Topic: White and ruby cased napkin ring

[neilh]

Does anyone have an idea on this small napkin ring, which is clear glass cased in white and then ruby. It is from a Manchester glass collector but not guaranteed to be from that area, or English. The Manchester firm of Butterworths did make napkin rings in the 1930s, some ruby cased, but not as fancy as this.

[flying free]

maybe French might be worth a look - Cristallerie Saint-Louis?

[flying free]

The Corning have this one as Bohemian which I wouldn't disagree with:
https://www.cmog.org/artwork/napkin-ring-0?search=collection%3A9ffebb6b01ddc22edc006ce5f749996d&page=110
Then they also have this - same design, but in a curious chartreuse/pear green which seems a bit odd to me for Bohemian:
https://www.cmog.org/artwork/napkin-ring-1?search=collection%3A87539dc36dc911ff4a96333d4224329a&page=9


But I think the design with the horizontal bands around yours (see link just below for some examples in their museum) is something I see on French overlay glass and not on Bohemian glass.  I also think the red is a Saint-Louis red.  It reminds me a lot of their overlay paperweights actually.
https://www.mv-bracelet.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/opaline-verre-saint-louis.jpg
I'd search there first.  You could try contacting them but I don't know if they normally respond. 

More recently it seems, they did these for Hermes:
https://www.interencheres.com/meubles-objets-art/belle-vente-cataloguee-me-miallon-278004/lot-24835496.html

The only thing I'm hesitating over is something weird - the white ring left under the red in the circle facing the camera seems a bit .. 'thick'.. sort of as though it wasn't quite polished away enough somehow.  It somehow doesn't look perfect enough if you know what I mean? The rest of it looks perfectly made and cut.  So for example see this paperweight where the circular window is perfectly cut with a thin band of white showing:
https://www.thepaperweightcollection.com/products/vintage-saint-louis-art-glass-paperweight-upright-bouquet-faceted-overlay-2
OTOH there is also this dark blue over white that seems to have a thick band of white showing:
https://www.liveauctionworld.com/Cristal-Saint-Louis-1996-Anthemis-magnum-encased-overlay-paperweight-containing-a-moss-ground_i739585
That cutting just jars slightly on your napkin ring.

m

[flying free]

ok, that curious green overlay seen on this napkin ring in the Corning
https://www.cmog.org/artwork/napkin-ring-1?search=collection%3A87539dc36dc911ff4a96333d4224329a&page=9

... it appears on a pear-shaped flacon,green over white over clear in the Clichy book.
Page 273 c.1850.
here -scroll down to page 273 - the printed version in the actual book has a much clearer colour that the online version, is a much brighter green and is I would say comparable to the one in the Corning:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KEYMY4_ytuUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=cristallerie+de+clichy&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwja3N7q2d_rAhWF2uAKHcA2DvwQ6AEwAHoECAYQAg#v=onepage&q=cristallerie%20de%20clichy&f=false


So it's possible those two napkin rings in the Corning are Clichy.

So a possibility yours is French  - although I thought Saint-Louis, Clichy used those 'horizontal bands'  on a footed goblet shown on page 272

Also there are two blue overlay goblets in Baguires et verres a bois pages 168 and 120 which are quite old c.1845-1850 and the white showing under the blue overlay in the lenses is quite thickly cut - i.e. more of it shows, it's not a 'fine' white shadow line under the blue as it were.  Definitely comparable in the way it's cut with the thickness of the lens white in your napkin ring.

~Do you have a uv blacklight?  what colour does the clear glass glow if you put it under uv?  Any colour or none?

[neilh]

Thanks for your efforts in trying to track this one down. I don't have access to the piece unfortunately so i can't try a UV test. It is sounding like either French, or possibly a rare attempt at something fancy from the Butterworths factory in 1930s Manchester. I think I prefer the French explanation.

[flying free]

You're welcome.

I'd also go with French.

Looking at the way it's cut in particular, I lean towards Clichy.  That would make it older than 1930s.

I've never seen a red over white over clear Clichy piece but the red is very similar to a red Clichy set I have.

Having a blacklight uv torch on it would help, as it might be possible to see what colour the clear glass buzzes. 


Please can you update if you do end up seeing it in person and manage to get a blacklight uv response from it? 

[flying free]

ooh - I've just thought of another possibility - Carl Schappel  Borussia glas Haida

There is an example here of a vase - also that thick clear underlay:

https://veryimportantlot.com/en/lot/view/kugelvase-carl-schappelhaida-125187

another one here:

https://www.fler.cz/magazin/exkluzivni-vystava-secese-vitalni-umeni-1900-1370

I've not found anything in red over white though -  but the 'feel' of the glass is similar with the thick inner clear glass.

[flying free]

There is a collection here in the MAK

Nothing that looks like your red over white over clear though.

https://www.mak.at/jart/prj3/mak-resp/main.jart?rel=en&reserve-mode=active&content-id=1343388632778&article_id=1339957568445&media_id=1342703965998&menu-id=1343388632778

[neilh]

It is not UV reactive

[flying free]

aah  no,I knew it wouldn't be but often when you use a blacklight on older pieces you can see a curious glow - sometimes yellowy, sometimes orangey etc.   A sort of 'buzzy' pale ish colour eminating from the clear glass part.  Sometimes nothing at all.
If it does show a colour 'buzz' it can help to indicate where it might have been made perhaps.  I am just curious.  So for example many of my older Bohemian pieces glow with a yellowy green colour on the clear glass.  Not a uranium glow at all.  Very different but definitely a colour.  One of my old Saint Louis pieces glows with a salmon colour. It's different to my older Bohemian glass.  Hard to explain but it definitely is there and is definitely different. Some of my newer pieces do not glow at all - no colour off the clear glass.