So, today is the 60th birthday of the "legal existence" of the Swan! And to celebrate this, we publish today a new collection of special color Schwans that has been discovered, then offered to us by the Nosy Diva herself! How did she find the nest ?
All are from current Chinese production, and let's remember that the so-called special colors are either intermediate production artefacts (when they change the color in the injectors), theoretically discarded from commercialization (but in fact given as goodies/bonuses to major resellers), or very limited color tests. All in all, it is very difficult to put the hand on them.
Now, let's take a look at some samples of this collection, particularly the ones with very colors...
Several specimens show a very bright petroleum blue, almost turquoise :
Another color that is present in several flutes is this rather translucent deep purple (very different from the regular pink-purple). Ths one also got a beige air cover:
Here is a chocolate brown one:
Even rarer and beautiful, two marbleized samples:
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Great collection, uh? And imagine it gathered with this one...
Thank you Nosy Diva!!!
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I discovered a new "production stigmata" on several of these collector babies... It is particularly visible on the silver body one, and looks like the inside of the nose shield was vertically torn. But there is no contour, the "tear" is plain and smooth, filled with translucent plastic. On the swirled grey flute, the "tear" just cut the marbling waves. The silver one also shows tiny cracks around the horizontal stigmata, as smooth and "unreal" than the big tear. Strange...
Great new batch colourwise. I love the purple and turquoise ones. The silver swirl is just amazing in colour and pattern. If only equal care had gone into making a fine product: t seems to me that the quality of plastics used has deteriorated even further, to the extent that it matches the horrible Humanatone imitations. I have a red translucent Gretsch-Humanatone from 1994 that reveals a similar crack line as well as a similar texture. Somehow it looks as if the petroleum content didn't set properly in the grey flute in the last picture. It wasn't intended to resemble Lalique, right?!
ReplyDeleteI saw that, on regular prod., this vertical line exists. It is barely visible, depending on the colors, sometimes only by transparency to strong light. But it is so visible on those 2 samples that it is obvious. And you can see that it goes down to the lip rest! Yes, the plastics used are more and more crappy, and the moulds should be at the end of their life... after 60 years of continuous production!
Delete60 years..... Surely at some point in time, the original mould(s) will be discarded. If only they consider the Antoine Carolus Archive and not simply destroy and throw out.. How many moulds do you reckon there are?
ReplyDeleteI have no idea, but... 1 mould is able to produce 1 piece each 5 sec or so. That's some 7920/day of 12 hours of work (China...) including 1 hour maintenance, which gives, by let's say 300 days a year, 2,376,000 flutes (there are hours of hand work besides to burnish and glue the flutes). Knowing that the Schwan is sold *only* in Europe... 2 millions a year should be enough, no? So, ONE mould is enough.
Deletebeautiful little pieces of art! You are lucky to have such wonderful colours!
ReplyDeleteThank you, dear Nosy Diva! So, you're trying to wake this blog up? The blog is well... It's the blogger, who need more time and (brain) space to restart....
Deleteoch, this is a blog as free as a birdy. And if it needs time to sleep it sleeps. Still we are lucky to have such a great archive and I am serious about that! Dors bien, noseflute.org
Deleteun jour tu va te reveiller.....
et si pas, pas...
Delete