Topic: Small ‘ cloudy glass ‘ tumbler/vase — Whitefriars or other ?

[Scott13]

Hi,
I was wondering whether this could be a James Powell tumbler.

Polished concave pontil mark.

Colour—a weak green, possibly with a bit of blue.

Lots of bubbles/seeds and small impurities.

Substantial base wear.

Faint patches of age related iridescence

Ht - 11.5cm ( 4.5” )
Wt - 335gm

Any help appreciated — thanks for looking   

Scott

[Scott13]

A better photo re its colour and cloudy bits 

Scott

[Paul S.]

not a clue really Scott  -  I have only Jackson's book rather than the larger volume - but from what I can see in Jackson this one doesn't look to match any of the shapes or colours of the cloudy range  -  so a tad inconclusive regret to say.

Is there still a W/Fs. collectors web sit you might post on?

[Scott13]

Thanks for looking Paul 
I suppose it could always be an undocumented or trial piece — that’s if it ever came from Whitefriars.
The nearest match I could find re its shape was one of Harry Powell’s wine glass bowls !

I’m not sure about the W/Fs site - I’ll have a look.

Scott

[flying free]

This looks to have been made by rolling a clear gather in coloured frit.  Is that how WF made their cloudy glass?

It reminds me of a few items on here but not sure where they are now.  Kev has one I think and I do - they have a pale green frit on them and I thought they might have been Vasart or something iirc? I think it was deemed they were not.

m

[Scott13]

I’m not sure how they make cloudy glass  - as far as I can tell the cloudy bits have been encased.

I’ve done a bit of searching ! - I understand that Harry Powell was asked by the British
Museum to make copies of Roman Glass pieces which had been unearthed in London and elsewhere.
This presumably would  have meant having to reproduce any patina they might have acquired
Do you think this this might be one of his experimental patinated bits ( not one of the copies ! ) - this would perhaps
explain the high levels of bubbles/seeds, striations and impurities in the glass.

I know - it’s bit of a stretch 
Very difficult colour to pin down, it all depends upon the light - sometimes blue sometimes green.

Scott

[flying free]

I think that's much more than a bit of a stretch 
but hey, still worth investigating since we don't have an id for our small green pieces at the mo so all info you gather is welcome

m

[Paul S.]

I'd imagine one of the prerequisites for producing patina on Roman glass is burying it for eighteen or nineteen centuries - mind you it does come up with some lovely iridescence

Have you looked at chapter eight (Clouds, Bubbles and Streaks) in C.H's '20th Century British Glass'?  -  just a thought.

[KevinH]

In Reply #4, m said:

It reminds me of a few items on here but not sure where they are now.  Kev has one I think and I do - they have a pale green frit on them and I thought they might have been Vasart or something iirc? I think it was deemed they were not.

I think m was thinking about my example shown in the GlassGallery site:
http://www.yobunny.org.uk/glassgallery/displayimage.php?pos=-2333
http://www.yobunny.org.uk/glassgallery/displayimage.php?pos=-2332
This is a form of crackle glass and not related to the OPs item.
(I, also, cannot recall where mine, and others, were discussed, but the keywords for a search would include "crackle", "vasart" and "monart" - and maybe even "nazeing"