Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: Paul S. on September 05, 2010, 04:41:25 PM
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Unusual vibrant yellow bowl - not the sort of colour that makes me think Maltese - but otherwise has good characteristics of Mdina/Mtarfa pieces i.e. the flat base - the almost petal/flake shaped piece of colour, and the nature of the swirl. Very lop sided - with maximum diameter of 210mm/8.25 inches. Smallish, somewhat irregular shaped base area - unsigned - and with the sort of wear that is consistent with some of my seventies Mdina pieces. I expect you will all recognize the design immediately, so grateful if you can confirm to which source this is attributed, and as always, my thanks for looking.
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It could be, Mdina certainly made stuff with quite vibrant yellow and yellow/orange. Sue has a couple of their vases in those colours I think.
It sort of looks like the Verdala bowl shape that has gone a little wonky, size is about right too. Is it yellow only or is it yellow/green? I am assuming the 'green' is the black background you have used showing through. White is better, I know I know, nagging again. ;D
John
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thanks John - certainly is yellow/green, particularly at the thick base area. I tried snapping against white, but the results were naff - so I used the black background which seemed to give much better contrast and clarity. Look forward to hearing from Sue. I couldn't see anything similar in Mark Hill's book - so what sort of date are we looking at? cheers. :)
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If it has green as well as yellow then it is not the colourway I was thinking of.
There is a Verdala bowl (more properly ashtray) on page 47 of Mr Hill's book. Also: http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,27152.msg165172.html#msg165172
John
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John - my bowl, to be more correct, is not green as such. Rather the thicker foot area could be described as being a 'limey-yellow, and in fact depending on how you catch the light, other parts of the yellow also have a slight lime look to them. However, what I have just discovered, after looking through the piece at electric light, is........there are trails of a very pale buff/ochre colour (carrying most of the bubble trails) running around parts of the 'shelf' of the bowl - and partly up into the 90 degree sides. These buff/ochre trails are quite separated and distinct from the yellow - albeit rather indistinct, and appear to be classic Mdina colour trailing.
My bowl also has a couple of very small stones, ordinary bubbles, plus the 'bubble trails', and one or two very elongated bubbles (5mm - 20mm) within the sides.
Having read the details of your link - plus looked at your Verdala ashtray/bowl, my piece has what appears to be an identical shaped foot (although mine of course is greatly distorted) - how mine got out onto the market I really don't know.
So, my thoughts are that this yellowish/buff bowl is also early Mdina, and perhaps in view of the distortion and poor base was an experimental piece. :)
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We are going to disagree then..... ;D
It's very likely not an early colourway, the bright primary yellow stuff was later, post Harris. They carried on with the Verdala shape for a few years, like this example: http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,27152.msg188018.html#msg188018
John
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No, John, we won't disagree.......you are the expert, not me.........I will go with whatever date line you suggest. I was merely taking a little information from the book, some from your post - and then assuming it was early. Will go with '80's quite probably - but I will chance my arm and say quite possibly very uncommon in this colourway - what do you think? :)
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Expert, you must be thinking of someone else, I'm out of here.... :wsh:
Verdalas would be relatively uncommon in any colourway. ;D I am fairly sure I have seen a yellow one before (probably for sale on ebay), the Mdina yellow colourway does appear for sale less frequently.
Not sure about a date.
John
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I know where there's one for sale; been there several years now. The buff/ochre bits are the silver chloride. The yellow is a later colourway often found in hollow paperweights. The dodgy quality probably means it was on the cheap shelf in the island shop and it came home with a tourist. Mind you, Mdina is often wonky.
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Mdina is often wonky.
This is a Verdala bowl, their shapes are not standard, most are flatter than the one with the brown spiral pattern, but the distinctive feature is the upright side to the bowl.
Thie yellow and orange design is one I do collect a little bit, many pieces seem to come from Germany, it is possible, as Mdina exported a great deal to Germany, that this design mostly ended up going there????
This splodgy design is one I think is FAR more sophisticated than the more common splodgy stuff which appeared (I think) later, and tends to be a white ground with a little patch of coloured splodges, or simply splodged all over, then perhaps trailed with another colour.
In this design, there is a yellow splodgy background, but it is trailed with clear glass which has been covered in orange splodges, then marvered in, blown and finally, cased.
Both this yellow and this orange are nightmare colours to work with, they do awkward things when annealling.
My personal suspicion is that this design may have something to do with Eric Dobson, and may have been produced post Harris, but before Said took over completely. I MAY BE COMPLETELY WRONG.
PS. you've seen my yellow and orange Verdala here, John!
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I wasn't sure Sue, I just remembered seeing one somewhere.... In that case, lurking somewhere on your computer, there are photos of it.
John
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Found 2, but none from a side angle. I've got a borrowed monitor, but the colours are still completely wonky, I can't adjust anything from the original, just have to hope it works elsewhere "as it comes".
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I've had this bowl for a very long time and 'forgotten' about it, but today the sun was out and caught the colours beautifully so I took some pictures. I think it shows the pattern in this yellow and orange really well. I love the yellow effect as it looks somewhat like feathered wings in this piece (see first pic for the yellow effect) :)
m
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Here's my yellow-splodged bottle with added redy-orange (see stopper pic.) , clear cased. Has an early signature (i.e not thick, vibrating pen) . 24.5 cm tall.
The general shape of the bottle might help to give a closer date . Both the stopper and inside of the neck have been ground. Perfectly formed, no wonkyness.
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Nice one. It's a difficult design to find, and you've got the stopper too.
(I've got one of these lovely decanters myself.)
The design is one that fits into the "not yet properly recognised straight-after-Harris period" - the one when Vicente Boffo and Jim Munnelly were still working and things were still quite experimental *and* sophisticated.
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Cheers Sue !
I'm a huge fan of this colour combination (now !) , and as m suggested , when the sun shines on it, it really does glow with brightness and a feeling of the Mediterranean heat ! ;)
I shall be looking out for more of it .....'the not yet properly recognised period ! '....particularly in this colourway :D
Thanks again , Mike