Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: LiterallyAmazing on August 05, 2023, 06:49:51 PM
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I have just bought a vase with a Vasart signature on the base - it is so beautiful that I couldn't resist it. As I am new to Scottish glass, I did a bit of research before buying and I think it's genuine (hopefully) but I haven't found a photo of one like it anywhere. Thank goodness for ysartglass.com, it was extremely useful and interesting!
The vase is pale blue with aventurine sparkles in the top two thirds. From what I've read, that seems to make it one of the earlier ones?
Rough dimensions - height 23cm (9”) Width at Widest Point 10.7cm (6.75”). I got it on Etsy from an antique dealer.
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1141283993/vintage-vasart-scottish-signed-cylinder?show_sold_out_detail=1&ref=nla_listing_details
Does anyone know if this is a known shape or design? Does it look genuine?
Many thanks.
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Welcome to the message board. No replies so far is interesting, I would have to assume it is genuine but there are some oddities. The shape is not typical and that is the clearest Vasart signature I can remember seeing - they are often far more indistinct. Not sure either point has much merit!
A photo of the vase with a black background might be useful.
John
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I would have said something if I had been able to see the images - they are now considerably improved. All I could see before was a fuzzy image of the middle.
The signature looks right - it was "drawn" on using acid and a matchstick, and the applied button looks right. The colour is unusual, but not impossible.
What is worrying me is the rim. Vases did not tend to have tooled or shaped rims as this does.
But I think it is possibly an anomaly. The signature and particularly the button are right.
The signature could be faked, but not the button. Monart had buttons, but I suspect Vasart more likely. :)
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Thank you both. I was able to buy a copy of the Ysart Glass book fairly reasonably online and it has lots of photos. A jug has similar colouring to my vase. The book mentions a Vasart lamp called a tulip lamp. That has a fairly similar top to my vase. So I am fairly hopeful it is genuine!
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It's not really the sort of thing anybody would fake. Those who did, tried to emulate Monart which tends to have a higher price tag than Vasart.
Small Vasart pin dishes have this kind of petalled rim, it is just unusual to see it on a vase.
I'm convinced it is Vasart - but a rather lovely and unusual bit of Vasart. :)
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Thank you Sue! I love the petalled rim. And I love knowing it's handmade!
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;D Ysart glass does come under a kind of rather special category, it can be considered to be a kind of Studio Glass, but happening before Studio Glass was invented. That has a specific date, 23rd of March '63, when the Toledo lecture was given describing the small kiln that had been invented to allow glassmakers to work with small quantities of molten glass.
The Ysarts were a small family team of master glassmakers, operating on their own, without massive factory furnaces or facilities, making unique individual pieces to their own designs.
They worked in an old, leaky wooden shed in a cold climate. They didn't have sophisticated glass recipes. What they were doing was just incredible given how primitive the conditions were.
They have a unique place in the history of glass art. Your vase is not just hand-made - it is hand made in very difficult circumstances, and at a time when they were sticking their necks out in being years ahead in their thinking about what they were doing and without all the advances we have now.
I hope you continue to enjoy and appreciate it. 8)
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Oh, I don't think I'll "go off" it! It is precious. I have just started learning glass fusing with an amazing teacher and am a bit obsessed with glass. It is magical!
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8) You're trapped now. We've got you. There is no escape. There is only getting stuck in, deeper and deeper.
It's wonderful. ;D