Ahhhhh...... Rose bowls.Wire topped rose bowls or those with glass frogs are the flower arranging variety and were once in fashion to be filled with small rose buds. As far as I know; this was a European invention\fashion (English as far as I have seen) but my information is limited for lack of research and of course enough interest in this area. Also; I have never seen any antique American made glass vases or rose bowls with these wire top flower frogs in the shops or in any of the glass books I own.
In the US the globular vase-like object with folded inward crimping was originally used for a different purpose, (room freshener\deodorizer), not as a posy vase to arrange flowers in, which if you try you will find nearly impossible to do very well.
Warning: This is not glamorous at all, so if you own a globular shaped rose bowl that you find to be charming etc., you may not want to read any further than here.
.................................Besides being used in other parts of the house; these rose bowls were a staple in ones (non plumbed) commode furnishings. Glycerin, rose adder or just plain water with rose petals and or hips were kept in these rose bowls, which would be given a good swirl after nature called, to help mask the odor of that. During the day one could go outside to the privy\out-house, but in the middle of the night, (mainly in winter months) the old slop-bucket\chamber pot that was kept in a small stand called a commode (or kept under one's bed) was used rather than having to get up, get dressed and tramp through the snow and cold outside.
The design\shape works like a brandy snifter to concentrate the aroma of the contents and when swirled releases the concentrated aroma. Unlike snifters which are stemmed and rimmed for drinking purposes; the flat bases on rose bowls kept them from being easily overturned and spilled when they were used in the dark of night and the folded in crimped rims kept the contents from splashing out when they were swirled.
Roses were the most common, highly scented flowers available at that time, which is why these glass objects came to be known as rose bowls. After modern plumbing came about and was installed in most homes these globular vase-like objects continued to be made as mere decorative items, just like other items of yore (cuspidors and chamber pots) to name a few.
This information does not come from any book on the subject, but from real people of age, who actually used these items at one point in their lives, so I admit it is basically still hearsay, but told to me a good number of times, by people who didn't know one another and had no ulterior motive to tell it to me. At best someone might find it interesting, which is my reason for sharing it.
Back in the 1960s & 70s I was involved in buying, refinishing and selling small Victorian furniture items, to make extra money for school. I made most of my purchases in rural areas and small towns, from folks who were way up there in their years and besides being happy to rid themselves of items they saw as junk, were all to willing to tell me the history of the items I was purchasing from them. For some odd reason (in the 60s-70s) those small commode stands were very popular and highly sought after. Back then I purchased many of them, which were sold to me along with their contents\furnishings and a rose bowl or two was always included among these items.
At one point I think I had over a hundred of them in many different colors and styles and when I finally became more interested in glass and less interested in furniture; I managed to sell the majority of them and buy glass items that I liked better. I did keep four of each size, in the plainer, more common pink, blue and yellow cased glass versions,
http://tinypic.com/fxusdc.jpgto use for display purposes, but those have been packed away for a good while now and I almost never involve myself in selling anymore, so packed away is where they will be staying for now.
As for the wire topped variety in this thread; I am not at all sure of the age. The ivory and other iridescent versions seem to match the rest of the Bohemian iridescent glass of the early 1900s period. I have read and have been told a number of times that there was a revival of sorts in the late 1930s, into the 1940s, when a good deal of Bohemian\Czech glass, in old Victorian styles (cased etc.) was being imported into the US, but I am not sure if any iridescent glass was included in that run, since it had pretty much lost it's popularity by that time and only came back into fashion (in a small way) in the 1950s, being made by utilitarian items glass companies, not known for fine, high end quality goods, who were selling it under the old Carnival Glass name.
I know that doesn't help much, but I wanted to add something to my post that was on topic.
Mike
Topic: Please Help ID this Case glass Rose Bowl/Vase (Read 2902 times)
