Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: sunshine2 on July 18, 2005, 05:16:23 PM
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I acquired this beautiful vase in a shop some time ago and have been unable to ID it. I took it to the "Antiques Roadshow" taping in Houston this last Saturday, and while 3 appraisers were excited to see it, none had any idea as to it's origin. The overlay exterior is sterling, although it is not marked as such. The glass windows are etched, the cream colored interior (porcelain?) was apparently poured through a hole in the bottom of the vase. The bottom was then covered with a clear glass wafer base. The only marking on this item is the number "115" etched on the bottom. It is in wonderful condition with only some of the poured interior in the ruffle slightly pulling away from the glass. I love it and would really appreciate any input about it's possible origin. Thank you for any answers! :o
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Is it glass in a silver holder or glass with a coating of silver?
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Could we see a picture of the bottom?
Is it marked Sterling? If so, where.
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I can't tell you how happy I was to sign on here today and see a couple of replies to my query! Thanks so much for taking the time! The bottom of the vase is covered in clear glass. Everyone that I've shown it to says that the outside is sterling overlay. Indeed it tarnishes like silver and polishes like silver. Oddly, it is not marked at all besides the number 115 on the bottom. The cream colored poured material shows only on the inside and bottom. It weighs nearly a lb. Perhaps the vase was a prototype that never went into production. Must have been a very labor intensive process! I may never discover the history of my vase, but I will certainly welcome any and all thoughts. Thanks so much!
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I seem to recall that there was a US compant applied silver decoration to vases made by others and maybe they did the engraving too. Sure it has been mentioned before too.
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:D It is lovely, it is mysterious, and I've not got a clue about it, sorry! All I can say is I don't think anything has been "poured" into it to make it.
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I don't think that Sunshine is going to like my answer :( But the minute I saw that white enamel? interior it made me think of a vase I have in my shop
http://www.grayhorseglass.com/items/357631/item357631store.html#item
That is the reason I asked if the piece was marked Sterling. Sunshine's piece is much more technically complicated but the white interior in silver just struck me as similar.
The quality of my little piece is quite good for something that was probably very inexpensive.
This may be a red herring but it is all I have to offer :oops:
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I submitted a (pretty tedious) reply earlier, but it's not showing up. Perhaps it was too tedious! Anyway, I do appreciate the thoughts expressed here. I've surely enjoyed sharing this interesting piece. I will love it no matter what. Just to add a couple of things, I know how difficult it must be to adequately judge an unmarked item via pictures and descriptions that lack clarity. There's nothing like being able to hold the item in your hands and inspect it in person! In answer to a question, the cream colored material is sandwiched between the clear glass body and the silver coating. There are no seams anywhere, but I can feel a very slight ridge under the silver, where the base of the vase was added at the wafer. The glass body was apparently blown. Those who have seen the vase surmise that the cream material was "poured" because of the hole in the bottom. I can look into this hole and see the bottom of the vase body as well as a space between the body and the cream material on the bottom (which is covered with glass that has a slight, smooth pontil indentation). It looks like a process similar to the making of the old mercury glass vases...except that the silver is on the outside here...and no cork. I get the feeling that the cream material was once fluid, since it has shrunk a bit and pulled away slightly from (under) the clear glass in a few places on the ruffle. http://tinypic.com/9i5moo.jpg
The vase may indeed have been a collaboration between two or more companies. The "Antiques Roadshow" appraisers thought that it was American, anywhere from turn of the century to the 1920's, valued it at from $400-600...I suppose simply due to the rarity and quality of workmanship. Since we have a large German influence in this area of Texas, I am surely open to the idea that it may have an origin other than the USA. I thank everyone for your time and for looking at my vase! If I do happen to discover a definitive history for this lovely curiosity elsewhere, I will post it here for those who may be interested. Thanks again!....Judy
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Hi Judy
Thanks for a very complete reply - far from tedious. Indeed the mystery deepens.
I can't comment on the base/foot or "hole"
But concentrating on the body and on the layers my thoughts were :
Gather of clear, then cream, then silvered, then masked and cut back to clear in the windows.
At some point I guess it was blown into a mold and the foot attached but my brain can't get round when those operations might have been done. The more I try to think about it the more complex it becomes.
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I'm afraid that I have left more than a few folks scratching their heads over this one. I have collected glass for as long as I can remember, ever since discovering a piece of nile green Greentown in my grandmother's cellar when I was 8 yrs old. I didn't know then what it was, but she let me take the sauce dish home as a keepsake from her mother. The intricacy and feel of it fascinated me, and I was hooked for life! http://tinypic.com/9km98j.jpg
My dad was a B-17 radio operator, flew 25 WWII missions out of Horham, England, and I was a result of his homecoming. A roundabout way of giving my age away while also showing an appreciation for my family connection to "over there". I now have a LOT of glass, many reference books and an enduring interest in the subject. I am so pleased to have found this site and hope to learn here as well as possibly contribute an answer now and then. I have a few more places to take this vase, including the annual Houston Glass Club show next month. There will be dealers attending from all over the country. I have never before seen anything close to the complexity of this silver vase...fascinating and frustrating at the same time. I suppose I'm now safe in assuming that it was not a mass-produced item! As I said, if I do discover it's origin, I will update here. Thanks all!.......Judy
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As part of our housekeeping of the threads, I've been asking people for photographs to replace tinypics which have vanished. Most of the time, I get a polite reply stating that the photographs, and often the items themselves, are long gone.
Not so this time. Judy has replied with a lovely letter, explaining how she took this vase with her when they evacuated from Hurricane Rita in 2005, and again when they fled Ike. Attached were four of her original photographs, and yes, she'd still like to know more about its origins.
Now that the photographs have been restored to the thread, does anyone recognise this vase? Is it what they call Mercury Glass, and does anyone have more information about it than Martha Stewart (http://www.marthastewart.com/article/mercury-glass)?
Thanks!
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Two hurricanes and she didn't lose the pictures! Wow, that's some good management! :hiclp: :hiclp: :hiclp:
Carolyn
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Is it what they call Mercury Glass ...
No, it is not what is called "Mercury Glass" (aka "Silvered Glass"). Judy's earlier description confirmed that the silver was on the outside, and that it tarnished and polished up like nornal silver. The old "Mercury Glass" had clear glass on the outside with a "silvering substance" poured into the recess of the double-walled form of the object.
As well as the Martha Stewart article linked to above, there is some basic info on Mercury Glass at: http://www.glassencyclopedia.com/mercuryglass.html
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Looks to me like it's cased clear on the inside, and white on the outside. The window was etched through to the white, then polished and cut. Then the silver overlay was applied. That's my guess. It's a beautiful piece. I wonder who made it.
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Kristi, please forgive my pedanticism on this one, but "cased clear on the inside" does not make sense as "cased" implies a coating over another, and the inside part would surely be simply a clear gather - unless it started with a non-clear gather, of course!
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I suppose I should have said "cased: clear on the inside and white on the outside." One method of casing adds the inner layer to the outer, already-formed bubble, but I don't know what was done here.
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I SO appreciate all the interest and input regarding my vase! I may never know the exact origin, but I did receive a reply to a recent email that I sent to the curator of the Corning Glass Museum in Corning, New York. I would like to share her opinion with anyone still looking in on this thread.
Quote: The pictures of your handsome silver overlay vase have been referred to me for a reply. We have a somewhat similar piece which was a gift in 1984, and was catalogued as French or possibly Bohemian, about 1880-1910. I think yours is mostly likely to be European as well as it is certainly unlike any American silver glass in our collection. Ours also has a number on the base and we usually assume that that is either the decorator’s number (a common thing in Bohemian glass) or a pattern or shape number. If there’s any mark on American pieces, it’s usually on the silver and identifies the decorating company which finished the piece.
I hope that you find this opinion of interest.
Jane Shadel Spillman
Curator of American Glass
The Corning Museum of Glass
Well, I am certainly fine with that! I've not been able to associate this piece with any company in America and would be quite thrilled with a French or Bohemian vase. Regardless of the pedigree, I will continue to love it!
Oh, to Carolyn on saving the pictures....they were in the computer, and I took it too... ;) :) ;D
Judy
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Well, that's good information to have! My money's on French if it's between French and Bohemian. It's a stunning piece, and quite unusual.
Jane Spillman is really helpful. She's the curator of American glass at CMOG, but she seems to answer every question that goes to Corning, regardless of the glass origin.
Probably the most exciting day of my life glass-wise was one on which I attended a meeting of the NE chapter of the American Cut Glass Assoc. that was hosted by Jane Spillman. I was there as a guest of a member, and planned a whole road trip around the event. Before going to her house there was a lecture at CMOG by an engraver, and afterwards we all went out to dinner.
Many folks on this board are used to hobnobbing with famous glass authors, if they aren't authors themselves. I hadn't ever even talked in person to another glass enthusiast before this trip. I also was VERY fortunate to be allowed to visit the house of a couple who have written many glass books but who are somewhat reclusive. I had been a fan of theirs since my earliest glass days, so it was a real treat. And they took me out to dinner!
Sorry, that's all a big off-topic aside. Your note just reminded me of the trip.
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What a great story, Kristi! Thanks for sharing it!! Glass folks everywhere are the best!!!
Judy