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Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: Gilead on May 09, 2008, 11:15:54 PM

Title: Flint Decanter ? ( ID help )
Post by: Gilead on May 09, 2008, 11:15:54 PM
hello fellow members.
                              Well have made the move and managed to pop my head in the local charity shop and picked up this decanter for a whopping £1, wonder if any one can help me id it please, the decanter stands 8incs with out the stopper and 10incs with it, the pontil is polished the stopper as a controlled bubble in it, i think flint is the proper name of the colour? and not clear :huh: have still got to unpack the glass i collected before the move and plan to have a big car boot blow put once i have sorted what to keep. cheers all.
                                                                                                                                                              Steve
Title: Re: Flint Decanter ? ( ID help )
Post by: Della on May 10, 2008, 12:12:56 AM

Hi Steve,

Colourless  ;D (aimed at a certain person!  :P you know who you are  ;D ).  ::) :-[
Title: Re: Flint Decanter ? ( ID help )
Post by: Ivo on May 10, 2008, 05:13:55 AM
it is clear glass. Flint is not a colour (except with Whitefriar's collectors it seems) but a specific type of crystal, esp. in the Americas - just search the board for a very recent discussion on Flint.
Title: Re: Flint Decanter ? ( ID help )
Post by: krsilber on May 10, 2008, 07:30:04 PM
I couldn't find a very recent (within the last 90 days) discussion about flint, but this old one suggests the use of the word has been pretty variable
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,1773.0.html

Still, it seems to usually refer to colorless lead glass.  If your decanter has lead in it, I'd think that flint is an acceptable term (for hundreds of years it hasn't been literally accurate anyway).

Title: Re: Flint Decanter ? ( ID help )
Post by: Gilead on May 10, 2008, 08:22:32 PM
Cheers krsilber
                      it's got no lead in it well at least i dont think so, clear we will call it any idia whom the maker may be at first i thought WF, but no. so could it be polish ?
Title: Re: Flint Decanter ? ( ID help )
Post by: Ivo on May 10, 2008, 08:23:48 PM
I beg your pardon we are NOT going to replace the word crystal with a misunderstood americanism like "flint".   
Title: Re: Flint Decanter ? ( ID help )
Post by: krsilber on May 11, 2008, 12:47:27 AM
Americanism!?  The English have been using it far longer than we have, and according to Bernard, "Sowerby, Davidson, Jobling and Bagley all used the term "flint" around the 1930s to '60s to describe standard uncoloured glass."  The only context Americans use it now is in early lead EAPG.

I wasn't advocating using the term anyway.   

So "clear" is the word you use for colorless glass?
Title: Re: Flint Decanter ? ( ID help )
Post by: Frank on May 11, 2008, 10:57:07 AM
Owens used flint to describe uncoloured non lead glass too. Personally, I like having a variety of terms to cover the same things in different contexts and it helps keep alive the different ways that words have been applied. Which in turn helps to make sense of older texts.

In 1999 Raymond Notley published Pressed Flint Glass (ISBN: 0852637829) in the UK.
Bibliography entry (http://www.glass-study.com/cms/index.php?option=com_jombib&task=showbib&id=1487)
Title: Re: Flint Decanter ? ( ID help )
Post by: Frank on July 11, 2008, 05:36:36 PM
See http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,10321.msg124233.html#msg124233 re origin of Flint glass use.
Title: Re: Flint Decanter ? ( ID help )
Post by: johnphilip on July 11, 2008, 06:03:01 PM
OH lets not all have another big row over trivia,next we will all be carrying knives.  BORING.
Title: Re: Flint Decanter ? ( ID help )
Post by: Frank on July 11, 2008, 06:09:10 PM
Hardly, see my comment here http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,1773.msg124236.html#msg124236

Just updating these threads with what is probably the most recent serious research on the subject.
Title: Re: Flint Decanter ? ( ID help )
Post by: krsilber on July 11, 2008, 07:19:20 PM
Trivia?!  Isn't it absolutely vital to know who dunnit first, and who gets the big booby prize? ;) ;) ;D ;D  (Where's my machete?)
Title: Re: Flint Decanter ? ( ID help )
Post by: Glen on July 11, 2008, 07:22:39 PM
So "clear" is the word you use for colorless glass?

Does this imply that Americans would not use the word "clear" for colourless glass, or have I misunderstood you, Kristi?
Title: Re: Flint Decanter ? ( ID help )
Post by: krsilber on July 11, 2008, 07:59:05 PM
Boy, that post is old!  I figured that out long ago, and changed my mind about the use of "clear."

In the glass circles I've been a part of, colorless glass is called crystal.  I think it probably started with Depression-era companies using the name for that "color" of their glass.  All my Depression and Elegant glass books use it (and I have at least 20 of them; used to be into Elegant glass). 

Sometimes "clear" is used in the US, especially when talking about something like cased glass (e.g. "cut-to-clear").  I like clear better.  I used to have a problem with it because it seems like something can be clear and colored.  Shorter than "colorless" though (and shorter yet than "colourless"!).
Title: Re: Flint Decanter ? ( ID help )
Post by: Glen on July 11, 2008, 08:01:50 PM
Kristi, thank you for replying. You may or may not realise that Carnival Glass is my forte. Carnival collectors routinely refer to a colourless base glass as "clear" - and that of course includes the biggest group of Carnival collectors, who are the Americans.
Title: Re: Flint Decanter ? ( ID help )
Post by: Frank on July 11, 2008, 08:43:44 PM
Before 1670 clear and white glass was mentioned, clear was green glass and white was colourless  ;D
Title: Re: Flint Decanter ? ( ID help )
Post by: krsilber on July 11, 2008, 10:33:44 PM
"White" for colorless glass has been used much more recently than that.  It was common in ABP, for one.  And Cathy was saying that her (Aussie) mum called colorless glass, white.  That's pretty interesting about the green glass, though.

I don't know nuthin about Carnival glass, so I'm not surprised I didn't know that.  "Clear" for colorless is probably used a lot more in the US than I'm conscious of, it's just that I was for so long into the Elegant glass thang, I got caught up in that terminology.