Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: Littleblackhen on September 30, 2008, 08:51:07 PM
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I bought this decanter from a boot sale last week, and I was wondering if it might be Bimini?
I haven't been able to find anything exactly like it.
Does anyone have any idea of a maker, please?
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I have done a bit more research, and I am now wondering if this may have come from Lauscha? Is anyone familiar with this style?
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On this thread http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,23419.0.html (http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,23419.0.html) , Ivo said he thought yours might be Italian, scroll to the end
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Thanks, I had missed that :thup:
I haven't really seen anything quite like it to give me any clues to where it was made. I also am really curious as to how it was made, that is, did they make the grapes first and then blow the decanter around them, or did they make the decanter and then make the grapes through the hole in the bottom?
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A question for Adam I think
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Can I have a guess, and Adam can tell me if I'm right?
It looks to me like the grapes and their pedestal were made separately. The big bubble was opened on the bottom while still on the blowpipe. The grapes were put on a punty of some type and held into position in the bubble while the bottom was closed around the base.
It's hard to see what the bottom looks like from the photos, but that's my guess.
Haven't seen Adam around much for a while.
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I think the grapes have to have been worked on seperately as you say, it would have been almost impossible to do from the outside, especially the leaf at the top. The bunch of grapes reminds me very much of the thin walled glass christmas ornaments, which is why I was thinking of Lauscha.
It is hard to see in the photos, but there is a hole in the base of the decanter, so the grapes form part of the base, with the hole being the inside of the grapes, rather than them being a separate piece added on - it is hard to describe too!
The technique you describe would work, but there is no sign of a join between the grapes and the base, it really looks as though it was made in one piece. You have made me consider whether the grapes and base were made together, then the walls of the decanter joined onto the base. That would be more plausible looking at it.
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I think it was done by inverting the bubble over the grapes, a variation to the techniques used for funnel flashing illustrated here http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,1247.msg7855.html#msg7855
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Frank, do you mean from the bottom or the top?
I may not have made myself clear before. This sounds like how I imagined it: "You have made me consider whether the grapes and base were made together, then the walls of the decanter joined onto the base".
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It would have to be from the bottom. Frank, did you mean the second image of funnel flashing?
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:spls:
I have seen fancy bottles very like your grape one, filled with various expensive spirits, for sale in London city airport.
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Neither exactly but that would be a possible approach to encasing the pre-made grapes. Note there is no external seam.
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Mmm...I do agree with Sue. It has the look of a modern novelty decanter/bottle that would've been sold with spirits inside. I'm only brave enough to say that now Sue's said something. ;)
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:-[
That would quite probably fit in with the Italian-made suggestion, wouldn't it?
I did study the bottles in the airport as well as I could through the packaging - it was glass after all, wasn't it? - got me the unwanted attention of the sales person though, who couldn't work out what I was doing. :spls:
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Lol, just as well I didn't advertise it for sale as Bimini then :D
I wonder if there are examples of them anywhere on the web?
The stopper is cork, which I wouldn't have expected from a modern decanter, I would have thought it would be plastic nowadays? Maybe it is part of the upmarket image if they are expensive spirits. Could be worse, it could have been cheap spirits ;D
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"Note there is no external seam."
I'm thinking the seam is just under the edge of the foot of the grape part, and that the edges of the large bubble were folded under there and attached (see bad drawing, blame it on my mouse). It's very hard to see from the photos, though. The bottom would have had to be open to allow air to escape from the grapes as it was cooling.
If the grapes were put in through the top that would mean a lot of glass to close in to make such a long, narrow neck.
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I think you have got it Kristi, that looks as though it would work. There is a thicker bit of glass around the edge of the base, so I would guess that is where they were joined.
This has been quite fun and educational too :)
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Sorry not to have looked at this closer before, but the grapes inside are very reminiscent of a small decanter my parents brought back from a trip to Croatia a few years back. It was full of a very nice banana liqueur, had a small cork stopper and had a tag attached which said
Hand-made by Elvis Drandic, Bale-Valle, Istra, Croatia
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:-[
I should have said that it was the fact that there is a "hole" at the base of the grapes which was ringing bells about the fancy spirit bottles I was looking at. They were quite complex - some even had different colours of glass in the insidey bit. I'm not suggesting it's "tacky", it could be reused to a nice decorative effect.
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Forgot to say that the coloured part in my pic is the (unconsumed) contents not the glass! :P
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Hi Anne
There is a distinct similarity between the two, so mine is probably the same type of thing. I have googled Elvis Drandic, but no sign of him on the web, which is a shame, it would be interesting to see his other work.
It has been fascinating to be part of such a good discussion about it's origins, some people have said they worried about posting that it might be a recent and lower status object, but I prefer the truth any time :)
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recent and lower status object
;D it is glass, elemental and classless. :spls: