Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: Leni on June 10, 2008, 04:27:23 PM
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I found this tiny salt in a charity shop in Chester - it was about the only bit of glass I saw other than old Pyrex casseroles and pint glasses 'liberated' from pubs! ::)
It's quite sharp cutting, and it shines like a diamond in the sun! It's just 2 and a half inches long (6.4cm) by 2 inches wide (5 cm) and an inch deep (2.5cm) Anyone any ideas of a maker? Or even just the age? I think it's quite old because the cutting is sharp, not rounded.
I'm sorry I'm still no good at taking pics of cut glass :-[ I've tried in bright sunlight against white, but I'm afraid this is the best I can do.
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Leni — Is it a pressed blank? ... and was it hand-polished?
If so, most likely Sowerby from a pre-TM mould or Manchester. It's not in Sowerby pattern book XI, 2nd edition (miniature), c.Jan 1888.
Bernard C. 8)
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How would you tell a pressed blank, Bernard? I've looked at it under magnification and I can't see mould lines anywhere. What should I be looking for?
And again, how would I tell if it was hand polished? It has the very sharp edges, which I always associate with old cut glass and the cutting, although it's very pretty, is a little bit uneven in places.
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I've taken and enlarged a picture of the cutting on the end. While the sides are a classic hobnail and 'check' pattern the end have sort of ovals and diamonds, the middle line of which is 'hatched' with horizontal lines. (I wish I knew the correct names for these patterns! perhaps some kind person could enlighten me? ::) )
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How would you tell a pressed blank, Bernard? I've looked at it under magnification and I can't see mould lines anywhere. What should I be looking for? ...
Mould lines can disappear under cutting, Leni, so in their absence first check the outside (rim, sides and base) for surfaces that would be difficult or impossible to cut. Then check the inside, thinking how it was formed. It was either a bubble, manipulated from outside, either by hand or by a shape mould, or the shape of the plunger. If you see nice flat surfaces meeting at a constant angle, then it's almost certainly pressed, and you're looking at the shape of the plunger.
An example of how difficult it can be is the PV cruet bottle shown on p.50 of Thompson. It took me several months to work out how it was made, and only then after noticing that the inside base was perfectly flat! That cruet bottle is pressed glass, with the main decoration pressed. It was moulded with a long tube continuing above the main body, which was then re-shaped by hand to form the neck and rim, with hand-polished flake cuts to the neck. The gadget mark to the base was removed by the leveller.
... how would I tell if it was hand polished? ...
Look for the lovely faint striations of the cutting wheel on the cut surfaces. These marks, which add further sparkle to the piece, disappear with acid polishing, leaving the outcome looking rather dull by comparison. Sadly the relative costs of a quick dunk in an acid bath and laborious hand-polishing resulted in hand-polishing almost completely disappearing during the second quarter of the last century. Firms like Walsh refused to drop their standards, and so were priced out of existence. I'm sure that hand-polishing is still available, but it would be expensive.
See Christine's recent topic here (http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,21533.0.html).
Bernard C. 8)
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Oh dear :-[ I can be terribly unobservant! ::) Please put it down to my age :-[ I have been thinking of this salt as rectagonal, whereas it is clearly a squashed octagon, as can be seen in the picture of the base. Sorry to be 'thick' :-\
I have looked at it with my loupe and now think it is clearly a moulded blank.
Thank you very much for your help in educating me, Bernard! :kissy: