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Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => Malta Glass => Topic started by: mdina glass on September 05, 2019, 05:58:12 PM

Title: Experimental large textured vase.
Post by: mdina glass on September 05, 2019, 05:58:12 PM

I bought 4 more mdina vase today including what I think is a rare large textured vase and hope some one can shed some light on it.
Thank you in advance.
Regards Kev.

Title: Re: Experimental large textured vase.
Post by: catshome on September 05, 2019, 06:28:58 PM

Gorgeous Kev.  You know way more than I do about Mdina, so I'm sorry I can't help.  I did wonder if they are marked?

Title: Re: Experimental large textured vase.
Post by: chopin-liszt on September 05, 2019, 07:33:54 PM

All the top parts of the textured bottles are individually finished and can vary quite considerably.
I haven't seen an open topped one like this before,  ;D but it doesn't surprise me.
They may well have round polished pontil marks, but lack of one doesn't mean anything.
They are sometimes marked in the polished roundel, but I don't really tend to expect them to be marked at all.

Title: Re: Experimental large textured vase.
Post by: mdina glass on September 05, 2019, 08:00:25 PM

This one has the polished pontil base but is unmarked in any way.

Title: Re: Experimental large textured vase.
Post by: glassobsessed on September 06, 2019, 07:49:53 AM

Not seen this large variation before either, it works really well to my eye, curious that they chose not to make many more.

I think you are obliged to hunt down an amethyst example now! ;D

John

Title: Re: Experimental large textured vase.
Post by: chopin-liszt on September 06, 2019, 12:00:28 PM

There are very few of the really large, later style of textured cylinder vases too. Plenty of the 8" ones.
Perhaps it was the bigger things that did not sell quite so well because of the difficulty for the tourists of getting them home?

Title: Re: Experimental large textured vase.
Post by: glassobsessed on September 06, 2019, 02:59:02 PM

That is logical for their tourist trade but does not chime when it comes to import and wholesale.

Title: Re: Experimental large textured vase.
Post by: chopin-liszt on September 06, 2019, 03:10:55 PM

Very true.

Perhaps there are a few small shedloads of good big pieces, hiding in the States and Germany?
I have certainly ended up buying some superior large early pieces from those locations. 8)

Title: Re: Experimental large textured vase.
Post by: mdina glass on September 06, 2019, 07:08:13 PM

I agree with Germany I have also bought some stunning bits of mdina from there over the years.
I bought a very large early cut ice from there some years ago but it has a very sharp broken pontil over an inch across on the base so has been unfinished.
I have never seen another finished in this way.

Title: Re: Experimental large textured vase.
Post by: catshome on September 06, 2019, 07:26:49 PM

Just wondering about the Michael Harris attribution on this item, which appears similar to the bottle vase Kev has

https://www.1stdibs.co.uk/furniture/decorative-objects/vases-vessels/vases/large-mdina-glass-textured-vase-michael-harris/id-f_3164723/

Title: Re: Experimental large textured vase.
Post by: chopin-liszt on September 06, 2019, 07:31:41 PM

Early on, finishes were pretty random. Right at the start, they had no polishing equipment and it had to be taken somewhere for it. Whether or not it got taken depended on a member of staff having time to do that.
Even when they got the gear, whether or not it got used, or a mark made, all depended on whether or not somebody had the time. The shop was selling stuff so fast, seconds and unfinished things ended up on the shop shelves, just to keep it going. Everybody ended up "mucking in" a bit - hence Marie from the packaging department, and Eric Dobson the manager, being the two people who made most of the marks.
The Boffos introduced the polishing of the round mark when they arrived, but Mdina stopped doing that when Vicente Boffo got shifted to MDG.

Title: Re: Experimental large textured vase.
Post by: chopin-liszt on September 06, 2019, 07:34:45 PM

The bottle in the link does not appear to have a signature, but it is definitely a Michael Harris design, even if he didn't actually make it.
It's got a broken pontil mark - perfectly consistent with this early period.

Title: Re: Experimental large textured vase.
Post by: catshome on September 06, 2019, 08:41:10 PM

Thanks Sue ..... Info added to mental database.