Pontil Marks

Valerie: Janet has another lesson for me. Today it’s glass.

Janet Carlile: It is. We’re looking at the pontil marks today. This is a piece of hand-blown glass and pontil marks always appear on the bottom of hand-blown glass of this age. If they don’t appear, they’ve been ground down. So this is a raw pontil mark.

Valerie: And what does “pontil” mean?

Janet Carlile: Pontil is the rod which is attached to this decanter to hold onto it while this work is being done. So the decanter is blown from this direction and when the blowing is finished, they then grab it with this long rod and hold onto it. And all of this is then applied and then it’s cracked off when they’re finished, leaving that raw mark.

Valerie: Oh. Does that mean it’s more valuable when you know when it’s hand-blown?

Janet Carlile: It’s an indication of age, it can help with age. But it’s not… it’s a rule of thumb, but there are always exceptions to rules of thumbs.

Valerie: But if you go and look at home and you find this pontil mark on one of your decanters or something, what will that tell you?

Janet Carlile: It’ll tell you that it’s probably going to be a Victorian or Georgian decanter like this one is.

Valerie: So it indicates age.

Janet Carlile: Yes, it does and it indicates that it has been worked on by hand.

Valerie: Pontil mark.

Janet Carlile: Pontil mark.

Valerie: (to camera) Don’t you forget it! Thank you.

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