Topic: date request for 'Malta Decorative Glass' goblet

[Paul S.]

Can someone put an age on this goblet please - I'm not sure if the label appears in Mark Hill's book, but I don't have that now so can't look, and can't remember.
Snapped pontil scar, inverted baluster stem - I'm assuming not recent since the label is paper and not some sort of plastic  -  and the full label is showing in the Board's labels and marks section here .........
http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/thumbnails.php?album=546

Height is just over 6" (c. 155 mm).                      thanks

[chopin-liszt]

 
Well, Wolfie discovered that Vicente Boffo left Mdina in '77, according to Joseph Said's memory, so we are assuming MDG started in '77.
I don't think it kept going for more than 3-4 years, but the info. on that is a bit hazy.

It is lost somewhere in the middle of a 360+ page document from the Maltese government on Maltese businesses and when this company actually was wound up.
It used to be that any google search of the name would bring up that document, and nothing else - but that has changed quite considerably since then. I can't find it these days.
I don't think there is any mention of MDG in Mark's book. When it was written, MDG hadn't been identified and there is even mention of green glass being used at Mdina - but that has to be an error, green was only ever used at MDG (Mdina did incorporate greens much later) so MDG was still being mistaken for Mdina at that time.

I can't remember what year it was the penny clicked and I did work out how to distinguish the two by style as well as the odd label.

[Paul S.]

thanks Sue - very informative and interesting                So age wise we might say around the late 1970's.

This isn't something that I'd keep - I gave up on Maltese glass some while back  -  but I can now pass on some details to the charity shop so that they can list it more accurately when re-selling.

As always my sincere thanks for your help, and with acknowledgment also to Wolfie for his original information.  

[chopin-liszt]

It is a Mdina goblet style (not that I reckon anybody can lay claim to it being their original design,  )

My Mdina goblet by MH in this style (it's blues though) is 7" tall, it also has a bit at the top of the knop, the same bit of glass as the stem, but shaped to look like a disc between the knop and the base.

I have another chalice/goblet - the bowl is the same bell size and shape as the big early Mdina Chalices with the great coloured knops, but "coloured knop-less" - just a big blob sort of knop, in the Earthtones pattern as executed by Vincente Boffo. I do not know if it's Mdian or MDG.

The pattern within the bowl of your goblet is one that I also ascribe to Vincente Boffo, whether the piece is from MDG or Mdina - it's his way of executing cloudiness.

Given a goblet is a somewhat sophisticated shape to be producing, it is unlikely to be by one of the newbie apprentices at MDG, I would think that the major maker of this would be Boffo himself. He may have had assistance.

Thank-you for also acknowledging Wolfie. His managing to get to speak to Said and asking for the information was a major breakthrough in glass history, which took a lot of time and effort and the expense of travelling to Malta - without even being sure Said would really see him or talk.

[Paul S.]

thanks for that.               Although you can't see it (due to my photo angle), there is also a merese/collar immediately under the bowl of my goblet - a feature which the drinking glass buffs tell us is a sign of better quality, and adds to the aesthetics of the piece.

are all these various brownish/tawny colours produced by silver chloride, or something else - and what gives the Maltese pieces that creamy yellowish colour?

[glassobsessed]

A goblet is unusual but I suspect there may be a relatively small market for MDG. Good to see one.

John

[chopin-liszt]

At MDG they did have pots of amber glass melted, the effects will be from silver chloride and the amber glass reacting with it, in the heat. He does achieve some lovely slightly jig-saw-y effects in the cloudy stuff. 

(Although I cannot swear it would be silver chloride used with Amber - it might be they used silver nitrate, it is still the silver that is the important molecule for the colour.)
(So an amber casing would indicate MDG, not Mdina.)

In Earthtones pieces, the brown glass is achieved with the use of silver nitrate reacting with red glass - so you do often see lovely streaks of reds in the brown strapping when Boffo made Earthtones - as well as it being in his typical grid-style of pattern.

Merise, that's the word.  But it's not a seperate disc of glass, just a shaped stem.

John's right, the market for MDG does seen to be small.
  I'm grabbing all the green stuff I need before "the market" realises what's going on and the prices start to rise.

It's a fascinating little niche area of Vincente Boffo's last work, combined with the influence of the emerging Studio Glass Movement in Europe.

[Paul S.]

what a font of knowledge you are Sue  -  thanks again.       anyway back it goes to the charity shop.