it's a S2505. Larger, it's a L2505; smaller, it's a 2505 Posy. This applies whatever the shape, Celery, Iris or Lily.
3 3/8" is approximately 86mm.
Bernard C. 8)
Error in Sowerby trade catalogue No. 37 (c. 1954), Page Sixteen.
The measure should be 3¾" (95mm), confirmed by measurement of a marked 2506. I suspect a transposition in the list shown in the trade catalogue.
-
Bernard - the base on mine measures 90mm or 3 4/8 - is this the L or is my tape measure wrong? :huh:
Peejy
-
Peejy — Yours is a S2505 Iris. See my corrections above. You tend to assume that trade catalogues get it right!!
Bernard C. 8)
-
Many thanks Bernard.
Peejy
-
Peejy,
Sowerbys blue was very pale by most standards but not as pale as your picture suggests. Cobalt blue is one of the easiest colours to control and therefore yours (if the photo colour is reasonably accurate) looks as if it was made during a traumatic few days in about 1955. Someone had persuaded us to try a suspiciously cheap (with hindsight!) source of arsenic, of which we used a lot. Our continuous tank furnace which normally produced colourless glass suddenly started giving blue. It was a day or two before we found out that the arsenic contained a lot of cobalt. The nature of this type of furnace is such that it was a further few days after changing back to our normal, purer arsenic that the colour finally ran clear. During the period when pale, paler etc blue was coming out we made a lot of stuff which didn't need to match anything (i.e. no trinket set etc. parts) such as your vase. I can't remember whether there was a lot of price cutting done or perhaps our sales reps dropped hints about possible future collectors' items!!
Bernard - belated apologies if there was a catalogue error. I'm almost certain I proof read that one! In a small firm like Sowerbys we all had a go at whatever needed doing.
Adam D.
-
Hi Adam
How interesting - the colour in my pictures is quite accurate. In some light it barely looks blue atall. Ooooo so I may have a one off? Probably not much chance of finding the frog/holder. Thanks so much for letting me know!
Peejy
-
Adam, that is interesting, thank you. I have a very pale ice blue 2505 vase as well:
http://yobunny.org.uk/gallery1/displayimage.php?pos=-143 which looks bluer here against the white than it does normally. It's definitely paler than the 2631 fruit set bowls, but a pretty close match to the pintray and candlesticks from the butterfly trinket set.
-
Anne - Just as we didn't make anything which needed to match from the flint (i.e. supposedly colourless) tank during the crisis we certainly wouldn't be trying to match any butterfly stuff made in the normal way from pots with the dodgy, variable, accidental blue from the tank! Although, as I said, cobalt blue of any depth of colour must be one of the easiest colours to control (given non-cut-price raw materials and decent lab-type balances - Sowerby blue used, I think, 4 grams of cobalt oxide per 1000 lbs of sand) the appearance of very pale colours can depend hugely on the shape and texture of the article concerned, which I'm sure you know already. One could always cut lumps from the articles and grind and polish them to the same size for comparison but the owners might not appreciate that approach.
Peejy - I am certain that no attempt was made to make matching holders for dodgy blue vases. I'm afraid it will have to be colouless or normal blue!
Adam D.
-
Thanks Adam - I am quite attached to my dodgy blue vase now :thup: