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Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: furrymischief on August 21, 2007, 09:27:04 PM

Title: Blue-green Stubby Decanter origins - uranium glass
Post by: furrymischief on August 21, 2007, 09:27:04 PM: Can someone help me identify this decanter, please? When I bought it, I imagined it to be from the 50s with its dull blue-green colour, chipped & probably corroded but OK for the kitchen once smoothed down. I was at the 3 for a pound boot stall. I like glass to use & grabbed this to make up my trio, although it really isn't my glass style. However, when I pulled it out into the daylight to show a friend, lo! I beheld fluorescence :mrgreen: despite the cloudy day & I started to like it more.

The lower part of this almost square decanter is ~3.25" x 3.5". The neck appears fixed on with a blob of glass. Every corner and angle of the base has been chamfered. The aperture is 1.5" & the diameter over the aperture is 2.5". The stopper is hexagonal & 2" in diameter. Overall it is 3" in length & hollow. The base has a polished pontil & extensive mossing. It has a sort of northern European look to me & I'm much more old English & Depression.

Although scratched now, the whole was obviously extremely smooth & highly polished. I am amazed & pleased to discover the inside is just dirty & algified. Pics taken after a superficial wash. As it fluoresces so strongly, I can't wait to show it off in the garden on a sunny day. It weighs 850g. I'd love to know of its origins.
Title: Re: Blue-green Stubby Decanter origins - uranium glass
Post by: Lustrousstone on August 22, 2007, 06:24:56 AM: It's definitely uranium glass, which probably makes it about 1930s and I would probably agree on Northern Europe - Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Germany, etc., but probably not England. Sizewise it sounds like a cologne bottle for a man's set rather than for a lady. Too small for Schnapps I think. Nice one - it could come and live at my house ;D
Title: Re: Blue-green Stubby Decanter origins - uranium glass
Post by: furrymischief on August 22, 2007, 10:53:47 AM: Thanks for that info. It is pleasing to think I got the geographical location vaguely right! It looks like something from another planet in the sun 8). I did wonder about toiletries but decided that the inch & a half wide aperture precluded that because even a man's fingers aren't so wide. Usually ;D. Hmmm. I suppose it could have been for bath stuff. Would a decanter have been made for something like that?
Title: Re: Blue-green Stubby Decanter origins - uranium glass
Post by: Lustrousstone on August 22, 2007, 02:38:25 PM: It's probably for cologne or hair oil, something poured into the palm of the hands
Title: Re: Blue-green Stubby Decanter origins - uranium glass
Post by: Ivo on August 22, 2007, 03:21:25 PM: I would not be so sure of anything. I've had an open salt in the same style of panel cutting in a matching colour which turned out to be Molyneux & Webb from the 1860s. The decanter may have been part of a cellar - a (lockable) wooden box with decanter and glasses - which explains the shape.
Title: Re: Blue-green Stubby Decanter origins - uranium glass
Post by: furrymischief on August 22, 2007, 05:16:43 PM: How interesting, Ivo. Was yours coloured with uranium?
Title: Re: Blue-green Stubby Decanter origins - uranium glass
Post by: Ivo on August 22, 2007, 05:35:51 PM: yes it looked innocuous enough but started screaming as soon as you let the UV lamp loose. VERY Uranium, and very modern looking. Unfortunately it perished in the incident - no I do not care to discuss it - and I do not even have a photograph.
Title: Re: Blue-green Stubby Decanter origins - uranium glass
Post by: furrymischief on August 22, 2007, 06:46:54 PM: Even more interesting - if not outright fascinating. You have my deepest sympathy for your loss ...