Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass Paperweights => Topic started by: Fen on October 10, 2009, 04:12:37 PM
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Just got home from bidding on a locked cage of glass at auction. Not expensive, usually get a cage for about ten to twenty pounds, felt quite comfortable that I recognised some nice perfume bottles, then I get the cage home. Some Stuart bowls.. nice, a decanter...nice and my lovely perfume bottles. I called my husband... these aren't perfume bottles, the tops don't come off. Maybe they're paperweights, he said. Are they? There are no makers marks on them and they are very pretty. Any ID if possible would be much appreciated.
Mod: Please see resized image in next post, courtesy of Lustrousstone.
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I've resaved your pictures so they don't turn bottle garden sized
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Hee Hee, Thank you, There must be a knack to this posting pictures that I haven't quite grasped!
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I've some Mdina weights of a similar shape but that's not a colour I recognise in relation to Mdina,Keith.
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Fen, the image "knack" is to use a photo editing program to simply resize the image to 600 pixels or less on its largest side before adding to the board.
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I've some Mdina weights of a similar shape but that's not a colour I recognise in relation to Mdina, Keith.
Mdina certainly made paperweights with this shape - and I haven't seen this shape from any other studio so far. The colouring is rather unusual, however, just vaguely(!!) similar to their "Tiger" vases (page 52 in Mark Hill's book on Michael Harris), and no mention that this was used for paperweights as well. Could have been an experiment - like the (standard shape) paperweight shown on page 36: "An unusually coloured paperweight, with original paper label" - which resembles the colouring of your weight even more remotely than the Tiger vases.
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I was washing them to put on display and I found the remnants of a sticker which I have photographed, hopefully with the advice given it will be the correct size. Not much to go on, I'm afraid, needs either a good detective or an excellent memory!! Many thanks for the replies.
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Don't recognise it as a Mdina label,maybe IOW?some one will know,inc' pic' of Mdina with sticker,
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I was washing them to put on display and I found the remnants of a sticker which I have photographed, ....
Doesn't remind me of anything I have seen before, unfortunately - but a similar shaped Mdina paperweight is on sale right now - described as Tiger colourway (http://cgi.ebay.ch/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330366068378).
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Not a Mdina buff but never heard it called that(colour)before,here's mine,
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...doh..here they are...
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Keith's blue stripey one is the Tiger colourway. I wonder if the unidentified ones are Mtarfa?
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I've some Mdina weights of a similar shape but that's not a colour I recognise in relation to Mdina,Keith.
I agreed with Keith - but then I saw the pictures he posted!! My Mdina weights in this style are in a totally different colourway - will try and post pictures if this thread stays active!
I seem to recall reading somewhere that this shape was actually inspired by one of the workers who came to join Michael Harris from Whitefriars. (And it is purely personal, but I really like this shape for a paperweight - very stable, and can actually be used to hold papers in place in a draught...)
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I don't think (note the think) that this shape of paperweight is from the Michael Harris era, although the Boffos came from WF. Keith's are deffo Mdina colourways, Earthtones and Tiger, although the standard blue with silver chloride (yellow cloudy) seem to be more common for this shape. I'll poke Sue (Chopin Liszt) and get her to have a look.
NB: Last Saturday, I picked up what I thought was a very modern Mdina fish in the classic blue and yellow, only to find a Phoenician label underneath
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I don't think (note the think) that this shape of paperweight is from the Michael Harris era, although the Boffos came from WF. Keith's are deffo Mdina colourways, Earthtones and Tiger, although the standard blue with silver chloride (yellow cloudy) seem to be more common for this shape.
Keith's weights are undoubtedly Mdina colourways - though probably from the post MH era. Mine, from recollection, are the "standard blue with silver chloride" (they are packed away at present).
I have seen a signed piece of Mdina glass in a colourway very similar to that of the photographs Fen originally posted - I didn't buy it, it was an ash tray, and I cant afford to smoke, drink and buy glass.
So the problem is "could these be Mdina paperweights in an unusual colour, or could they have come from another studio in Malta, or are they from a third 'unknown' factory?"
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Is the term 'colourway' from the Mdina glassworks or is it some thing I've just never heard of(wouldn't be the first time)Keith.
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Not Mdina glassworks - just a shorthand way of referring to a set of colours used together. I haven't a clue as to where I first heard it used; I'm sure I didn't invent it!
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Colourway is certainly standard terminology in the fashion business. :)
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Oxford Dictionary of English: any of a range of combinations of colours in which a style or design is available
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Ta all,should have checked the O.E.D,as for fashion terms,don't know Gucci from gnocchi,Keith.
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And I've been known to refer to my charity shop Versace jeans (prob fake) as Visocchi jeans. Visocchi is an Ice cream parlour here!
These lovely weights are Mtarfa, quite early Mtarfa. I love this colourway, and have a nice small collection of it - it took me quite a while to identify it as Mtarfa - I don't think they marked many pieces that early on.
I reckon there is a lot of very nice Mtarfa, and Phoenecian. Two glassmaking Studios which are really part of Harris "dynasty" glass, who are as yet, seriously under-rated.