Topic: Sam Herman Vase?

[chopin-liszt]

That's frankly a relief to hear about it being pixellated, Tom. I don't think crimping the side stripes would add anything to the design - not in keeping with the age. 

We do not know if MH found these strapped bottles "frustrating" to make or that he "didn't like" making them.
I told Ron they would have been very difficult to make. They would have been!
Have you ever tried to paint or draw a really effective psychadelic pattern? Then think about having only one shot at putting a bit anywhere, and it is rotating, it weighs a ton, wants to fall to the ground and is white-red hot? But you want an even distrubution of the design, all fitting together, all around?
I suspect what I said about the difficulty of execution has since developed arms and legs. My bottle was the first one Ron ever saw, but he refused to believe it was by MH until he saw a signed one, some years later.
MH loved working with glass, he wanted to see how far he could go with it, always pushing.
He wasn't lazy, he may have had troubles - but it was all part of his learning process.
He really doesn't sound, to me, like the sort of artist who disliked difficult or frustrating challenges. He sought them out. The story that he didn't like making them simply doesn't make any sense.
The truth is WE DO NOT KNOW his personal feelings about making these bottles.

It takes an average of 10 years training to make a good glassmaker.
MH was not being trained. By '70, he'd had a couple of years teaching himself? (All mixed up with the troubles of trying to get the studio going.) And a wee bit at Rogaska Sklo in '64.
That is what I love about the early work, seeing his self-taught skills develop. Seeing the art that shines through the odd wonky bit.
My bottle does have a couple of tool marks, it isn't cased as some are.

[tmmorg]

I suppose the terms frustrating and challenging are subjective- I never took either of them to mean he didn't enjoy making these bottles necessarily, just that he was pushing himself and his art to the absolute limit. I know Mark Hill refers to a 'tense' atmosphere when MH was making fish (I think that's the correct section) and I just took it to mean that these bottles were even more difficult than those. In a brief email exchange, Elizabeth and Timothy mentioned the challenges of making the bottle itself, as it needed to be thick enough and strong enough to handle the trailing and the different cooling rates. It really does make the mind boggle at what an undertaking these were. No doubt why they are such highly prized pieces today.
Anyway, fascinating to hear that the original seed of this story may well have come from your good self. I must check with you in future, before spreading anymore potential falsehoods.
Do you think it conceivable that the trailed vases could have been trial pieces for the bottles? There does seem to be a definite progression in skill as well as a change in colour. The pieces I have seen tend to get darker, mine being cobalt (and I believe a later piece/latest piece) where as the earlier ones are a lighter (diluted?) blue. Would this fit with him working up to using the same glass he eventually used for the trailing on the bottles, or am I completely off the mark?

[chopin-liszt]

Who am I to say whether there was any definite plan, or if he was just seeing how far he could go and what he could achieve as he developed? Each new gather of glass was a new opportunity.
Why do people want everything to be neat, catalogued and tidy? It wasn't a neat, catalogued or tidy time.  They didn't have notepads and pencils, documenting everything.
We have not yet ascertained exacly when the single pot of cobalt was melted, but suspicions are towards fairly early in the time MH was there. I have a cobalt charger, he was able to make one of those at that time.
Depth of colour was simply down to the concentration of colour salts in a pot. Each one would be slightly different.

I've got a strange sort of bottle, very thick and heavy - if it had been flattened and spun on the rod, it would have been a crizzle stone.
It might have been a trial go at a planned crizzle stone, but he stopped for lunch.
Or it could have been something he looked at once done and thought, what if I make it a different shape?
We don't know. 

[tmmorg]

The joy of the unknown.
And as for that bottle,  which I saw in the 5oth anniversary thread  I think !!!
Words fail me!

[chopin-liszt]

This?
It arrived in one thin layer of dirty, flattened bubble wrap, rattling around in a very thin cardboard box which once contained a cafetiere.
The most incredible thing about it is it survived. 

[tmmorg]

Yep 🤤

[glassobsessed]

The original vase is still interesting, would agree either Mdina or Phoenecian. Pretty sure the stripes are made using a dip mould which is not something I associate with the early years at Mdina but both companies definitely made paperweights with this pattern sooner or later. Apart from that blue stripe, looks like a trail just over the top - not something I remember seeing off hand. Ring any bells with anyone?

Shape wise I could see it sitting happily next to this:
https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-us/auction-catalogues/dawsonsauctions/catalogue-id-dawson10036/lot-d2a81c5e-1946-4c35-b8af-a8e9010f40e3

My assumption is these small early sidestripes with amethyst or cobalt stripes tend to be pretty early, they can be a bit wobbly so to speak and utterly charming. 1969 is my guess.

John

[chopin-liszt]

I've got one a bit like that, but cased in clear with added amethyst strip corners, an amethyst inner with silver salts. It's an early experimental thing as far as I know. Mark has a cobalt one, which puts it in the cobalt-pot-period, whenever that was.

The almost satinated base finish and clarity of the metal make me think the original piece is much later - something of a revival.
I don't think we know when Mdina got hold of any dip moulds. And a dip mould was certainly used to make the silver salt stripes. The blue band seems to be over the swelling of the bubble underneath.

And thanks for adding the side-stripe piccie and estimated time. One of mine has almost 2 bases, there is an angled corner on the back (or front if you put it that way around).
The flaws definitely seem to support ~'68 ish. 

[tmmorg]

Thank you, John. Yes that blue stripe fascinated me too. It does seem to float above the inner vase (striped section) just underneath the first layer of clear glass casing (if that's the right term). Whoever made it, it does strike me as a fairly complex piece. You're making me have second thoughts about sending it back, but it is boxed up now and I mustn't forget, it was sold under the pretnence of being a SH piece.
Thank you for the date of these early side stripes, too. Yours is a beaut! I love how there's often a clear glass crescent on these early ones, where the coloured section doesn't quite fill the whole vase. Mine's only got a tiny slither, but yours is very prominent. Really emphasises the colour to the clear glass 'framing' it.

[tmmorg]

As for the dip mould, I do have 3 of those paperweights, all signed mdina, in what I believe to be Michael's hand. Anyway, one has the rectangular 'made in malta' paper label, which I believe is early? Don't know if that helps any with dating when the got a dip mould. Largely as I don't really know what a dip mould is 😂.