Topic: is this a dump and what has happened to it?

[bat20]

Hi all,is this a dump weight and has it been mullered,it does seem to be exactly in half with the edges ground down and on the flat side there are two patches of furry wear.At one end there is half a broken pontil as well

[bat20]

I think it may be victorian ink well afer a bit of research,god knows how it was halved without more damage,it's not a cut the surface isn't flat enough.

[Nick77]

Possibly it had an annealing fault running through it that finally parted into two halves. I have an intact inkwell here of similar design
 
  A dealer at a local weekly Antiques fair has a dump with foil flowers with a fault that also runs completely through the middle albeit horizontally, she expects someone to buy it at £65

Nick

[pooleandpaperweights]

Not uncommon to see dump weights with annealing cracks and this is almost certainly what has happened here.

[bat20]

Ahhh,of course ::)that's got to be it,if it was hit i couldn't see how it wouldn't shatter .Nice to know their is some value to good weights with annealing cracks!i thought it would render them worthless.Thanks .

[Nick77]

Personally I think there is little to no value to weights with severe annealing cracks as what has happened to yours could happen to others.

Nick

[KevinH]

Although ... when that sort of damage does occur, the item has another type of value ... educational.

It can be useful to be able to show how the interior elements are actually set and how the main glass coating alters the visual perspective of the interior elements.

[pooleandpaperweights]

I've sold a Victorian dump weight with a horizontal annealing crack for £25......