Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: Nemmie on September 09, 2011, 02:38:28 PM
-
Picked this up today and was pretty sure it was a coach bolt pontil and therefore early Isle of Wight studio as it does resemble a button rather than the flame pontil mark. However I have just read a thread here that states that purple azurene was not made in the early period of Isle of Wight glass so I am now a little confused. So if anyone could help with identification or dating information I would be very grateful.
Thanks in advance,
Denver
-
This is not Azurene from Isle of Wight Studio Glass, this vase was made with gold leaf only, IoW's Azurene is made with gold and silver leaf. Neither is it one of the shapes used at IoW and to cap it all that is not a coachbolt pontil mark.... They were only used for a short period in 1973 and Azurene dates from 1978 onwards.
Example of impressed coachbolt pontil mark: http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-13347
John
-
Epic fail then on IOW but it is lovely and very well made and also surprisingly heavy.
Not sure the picture of the coachbolt pontil helped me though as I already had it in memory and it looks pretty much the same to my eyes. I will have to wait until I see one in person I think.
Thanks for your help I shall add it to my mix and match shelf and enjoy owning it. Lovely aubergine splotchy finish which should look fantastic lit up.
-
Hi whilst I'm not suggesting this is IOW Studio glass, that pontil mark does look like a coachbolt pontil mark to me.
m
-
Having had a quick look at the coachbolt marks on the bits I have here, the blob of glass that is used to form the mark is round, even and relatively smooth, unlike the mark on Nemmie's vase.
A photo at an angle may show the pontil mark better.
John
Hopefully this is a better photo of a coachbolt pontil mark (on a small globe vase):
-
Always reminds me of red blood cells (haemoglobin).
-
aha, so...a coachbolt pontil mark is not like a thin tube of glue squeezed round in a circle, but a blob of glass flattened into a smooth circular shape?
also I'm probably confused as I did think the last photo Nemmie showed was the pontil mark, hence it looked like the one you showed, however if it was the middle photo then it looks nothing like :-\
thanks for showing a better picture John, I definitely had the wrong shape in my head ::)
m
-
Well I have had a couple of pieces of Isle of Wight glass with the flame pontil mark and to me this looks very similar just without the flame part.
Thanks for the new picture I think it was more helpful.
Here is the best picture from an angle I could get of my pontil mark with my erratic camera.
-
I have one very similar to yours. If you look through mine it is an azure blue color when looking at the sun.
-
Actually, there was an Azurene range known as Azurene gold that was only gold leaf according to the book, available from '82 to '96.
m
-
It does look like the IoW coachbolt, still don't think it's theirs though. ;D
Saying that, my interest in IoW glass pretty much dissipates with the arrival of Azurene and it looks like they did make Azurene with gold leaf only.
John
There you go!
-
but the base colour and the shape aren't right are they?
I couldn't find a reference to a purple base colour azurene :-\
Have alum bay been making gold leaf glass, I think they have....
I also had an alum bay glass vase with the stuck on bit of blobby glass that could have looked like a coachbolt pontil mark.
I do wonder if this is Alum Bay glass perhaps?
m
-
It's not like any Alum Bay I have ever seen and I tend to see that everywhere. The Isle of Wight is a popular destination in these parts.
I don't think the colour was ruled out. Just the shape, pontil mark and the purely gold leaf. ;D
I suppose it is possible that in their experimental early phase they tried out a different shape and experimented with some gold leaf. I would like to think it was possible anyway. :)
-
Hi,
The colour is not an IoWSG colour, the glass itself looks far too thick, the rim looks wrong, even when it was simply gold leaf used it was more diffuse and all over the piece.
The "coach-bolt" pontil mark was achieved by putting the blob of glass on the bottom and quite literally using a coach-bolt head to round the inside of it. There just happened to be a big metal coach-bolt lying around.
I was thinking the way the leaf is applied it more along the lines of the foiling Iestyn Davies used at Stuart Strathearn after he left IoWSG in the Ebony and Gold range - but Stuart Strathearn have polished rims and the black is made fron a different shade of deep purple. (or is it red? sorry, a bit brain-fried).
-
Me too, similar to the way gold leaf was sparsely used at Stuart Strathearn (presumably due to cost) but it don't look like theirs either. The black of SS was so deep it really looks black rather than purple or dark blue with a strong light behind it.
Another wild guess would be Shetland Glass but these days I wonder about anything that might vaguely fit the bill, as we see so few examples of their work it's easy to imagine anything might be. ::)
John
-
Thanks for the thought given to this vase. I will be happy to keep it whoever made it and it fits well into my miscellaneous shelf.
I really should invest in the Mdina/IoW book then I can stop asking stupid questions. :)
Although I may fit in another about a frosted Axe head in the near future. ;) (fish sorry)
-
I have a frosted (Said-shape) Fish - if you have one, it makes the second known to me. :thup:
It's just plain clear frosted glass, a bit reminiscent of sea-glass overall, as the glass itself is slightly greenish.
The frosting shows up every tiny flaw and bubble and bit of frit and every tiny near-scratch, frosting does nothing for it at all. Just my personal opinion. :P
-
To be honest I am not sure which shape is which. It is bluey green (although these are the two colours that my colour vision is not 100%) frosted with a crizzle effect inside. Looks stunning on the window sill. It's not signed by Said just marked Mdina faintly.
Unfortunately I am dog sitting away from home today but I will start a new thread with it tomorrow evening as I would like to know more about it.
-
Mine isn't crizzled! However, frosting is well post-Harris.
Said's Fish shape tends to have straight sides, or be in that lovely triangular wedgy shape. (I'll try to find a pic.)
Michael Harris Fish tend to be softly rounded, or the quite different, smaller early triangular shape. suppose I should keep it for your new thread. :thup:
-
Chris Dodds is another that made gold leaf vases and he did use heavy glass. But I guess so did many others that used this old technique!
-
Exactly!
Gold foil is much easier to use than silver, which is not an inert metal and can react with the glass - it was perfecting the technique of using silver foil for which Michael Harris has been lauded.
-
The other one I just replied to looks like Tweedsmuir much more than this one does.