Topic: Mdina Vase, with unusual label, help with age please

[Baked_Beans]

It really is in a class of it's own ! It's the precursor to all those wonderful Malta Decorative Glass designs .    It's what glass collecting is all about , to get endless pleasure from just looking at a piece everyday .

[chopin-liszt]

 

I think there has to be somebody else's hand in it too - if it was entirely Boffo made, I'm sure it would have had a finer and thinner rim flange.

But I so agree - if it ever comes to ads on the tv, I just switch my gaze to my shelves. If a bit of sunlight suddenly manages to sneak in and lights my display up - I immediately forget whatever programme I'm watching, and just gaze at my glass in awe!

It never, ever fails to give me pleasure.

[Baked_Beans]

LOL ! I also turn down the volume to zero !!

The rim flange on mine is hardly circular ( whoever made mine might have been drinking beer to keep cool I suspect  !)

Perhaps it was part of the overall design to have a thick rim flange , the shape and proportions look really good . Mine is in the bathroom    !

 

[chopin-liszt]

You have a very good point there - a very fine flange would not be balanced with the body, doh! 

[Baked_Beans]

Oh great , your Earthtones example  surely must be a Boffo(s) piece then ! (Given all the evidence from MDG ) 

[chopin-liszt]

I'm possibly stretching the imagination a bit here, attributing it to Boffo! It's not been done in the "grid" format I normally associate with Vicente (the father), and it does have an "early" Mdina script mark on the base, the same as my other one - but I don't have a pic to hand and it's simply not in the same league as this one. I doubt I'll ever know for sure. 
The only time I am sure is when it's the grid/net/mesh design, which is found in MDG.

[Baked_Beans]

It would be interesting to find out who it was who perfected this marbling effect at Mdina. You can't help but think it was Vicente and I hope with his son Ettore. Perhaps when Vicente started at MDG he thought he would continue it but altering the design to more of a grid pattern so as not to be seen to be copying previous Mdina designs. It's only a theory (as you have implied) but I would image it would take a great deal of initial experimenting to achieve the results shown in your superb vase above. If it was Vicente & Ettore who perfected it then Vicente would feel entirely justified in using the same techniques at MDG.

It's a shame that more information isn't available on the Boffos work at Mdina.

[chopin-liszt]

I am positive (Papa) Boffo used the grid design at Mdina.
While I don't have any marked pieces I can curently lay my mitts on, I have a Fish vase (and have seen several others) and a "facetted cube" case - and a chalice without a knop, but with the "bell-shaped" cup part.
I don't believe these were shapes produced at MDG. But I also have no evidence to back that up.

The shape which I call a "Chimney vase" (it has a big wide funnel on top of a flattened base part) was produced in both places. I've got a green MDG one.



The fabulous Earthtones design on the bottle I posted is very reminiscent of the swirly colours used for making glass for stained glass windows - a technique he could have learned at wfs.

It's the expert use of the colours this way that makes me think it must be a Boffo piece.

[Baked_Beans]

I have seen most of your pieces that you mention on other threads . That's my 'grid theory' blown out of the window    I forgot about those !

Have you thought of sending pics. to Mdina to find out any further info. on the vase/bottle  ? It would be fascinating to see if they could shed any further light on it . It's such a great piece !

[bOBA]

I have an unsigned Mdina vase in this shape. I think it may be unsigned as there is a burst bubble on the side but I do not know this factory very well.... John "Glassobsessed" kindly helped me identify this one, as a variant on Tortoiseshell probably 1970-1980 ish .... It is great that Mdina messed (and messes) around with colours in the same pattern so much, it creates totally different products, with just minor changes.



Robert