Tortoiseshell bowl

Can anyone help with this bowl/ ashtray I found today.
Have a nasty feeling it may be Chinese or 'that' store. Approx 7cm H 15cm across

Always useful to have a base shot, even if there's no mark.

Not brilliant I'm afraid. No signature or any other mark



Thanks for looking

I don't think it's Chinese. It could be Murano.

Thanks Naomi
As you can guess I have very little knowledge of these things, although I'm learning lots from this forum ( and the pottery one).
Could you possibly point me in the direction of a site ( or book) which covers basic things to look for on glass ie pontil marks etc.
I've bought the Mark Hill book on Czech glass 'cos my interest was spurred when I found a SKLO vase by Vladislav Urban.
Thanks

Hi

Check the below and the blue names along the left are hyperlinks

http://www.glassencyclopedia.com/

Someone sent this site recently and it seems to be well populated

http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/index.php?PHPSESSID=6fbedda02865f64f5dd8d78271617291

These guys below are in the States and its all top end stuff (over priced as well) but nice for a browse. This said they make mistakes and have High Street modern from about 10 years ago in their collection by mistake - someone in London was etching signatures onto TK Maxx and Woolworths stock at the time

http://www.freeformsusa.com/index.htm

Outside of that I would steer clear of a lot of 'valuation books' as they bend in the wind a lot and the same vases get attributed to different countries/makers every few years which is the same as the 'online market place'.

If you have an eye for glass it will just develop over time and exposure to more pieces. The V&A glass section is worth a visit to help gain exposure to the small and large alike since the scale of certain pieces needs to be seen.

Modern High Street glass has its place also so keep an eye out there for pieces you may like and to keep from getting ripped off if you are buying.

It's worth asking questions of the glass experts on this forum.
Alternatively,
Glassmessages website is good.
art-of-glass photostream on flickr is also useful if you want pictures.

Thanks both for all the info . Should keep me occupied for a while!

At the moment I seem to be attracted to big, chunky, heavy and clear!

If that was clear eyed I would have said it was men not glass

Is that base shiny or matte?

Don't know a Matt!!! - oops sorry! thought you were talking men as well

It's matte, but shows a fair amount of wear ( scratches)

I think I'd rule out Murano personally