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Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => Malta Glass => Topic started by: Patrick on July 11, 2015, 04:37:09 PM

Title: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: Patrick on July 11, 2015, 04:37:09 PM
Hi,

Please can someone say if this has been made in Mdina colours and if so what period.

Many thanks,

Patrick.
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: chopin-liszt on July 11, 2015, 04:51:28 PM
I really can't help at all.
I can't make out from the image if the colours were produced using silver salts or were bought in colours - the amber looks very suspiciously clear and orange.  ???
And I'm clueless about fishy/animally things.
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: WhatHo! on July 11, 2015, 05:45:30 PM
I do not think these colours are Mdina or certainly not the early period. The colours are too vibrant for that, maybe its later period Mdina?? I personally think this is not Mdina at all, possibly another Malta company?
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: johnphilip on July 12, 2015, 07:17:46 AM
In the style of maybe ? :D ;)
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: Lustrousstone on July 12, 2015, 09:43:03 AM
Can we have a close up of a yellow bit; like Sue, I can't see if the colour is coloured glass or silver chloride - the former I suspect
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: Patrick on July 12, 2015, 09:57:26 AM
Hi Christine,
 It is not silver chloride but since I asked the question I have come up with what I think is the answer !  :)

I am now going with MDG............

see attached image.
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: WhatHo! on July 12, 2015, 02:27:05 PM
I think you are really clutching at straws Patrick, we have never seen any Dolphins made at MDG or by Boffo. There may be some similar colours but that doesn't mean it's right by any means.
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: chopin-liszt on July 12, 2015, 02:50:14 PM
The ambers and yellows look very like this piece of Phoenician glass. The blue is quite different, but Phoenician used that shade of teal too - this inky shade of blue is unusual.

Do I see a swathe of white enamel in the fish?
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: WhatHo! on July 12, 2015, 02:54:40 PM
That looks much more like it to me Sue :)
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: Patrick on July 12, 2015, 03:59:43 PM
we have never seen any Dolphins made at MDG or by Boffo. There may be some similar colours but that doesn't mean it's right by any means.

I am still thinking MDG because Ray Annenberg told me that Boffo made Dolphins, seals and fish at Whitefriars. We know he made fish as friggers whilst at Mdina (see image below)

I am keeping an open mind on this topic but as we know MDG made some surprising stuff.........
 
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: chopin-liszt on July 12, 2015, 04:10:00 PM
They only way I "know" fish were made at Mdina is because you have said so, Patrick.
It's not in any books, the only ones I've seen are the ones you've shown and said were.

(Apart from contemporary large dolphiny things - I've seen loads of much newer fishy things, but they're nothing like the things you've shown. Just clear cased blue with ochrey bits from silver chloride on the surface of the blue.)
Phoenician glass is still very much unknown and under-rated (IMNSHO), bit it is full of surprises too.
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: Patrick on July 12, 2015, 04:40:37 PM
The ambers and yellows look very like this piece of Phoenician glass. The blue is quite different, but Phoenician used that shade of teal too - this inky shade of blue is unusual.

Do I see a swathe of white enamel in the fish?

Hi Sue,

First let me apologize for not answering your question "Do I see a swathe of white enamel in the fish?"......... There is a swathe of white enamel.

Secondly your Phonetician vase certainly has the colours in it.  There is however no reason to believe that they would not have used the same colours as MDG.

All best wishes,

              Patrick. 
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: Patrick on July 16, 2015, 10:45:18 AM

They only way I "know" fish were made at Mdina is because you have said so, Patrick.
It's not in any books, the only ones I've seen are the ones you've shown and said were.


Hi Sue, I have been re-reading this topic. http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,58239.0.html and found this comment by the sister of Vincente Boffo..............


Some of the work  like the Dolphin,fish and others were made by both Boffo's as an extra allowed them,to make in their own time ones a  week.

         Maria Rosaria


Her comment seems to confirm that fish and dolphins were made at Mdina.

Regards,

Patrick.
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: chopin-liszt on July 16, 2015, 10:56:48 AM
 :)
Thanks for that confirmation of the info - I'd forgotten. :-[  ::)
They're certainly not common though. You have the only ones I've ever seen.
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: Patrick on July 16, 2015, 11:36:14 AM
Hi,
  Yes I am lucky to have those................

I am still looking for a Mdina dolphin and also need a Whitefriars dolphin........ Ray Annenberg once told me he made dolphins at Whitefriars.

I have a solid fish and two seals from his Whitefriars days . :)

Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: WhatHo! on July 16, 2015, 09:22:33 PM
Here is another of that style vases Sue, http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mdina-Glass-Vase-Art-Glass-Vase-Hand-Made-/261936480293
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: Lustrousstone on July 17, 2015, 06:27:32 AM
That ebay vase with the lemon squeezer base is Mtarfa Wolfie, not Mdina, as this is definitely a Mtarfa colourway (Sue has a collection of it)
http://lustrousstone.co.uk/cpg/displayimage.php?pid=1320
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: Patrick on July 17, 2015, 09:13:07 AM
OK,

 Let's throw this into the melting pot...... http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php?topic=44406.0
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: chopin-liszt on July 17, 2015, 12:58:12 PM
I'm confused now, Christine. You have been following my Mtarfa collecting, and your memory is far more accurate than mine. :-*

I've got a funny feeling I forgot to update my memory banks with the lemon squeezer shape being Mtarfa rather than Phoenician.  :-[ :-[ :-[

When I started collecting, I didn't know what any of it was, so I was buying all sorts of Maltese glass.

It was only years later I was able to start working out where different bits were made and, for example, working out which was the Boffo Earthtones style of execution from finding labeled MDG.
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: WhatHo! on July 17, 2015, 01:27:02 PM
So the 2 Lemon squeezers are Mtarfa?
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: WhatHo! on July 17, 2015, 01:33:26 PM
Anyway, you put those 2 lemon squeezers colours together and you have every colour in Patricks whale. So on balance with present data I think which ever company made them made Patrick's whale as well.
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: chopin-liszt on July 17, 2015, 03:25:40 PM
I believe Christine's memory more than I do mine, so yes, Mtarfa, not Phoenician.
Sorry for the confusion. :-[

(As new info. has emerged, some of these things have gone backwards and forwards between makers.)
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: Patrick on July 17, 2015, 04:11:48 PM
Used your picture here Sue, If not happy will remove.

Thanks to all who answered and this seems to be the answer.  :)
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: chopin-liszt on July 17, 2015, 04:16:45 PM
Feel free to use any image I post - they're all in the public domain here, for the use of all glassies.
My only caveat is that you do not profit financially from it.  ;)
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: Lustrousstone on July 17, 2015, 07:16:49 PM
You have the lemon squeezer - I gave it to you
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: chopin-liszt on July 17, 2015, 07:47:45 PM
I know, you have been the source of some of my very, very bestest and most unusual bits of Mtarfa! :-*

(The ashtray with the folded rim sits on my coffee table beside me, I use it for useful bits and bobs I need kept handy, not ash. The blue trailed vase is currently propping up Lumpy's photograph on my main sheves.)

But I'd forgotten about the lemon squeezer shape of its bottom part, and I hadn't update my wrong Phoenician attribution to this one with the swirls and that inky blue.
I've got them both sitting right beside me. The one you gave me is a good bit bigger than the swirly one.

Thanks for keeping me right, yet again. You're very, very good at it, Christine. I appreciate all the help, and I'm sure the board must, too. :-*
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: Baked_Beans on July 17, 2015, 09:16:37 PM
Just to confirm, I thought my 'ugly-footed' fish contained silver chloride but now I don't think it does ! ....just small bubbles ::)

There is a definite green colour to the majority of the glass that  is enamel free .

Non-footed versions of this general  fish shape , I'm sure I have seen with Mtarfa labels.

Cheers, Mike
Title: Re: Mdina glass colour question........
Post by: Baked_Beans on July 17, 2015, 11:36:03 PM
Correction, base sigs., not labels....memory fading  :-X