Topic: Glass technicality - how was this bowl made? and why the 6 blob pontil mark?

[Fuhrman Glass]

Pontils can be all different types. I used to sometimes make crisscross patterns on the pontil if I wanted it to come off easier with less of a mark on the bottom. There are lots of different styles of pontils.
The "open web" style basket or vase has been made for many years by many different people and companies. A couple of years ago I saw Petr Novotny of the Czech Republic make one about about 20" tall. They have now been copied by some Chinese as well.

[flying free]

Thank you both   
mmm  so now my bowl has gone from being possibly new (thoughts when I first bought it) to possibly old (looking at the actual glass and wear on the base), to possibly  Venetian by a good maker (how exciting), to possibly recent Chinese....lovely      That's kind of full circle.

I will have another search but if anyone could add links to more recent makers of these types of bowls or vases that would be fantastic.  I'm pretty good at searching, but have been looking at these for the last few months and not been able to find anything at all, apart from those I've  linked to and the pattern numbers for Thomas Webb and Boulton and Mills.  I will add links as I find to the original thread, and also do a cross link to the  blue and clear lattice bowl thread as well to keep this all together.

I'm off to look at Petr Novotny's work (20" tall sounds amazing!)and will add if I find anything more recent as well from anyone else.

Thanks also for all your time taken to reply and explain.  I really appreciate it and find it hugely interesting to learn about all this technical stuff as well.
m

[Frank]

A punty rod is attached with a small gather of glass, a gadget is not and attaches directly to the piece. It takes less skill to use a gadget but you need several for different sizes. So for a skilled maker little point in using a gadget unless it was company governed. No idea if it gives a speed advantage.

[Fuhrman Glass]

by gadget, I presume you are referring to what we call in the U.S., a"snap". The glass normally requires a base that is designed to have a snap attached to it. when using the snap it meant that the grinding and polishing the bottom was not required. by using the snap you did not have to worry about the punty cracking and cooling and the possibility of the piece of glass becoming detached from the punty. the snaps were spring loaded to allow the piece to be removed from it.

[flying free]

Thanks for the further information.
I suspect I probably don't understand this process completely, but I found some information here on a gadget used for bottles
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/heritagebranch/heritage/eacgpart2021081.pdf  (scroll down to gadget page 36)

If this type of thing were used for the bowl, would it have had wide low 'finger' holders to grip the bowl and  for the bowl to 'sit in' and be gripped around the edge of the base? (as opposed to the tall grips that a bottle would sit in for example) and  before the lattice work was done?  If so then would I be right in thinking the spring loaded punty would have been attached underneath and caused the prong marks? (having taken a close up clear pic it looks like there are 7 prong marks rather than 6 just for accuracy).

If it wasn't a gadget then am I understanding correctly that it could have been a pontil rod with 7 prongs at the end type thing?
like the example shown here
on page 1 of the thread, 5th post down
http://www.antique-bottles.net/forum/Clover-Pontil-m564192.aspx
Thanks for your patience!
m

[bat20]

Hi all ,i find this thread interesting and if everybody makes their own rods then in away it's like a finger print identification,anyway i've found one with 5 little marks and alot of wear on the base,not that this tells us too much,could be from anywhere this one i guess.

[David E]

A very interesting topic, and I didn't have time to offer my input first time round. This is not quite related to all the answers offered above and is probably rarely used, but offers an insight into a rarely used glassmaking technique.

I was speaking to Ian Bamforth at the Ruskin Glass Centre a few weeks ago about a certain problem: How do you finish off an object that has a 'through hole', and where both ends have to be finished, and fire polished?

The answer Ian gave (there were other theories) was that the glassmaker could use a "doughnut" (donut in US?) punty. This is a ring (toroid) of glass that is applied to the punty. After finishing one end of the object, the punty would be applied over the through hole without blocking it, and allow the opposite end to be finished.

Just thought I'd throw that in, in the rare case that an example ever turns up.