Today, I received this email, and want to share it with you.
Hello Tom,
Based on your coinage of the term "floatos", I guess that makes you a "floatographer". Great blog by the way, really enjoyed your story and the great floatos. Meanwhile I am taking you up on your invitation to post some floatos on your blog as a way of sharing and in an attempt to possibly get some additional information and input about a couple of floats in my collection.
The BY5 anchor(clear glass) pic I am sending, demonstrates a clean and clear mark for this symbol. I have been looking everywhere and have not seen another clear with such a completely detailed strike. Further, I have never seen a colored BY5. The marks that I have seen on any green or similar colored float lack the "5" and all have very weak lines that form the anchor. Does anyone have a photo of a complete mark on a colored BY5 float clearly showing all the anchor lines and including the 5or are all the colored floats simply sans the "5"?
The second floato I am sending is of a swirled Euro that so far is unique in my experience. I have not seen another with such clearly defined bands of color. It also appears to have a mark on the seal button that resembles an anchor (crude) or perhaps just an unusual "straw" mark. I would be interested if any collector has seen or has knowledge of a Euro swirled float. I have several green with brown swirls, and aqua with brown swirls, but no other Euros of color with swirls.
Keep up the great work with the "Blog"
Bob
Thanks for the great email Bob. It's a pleasure to show the pics of your wonderful floats to the readers and collectors. I hope your post will inspire others to submit too.
For me, sharing the excitement does wonders for my spirit. All of us collectors are resurrecting a once-defunct history. Don't you think that we are also "re-inventing" it? The fact that there are a number of us researching and recording what we learn, has taken float collecting to another level. Imagination is leading to reality.
People all over the world have been going to Japan, Norway, Sweden, Britain, the Pacific amd Atlantic Islands, etc., looking for floats. On weekends and other free time, Americans are searching the antique shoppes for floats, and the Canadians along the Atlantic Coast are definitely into the hunt too. More wonderful and unknown markings will continue to appear, and with that appearance, hunting for the meaning of the marks or their makers will also occur. This is an exciting time for all of us to be involved.
I will do my best to answer your BY Anchor question with the limited knowledge that I have, and want to start out by saying...Absolutely!
Bob, your photo shows a wonderfully clear mark. In comparison to the mark on my clear BY Anchor, your's is so very sharp and clean. It's the most distinct mark on one of these floats that I've ever seen. One thing that suddenly occured to me as I look at BY Anchor photos in my files was the thickness of the "arms" on my anchor float, in comparison with the "arms" on the green BY's, which are single lines. Your's, while more defined, also seems to me to be thicker. Is that true?
Perhaps the BY5 Anchor name needs to be changed to just BY Anchor? I ask this question because after receiving my clear float with the mark, and looking closely at it, I've never been convinced that the "5" is actually a 5. It appears to me to be a type of tool-perhaps a clamp?
While researching a lexicon of maker's markings, I found a wonderful drawing of the exact BY Anchor with the letters A on the left of the anchor, G on the right, and underneath a B. The mark was exactly like the the BY Anchor float except for the different letters. The mark was for Glasfabrikation, Vorm. Gebruder Hoffman. The mark was listed as: Luft and Seefahrt/Aeronautics & Seafaring. It is a German mark.
Is the BY Anchor a German-made float?
As you can see from the photos above, the complete mark that is on Bob's float is also on the green float as well. So to answer your question: yes, the green floats also exhibit the complete mark.
Gees! Your yellow/amber float with it's incredible swirls is like no other Euro that I've ever seen. It's absolutely beautiful, and thank you so much for sharing it with us. Swirls in the color of Euros, I have seen, but the swirls have not been readily apparent, and have only been seen when holding the float with backlighting. Your yellow/amber glass with distinct brown/amber swirls is truly an amazing and beautiful float. I hope that someone else may comment on both of your floats, and your questions. Thank you again for your submission to the blog.
The floato of the Anchor mark which appear next to Bob's email, and the two yellow/amber swirl pics are Bob's, and above those are:
The Colorless float, is my BY Anchor;
The Green BY Anchor on the right is from Ken Busse and
The Green BY Anchor on the left came from an British Ebay auction. The float now resides in Gregsboat1's collection.
Bob's floatos, the colorless BY Anchor and the auction pic can be enlarged by left-clicking on them.
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