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Author Topic: Heavy square clear glass bowl with textured outside -- German?  (Read 2014 times)

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Offline meegs

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Re: Heavy square clear glass bowl with textured outside -- German?
« Reply #10 on: January 03, 2011, 07:50:22 AM »
Hello Everyone,
I am probably way out of left field here but when I looked at the photos Michael posted, I thought his ashtray was very similar to a fruit bowl I have; same colour, similar square shape with the same rounded corners, the same size 19cm square, same smooth inside and textured outside: although the thickness of the glass of my bowl varies and at its thickest about 1.3cm to a less chunky .8 cm. My bowl was new about 20years ago and had a "made in Japan" sticker.
Cheers
Megan

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Offline chopin-liszt

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Re: Heavy square clear glass bowl with textured outside -- German?
« Reply #11 on: January 03, 2011, 11:42:43 AM »
Yes, Chris, it's the float glass which gets slumped I'm referring to - it's very green if you look at it through the thickness you get from the edges - but there's also the green stuff used by Portmerion, to make bubbly square or rectangular plates - I may be quite wrong in assuming this type of glass is also used for casting.  :pb: Perhaps I'm even confusing slumped and cast sometimes - not my favourite stuff, really. I don't like that green.
Cheers, Sue M. (she/her)

Earth without art is just eh.

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Offline Chris Harrison

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Re: Heavy square clear glass bowl with textured outside -- German?
« Reply #12 on: January 03, 2011, 12:50:04 PM »
Ah yes, I think you are getting the two mixed up.

As a very rough guide...

When you slump, you take solid pieces of glass (or fragments, or existing objects, such as bottles!), position them in a kiln (sometimes over a mould - as with the Chance handkerchief vases), and heat them until they melt (900 degs C or more).  Then you switch off the kiln and leave it - and the finished object - to cool down evenly so that the glass anneals.  In a commercial glassworks, the slumping kiln is usually open, so that workers have access to manipulate the pieces: for example, to push the slumped glass deeper into the mould, to get the precise shape that is required.

When you cast, you take some of your source of molten glass and pour/drop it into a mould, quickly do anything extra to it (such as make the hollow in rocco's ashtray in this thread) and, when it has firmed up, move it to an annealing oven (lehr) and leave it to cool (usually overnight).

You can buy glass kilns and moulds for use at home (not in the spare bedroom, I hope!).
http://www.warm-glass.co.uk/
http://www.kilns.co.uk/
etc

Float glass is deliberately made with a greenish tinge for windows, I've found out.  My grandfather worked on a float glass bed at Pilkington's Cowley Hill Works in St Helens in the 1960s.  Don't remember any of the glass being green then, unless it was deliberate "cathedral glass", so it's probably a fairly recent development.

"Green glass can not only absorb the heat but also reflects the infrared up to approximately 40% which can lead to a dramatic reduction in energy costs. Its pleasing greenish colour can reduce the transmission that results in unwanted glare and discomfort. Green glass reduces the transmission of ultraviolet light and subsequently minimizes the colour fading to furniture and flooring."
[from the Guardian Sunguard web site]

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Offline chopin-liszt

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Re: Heavy square clear glass bowl with textured outside -- German?
« Reply #13 on: January 03, 2011, 03:44:09 PM »
 >:D
I would take issue with the "pleasing" aspect of the green, but Portmerion definitely used it to make very bubbly plates - used to be able to get them cheaply in tkmaxx. I couldn't tell if they were slumped or cast - often the outcome can be similar - (I can tell the difference between eg Chance slumped glass and cast stuff).
Cheers, Sue M. (she/her)

Earth without art is just eh.

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Offline Chris Harrison

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Re: Heavy square clear glass bowl with textured outside -- German?
« Reply #14 on: January 03, 2011, 05:57:53 PM »
Me, too! 

Especially when I've had it beaten into me over the years that pieces with a greenish tint contain too much iron, and are sub-standard.

Were the Portmeirion plates heavy with lots of tiny bubbles and a striped pattern?  If so, I think they are factory-pressed, possibly using recycled glass.

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Offline chopin-liszt

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Re: Heavy square clear glass bowl with textured outside -- German?
« Reply #15 on: January 04, 2011, 10:56:29 AM »
No stripes - just loads of bubbles - some of them quite big - up to nearly 1cm in diameter. I searched, but couldn't find an image. I thought the bubbles might somehow preclude any pressing - many stood proud of the piece.

As a collector of early Mdina I've learned to ignore that lesson about tinted glass - they were only able to get hold of somewhat poor quality clear glass early on - you have to look past the material used and at what the artist was doing with it.

After all, you don't dismiss da Vinci for not using acrylics.
Cheers, Sue M. (she/her)

Earth without art is just eh.

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Offline Chris Harrison

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Re: Heavy square clear glass bowl with textured outside -- German?
« Reply #16 on: January 04, 2011, 11:40:54 AM »
Not seen those plates, so can't comment.  No photos of any on the Web, as far as I can see.


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Offline rocco

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Re: Heavy square clear glass bowl with textured outside -- German?
« Reply #17 on: January 06, 2011, 11:32:25 AM »
Thanks all, this has become quite an interesting discussion beyond my glass bowl :)
What I can say is that the green colour does make this piece to me a little less valuable...

Michael

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Offline rocco

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Re: Heavy square clear glass bowl with textured outside -- German?
« Reply #18 on: February 27, 2011, 02:14:09 PM »
While doing a search for Ruda Glasbruk (because I bought a very nice candle holder today which I was able to ID myself ;D as Göte Augustsson for Ruda), I came across another thread here: http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,879.msg26435.html#msg26435

This is the closest I have seen to my bowl/ashtray. So maybe Ruda? The greenish colour still seems a little strange for Scandinavia...

Michael

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Offline rocco

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Re: Heavy square clear glass bowl with textured outside -- German?
« Reply #19 on: July 04, 2011, 12:37:52 PM »
While searching for my newest Scandi-ish vase I came across this: http://www.tradera.com/Stort-Fat-Ruda-auktion_341198_130224094

Looks exactly the same, and the size is a perfect match, too.

I think we can safely assume mine is Ruda glasbruk as well then...
Which means it was made before 1972 when the company ceased production.

One less on the unknown-list! :rah:

Michael

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