Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => Murano & Italy Glass => Topic started by: horochar on June 19, 2008, 12:06:09 PM
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Does anyone know the maker and vintage? The piece has a polished base. I'm assuming it is vintage Murano (1960s), based on style and quality, but I've seen nothing like it in my limited reference library.
Any help would be appreciated.
Charles.
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I'd tend to start looking at Maastricht and Verboeket before I looked at Murano. That's an immediate and totally uninformed hunch, but there you have it. Anybody more familiar with Maastricht than I am (i.e. Ivo)?
David
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yes quite familiar with Maastricht here - but this does not look like Verboeket at all. I'd think Belgium or Canada (Chalet) but I would not bet a Euro on it.
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Don't think it's Chalet, which are invariably marked, so Belgian?
David
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Most Chalet is marked, although some is not. This piece has some age to it; my sense is circa 1960s. For what it's worth, the piece is well-made, does not have a "cheap" feel to it.
Maybe it's something good, maybe not. Hope springs eternal.
Charles.
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I think this could be a J.I. Co Murano piece. They made lots of styles, including baskets like this, with the green stripes (and sometimes other colors) along the ribs.
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Charles:
What does the vase look from the side? i.e. how are the handles made?
Shannon knows JI far better than I do so it must be a thought. However, that green doesn't look right for JI (or Murano or Chalet), and I haven't seen anything quite like it in any catalogue. Neither does it look like the Chalet baskets I've seen, again wrong colour, too restrained, and the foot doesn't look right.
David
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I own some "generic" pieces that appear on that fine and informative J.I. Co website. It's great to know who imported them, but it would be better yet to know who produced them. Maybe it's an unsolved mystery like the Irice company, which was the subject of a previous post of mine about a year ago. In any case, below is a photo of the side of the vase, as requested.
Thanks,
Charles.
P.S. - mystery solved (perhaps): http://www.fossilfly.com/Forums/showthread.php?p=4440 (http://www.fossilfly.com/Forums/showthread.php?p=4440) and http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-VENETIAN-Murano-ART-GLASS-Bowl-J-I-Co-ITALY_W0QQitemZ370062149101QQihZ024QQcategoryZ994QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem (http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-VENETIAN-Murano-ART-GLASS-Bowl-J-I-Co-ITALY_W0QQitemZ370062149101QQihZ024QQcategoryZ994QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem). Check out this bird dish and basket vase, and note the opalescence and green lines near base. Which begs the question, just who made these pieces? Importers do not blow glass.
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It does look like a quality piece! Is it partly opalescent? With the touch of browny red at the bottom it look almost Czech, but again the green looks wrong.
It looks too nice for Chalet (Chalet did make some good stuff, IMO, but not baskets), or for JI (although Shannon has shown us some decent JI pieces).
David
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I'm not entirely sure, but I do think there's a good chance it's a J.I. import. Let me show you a couple more J.I. pieces that have similarities.
Somewhat similar form:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v50/shandiane78/889e_12.jpg)
Opalescence with green stripes:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v50/shandiane78/adf1_3.jpg)
They did the green stripe thing a lot, on lots of different kinds of pieces.
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I'd call the green in Shannon's basket the typical Murano green of the period, whereas the green in the piece from Charles I've seen more in Maastricht and Kosta. The handle is somewhat similar but the foot is different, I think. And, OK, twist my arm and I'll say that the JI basket isn't too bad looking.
David
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OK, so the basket I posted isn't actually anything like Charles'. It is nice though, isn't it? 8) The molded foot on Charles' piece is also very much like many of the J.I. pieces I've seen. I swear I've seen this particular form for before, but I must not have saved a photo. Wish I could find it again...
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I'm convinced it's Jordan Importing (J.I.) based on the composite of these postings, and especially pictures from the J.I. website, some pieces of which I own and which compare favorably to the basket in terms of production quality. This however leaves unanswered the question of "who or what is J.I.?" Information from the net is somewhat confusing, describing the company as both and importer and designer of glass produced in Murano. It would be nice to know with whom they contracted (e.g., Fratelli Toso), but it seems that nobody knows.
Over the years, pieces I've seen with the J.I. label tended to be fairly mediocre and "generic" in terms of design qualities, but very good to excellent technique-wise. In my opinion.
Charles.
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Have you seen this thread? http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,16674.0.html (http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,16674.0.html)
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I know that the owner, Jack Blanco, designed much of the glass, but it's obvious that they also imported the glass of other glass houses on Murano. Definitely from Fratelli Toso (their paperweights appear in a J.I. catalog), and others I suspect as well. Many of the J.I. clowns are thought to be Seguso, and then there are some really fine items, for example:
http://www.bravurastyle.com/glass27.htm
There's a single seahorse as well, one of which recently sold on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=250253997425
These both appear in one of my J.I. catalogs, along with some fine looking glass including Venetian figurines and blackamoors, and some really pedestrian looking glass as well. The catalog seems to reveal a wide range of quality and design, which really makes one wonder...
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Hey, check it out - Javier has something similar:
http://www.trocadero.com/svazzo/items/550741/item550741.html
I don't know about the F. Toso attribution (plausible, though I've never seen proof), but I'm willing to bet it's a J.I. import.
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I'm probably way off here but could it be Flygsfors?
It has some design similarities (imho) to this one. (http://www.lauritz.com/Item/Item.aspx?LanguageId=5&ItemId=1321036&nBids=5&ReturnUrl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.lauritz.com%2fItemList%2fItemList.aspx%3fLanguageId%3d5%26DC%3d1%26CPIn%3d1%26ISz%3d0%26PSz%3d30%26PSzG%3d6%26SO%3d3%26ST%3d0%26IgId%3d36%26TTyp%3d0%26TVal%3d0%26FLId%3d5%26FCId%3d6%26FText%3d%26LLan%3dFalse%231321036EndTagRU)
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No. I have several pieces of Flygsfors (which in my opinion is undervalued in the market), and it's definitely not by them. As I've said before, I'm nearly certain it's J.I. The only remaining question is whether it was designed/made by J.I., or if it's Fratelli Toso which J.I. may have imported. Javier's attribution could very well be correct; some of these pieces are (to my eye) stylistically similar to F. Toso.
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No. I have several pieces of Flygsfors (which in my opinion is undervalued in the market)...
i agree! it's a shame because their glass is lovely and unambiguously identifiable (being that they are uniformly, permanently and legibly marked). what would murano glassies do if we didn't have to spend weeks, months or even years in research to come up with an attribution that's reasonably solid? with all that free time we might find ourselves getting into mischief. idle hands and all... >:D
bidda
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Hey! Check it out:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200235439740
P.S. I totally agree about Flygsfors glass. I bought a piece with the intent to sell, but now that I've seen it in person...Now way. It's mine. :-)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v50/shandiane78/Flyg1-1.jpg)
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super sleuthing, Shannon! the labeled piece is a very close match and i'd say it confirms your original idea that the basket in question is a JI import/product. nicely done.
bidda
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Good call, Shannon. I'd never have picked JI and there you are. Well done.
I really like your Flygsfors. Wouldn't it like a little visit north of the border?
David
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I wouldn't blame it for ditching me, at this point. ::) It's been sitting on a shelf in the laundry room since I got it. Time to make more space in the living room!
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just had to stop in and say..I have found this thread --so interesting--- and would be remiss if I did not say how much I learn from this board!
thanks to all ;D