nuked ball $200+ ebay

[tombstone]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6250254252&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

This is insane.

 

[woody]

At least they're honest about the means of how it became purple/amethyst.
As long as they're up front about the procedure in which it became that color it shouldn't bother most people.

 

[GuntherHess]

When I hear "nuked" I think exposed to particle radiation like brown nuked coke bottles.
This jar appears to have been exposed to UV light, same basic process as sun colored glass. I dont have a problem with that auction. I dont prefer items exposed that much , they seem unnatural to me, but that more a matter of taste.

 

[capsoda]

Peps do like their colors don't they. I knew a guy that used a UV tanning lamp from WW2 to do that. The bulb burned out and he was out of business.

I have a few SCA bottles and fruit jars but like Matt I kinda like it a little litter than that. Natural.

 

[tombstone]

The 'insane' referred to the bidders who spent that much money on a common jar whose coloring can be reproduced in virtually unlimited quantities at will. Perhaps insane is unfair, how about 'ignorant'?

As far as the seller, i question this line, "this purple color would naturally occur over many years exposure to the sun". How many years? 500, 1000? Since the jars haven't been around that long there is really no way of knowing if it would ever turn that color naturally.

 

[bobclay]

Brown is not the only color produced by irradiation or "nuking", it depends upon the original glass batch and the type and intensity of radiation. There have even been green and cornflower blue examples which were irradiated to achieve their color. A jar collector in the upper midwest had several examples of purples, browns, greens and blues which were "color enhanced" by radiation. Want to read more?

http://www.fruitjars.com/ref/articles/news.asp?article=16

And...

http://www.nia.org/altered/index.htm

Bob Clay

 

[bottleboy311]

The quote in the description reads:

"This jar has been deeply purpled by an intense light or heat source. It is NOT an altered jar as this purple color would naturally occur over many years exposure to the sun. And only jars with manganese in them (pre-1914) will turn purple like this."

[:'(]This guy is really trying to BS the bidders on ebay. Glass will only turn purple so much when expossed to the sun. Back when I was a kid, I use to place a jars, bottles and other glass outside on the top of my roof in cages to expose them to ultra-violet sun light in an effort to turn them purple. This was in sunny Southern Califorina so they sure got alot of exposer all year long. After 6 to 7 months, they usually had turned the maxium purple they could get. It was all based on the amount of manganess in the glass. Some glass was light some had a darker purple. I tried leaving one out for 3 years just to see if it would get a deeper purple color. It did not change it any more exposing it longer. I think if you placed a bottle or jar out in the sunlight for 500 or even 1000 years, it would still be the same color purple as it would be if left out 5 or 6 months.

There is nothing natural about that Jar!! Yes it has been alltered. I am not a chemist, but through nuking or irratedating I am sure the molecules in the glass or manganese have been change causing this deeper color.

As far as heat source, that is totally BS!! I have never heard such crap before. Manganese is only effected by ultar-violet light. Extrem heat will reverse the process. I was told if you take sun colored amehyst glass and place it in you oven at 450 degrees for 4 to 6 hours the glass turn back to clear.

Well it closed at $237.50. Some bidder got ripped off. I got a "nuked" Ball Perfect Mason Pint that a friend gave me a few years ago. It is a deeper purple than the one that just sold. Maybe I should email these to high bidders and see how much one them are willing to pay me for it. Just kidding, I do have to look at myself in the mirror every morning.

Lee

 

[bobclay]

Hi Lee and everyone else,

I totally agree. This seller has sold irradiated pieces for several years now with this somewhat misleading disclaimer. But even at that, I find it absolutely amazing what some people on ebay will pay for some things. A good example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6241319124

Although this WAS definitely a heat stained jar the seller did claim it was color altered "somehow". We that did know what it was simply could not convince them otherwise. (I even am pretty sure I know WHO did it to begin with) But still, it sold for $178, for a $10 jar at best. As, in the case of the nuked 1858, it is simply a case of two or more people that had deeper pockets than common sense.

I have a good friend in CA that writes for several magazines about glass. And because of the relative intensity of the sun there, he too has done several experiments on turning glass purple. As you state, there comes a point where it WILL NOT turn any deeper purple. However, he has shown that maybe one in a thousand will turn very deep purple, even when naturally done. This HAS to be only one thing...the amount of manganese in the original glass batch. Perhaps it was because the cullet used contained a high amount of manganese. Being used as a decolorizer, perhaps some batches of glass had to contain more manganese than others because of the other raw materials used. There could actually be many reasons for this. But VERY FEW glass items will turn this dark naturally. If interested, I can even show you the chemical equation which explains this phenomenon.

In the end, it makes you wonder though who is actually "at fault" in these situations. The seller did make an effort to state the glass was purpled by an outside source, although somewhat misguided in his information. (some glass even into the 30s will turn purple for several reasons) But for someone to pay that much money for an item, (with mimimal disclosure) even if they didn't know the full extent of the process, IS insane. And, it only encourages the people turning these items to make more. (

I will post a pic in a few minutes of a jar you'd never suspect was an irradiated jar, but it was.

Bob Clay

 

[bobclay]

I had mentioned earlier of a collector that had several jars "nuked" for him. For obvious reasons, he marked each of these with an incised "CE" on their base for Color Enhanced. I cannot state for 100% certain what process was used in these instances. The people that do these are pretty closed mouth about their processes.

Ball never produced any cornflower blue glass. From over 30 years experience in dealing with and writing about Ball jars, working for Ball and knowing most all of the top collectors of Ball jars, not one single example of a cornflower blue Ball jar has ever been seen.

But the jar in the center here is one of the color enhanced examples with "CE" on the base.

 

[capsoda]

You don't have to heat them at 450 eather. I heat soda bottles at 150 for a couple of hours and let them cool in the oven to get the purple out.

Some peeps may like in but not in my sodas.