Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => Malta Glass => Topic started by: Patrick on March 03, 2016, 04:26:57 PM
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Hi,
Have found a newspaper article that gives details of Dobson's new colours and designs to be introduced into the UK on the 1st January ,1976.to be called the Melita Range.
This gave an alternative to the established Blue...........
Cheers,
Ps, It would be interesting if members could show examples of this range..........
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Yes but which colour is it...?
Contenders may include the following two, the second - Tiger is a development on the the first example (no name that I know of).
Trusting what is published in a newspaper is a very rocky road.
John
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It does say it's an alternative to blue. ;) I would have thought the Times of Malta would be very accurate about this, why wouldn't they ?? ::)
How about this as a wild guess .............. ???
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I had always thought Tiger preceeded the one I refer to as "Sea and Sand", the yellow bubbly background with a Tiger band around it, yoiu have illustrated there, John.
Tiger got renamed Marble. I don't believe it's ever been anything other than Tiger or Marble.
"Melita" is ringing a bell somewhere, but I don't know if it's from reading the very old (and no longer available Mdina glass factory website), or if it seems familiar because it's very similar to a brand name of coffee filters I have to get from a supermaket when I can't get better ones elsewhere. :-[ ::)
I have been told, (I suspect it was Ron Wheeler, but I might be wrong), that the Chevron pattern was Said's design.
We were cross-posting, Mike!
That would be a good contender. The yellow splodgy background with orange splodgy trails!
I don't know if it is. But I do have a good few bits. It's one I like and it's a complicated and difficult bit to make.
A lot of that ended up in Germany.
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It could well be Tiger first Sue. l have always assumed the yellow bubbly background stuff was earlier, like the items in 'Rosenthal' type colours it does not seem to last much past 1975, going on dated examples.
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Hi,
I think we may get an answer from Joseph Said......... Mark Warner who works for Mdina is now aware of this article and is going to give us the facts.
Maybe we will have to wait for the new book.......
Cheers,
Patrick.
Ps Remember we are talking 'New Designs' , new colours and 'New techniques'...
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I felt, generally, that Tiger got a bit "inspired" by the lollipops with multicoloured wormy trailing inside, (some of those are actually Tiger), and the cubes, (which are basically lollipops which have been shaped differently) also go from having wormy trails inside to having Tiger insides.
But I don't know. I just always felt the yellow with the tiger band was a good bit later, as in post-official Tiger, rather than during its development.
I could well be wrong.
The yellow and orange pattern is one I've always referred to as being "Intestines". ;D
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There are a whole host of different shapes in this 'sand and sea' type pattern in Andy's old thread below, with reference of a fish dated 1981....
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,26518.msg145726.html?PHPSESSID=5ppk255r02atk82rt2k1j95s15#msg145726
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"Intestines" ! :o I won't ever be able to look at it in the same light again , especially during meal times. ;) :-X
If it catches the sun you really do get a feeling of Mediterranean sunshine and heat .
Not wishing to sound pedantic Patrick , the newspaper article only mentions new colours and new techniques not new designs as far as I can tell. So the bottle shape might still be applicable. Really pleased that the real answer will be revealed in time.
Good fun trying to have a guess ;)
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Not wishing to sound pedantic Patrick , the newspaper article only mentions new colours and new techniques not new designs as far as I can tell. So the bottle shape might still be applicable.
Hi Mike,
Maybe you are right but it seems to read as 'specially designed'.......... rather than just 'new colours.'
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For reference, Melita seems to be to the Maltese as Britannia is to the British: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melita_%28personification%29
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Very, very vague rumblings and grumblings my guts have been chucking at me are that Melita was streaky and came in bent wavy shapes. Stuff I would have considered much much newer than from the time Dobson was still there.
I don't know why I've been thinking that. :-[
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Yes, I saw that Wiki article... interesting reading and it seems that Melita was the original name for Malta.
It will be wonderful to know for sure what the 'Melita' range of glass looked like. :)
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I had an orangey red with blue swirl verdala ashtray and a yellow with orangey red swirl one. That shape was a Michael Harris shape wasn't it? but the colours weren't. Could it have been the orangey red and yellow that were the colours?
m
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It could but we don't yet know... Verdala was originally a Harris shape, it stayed in use after he left. Some shapes changed others were discarded, bottles became round and mould blown, Tricorn vases seem to have disappeared altogether.
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The Verdala bowls were designed for the Verdala Hotel, which is where the name comes from. They're the large ones with the sides at a 90 degree angle to the base.
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I think the Verdala Hotel at Rabat is now closed and has been for many years but looks very imposing ........
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20040907/local/mepa-directorate-gives-thumbs-down-to-verdala-golf-course.113139
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090405/letters/verdala-hotel-should-be-reopened.251679
I wonder if it's still there ? ;)