No-one likes general adverts, and ours hadn't been updated for ages, so we're having a clear-out and a change round to make the new ones useful to you. These new adverts bring in a small amount to help pay for the board and keep it free for you to use, so please do use them whenever you can, Let our links help you find great books on glass or a new piece for your collection. Thank you for supporting the Board.

Author Topic: Old, useful but not beautiful!  (Read 11609 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Lustrousstone

  • Members
  • **
  • Posts: 13625
  • Gender: Female
    • Warrington, UK
    • My Gallery
Old, useful but not beautiful!
« on: January 09, 2006, 09:06:48 PM »
No I don't mean me!  8)

Picked this up in a local charity shop and was surprised to discover it had a registered number on the bottom - 796404.

flower pot
base

I've pinned the registration date down to 1930/31 but not to who. Can anyone help please? It also has UCB on the bottom, which I think may be UCB Chemicals of Belgium. They are involved in glass maufacture, although currently fibreglass and laminated glass.

Has anyone else found anything like it? It's 12 cm diameter and height, near enough a standard 5 inch pot.

Offline Anne

  • GMB Tech Support Manager & "Board (never bored) Dame"
  • Global Moderator
  • Members
  • *
  • Posts: 14601
  • Gender: Female
  • I has a stick to poke the server with yes!
    • Glass trinket sets
    • Cumbria England
    • My Glass Collection
Old, useful but not beautiful!
« Reply #1 on: January 09, 2006, 09:13:11 PM »
796404 is by the United Glass Bottle Co (it'll be UGB not UCB) registered on 18/09/1934 (source: The Glass Association, Registration Numbers 1908-1945 - collquially referred to as the Blue Book).  Hope this helps. :)
Cheers! Anne, da tekniqual wizzerd
~ Glass Trinket Sets ~ GlassLinks ~ GlasSpeak ~ GlassGallery 
 ~  Glassoholic Blog ~ Glassoholic Gallery ~

Offline Lustrousstone

  • Members
  • **
  • Posts: 13625
  • Gender: Female
    • Warrington, UK
    • My Gallery
Old, useful but not beautiful!
« Reply #2 on: January 09, 2006, 09:22:13 PM »
Thank you Anne, that makes sense as it is bottle brown! The G has a very tiny upright!

Offline Anne E.B.

  • Members
  • **
  • Posts: 2099
    • U.K.
Old, useful but not beautiful!
« Reply #3 on: January 10, 2006, 11:42:34 AM »
Christine, I have a Kingfisher decorated bowl made by the same company, and funnily enough it looks a similar amber colour to your planter.    Here's the link with some interesting info.
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,3714.0.html

Anne E.B. :wink:
Anne E.B

Offline Lustrousstone

  • Members
  • **
  • Posts: 13625
  • Gender: Female
    • Warrington, UK
    • My Gallery
Old, useful but not beautiful!
« Reply #4 on: January 10, 2006, 12:05:56 PM »
Thanks for those links Anne. Looks like my flowerpot never got to see much of the world, as I found it less than 10 miles from Ravenhead/ Sherdley in Widnes.  I presume there would have been a matching saucer to catch the water.

UBG were obviously trying to get into all sorts of markets. How big is your kingfisher bowl? Maybe it's a planter for a flowerpot; the raised circles could be for helping to prevent waterlogging.

Have you ever been to World of Glass at St Helen's? I need to go again and look at it with new eyes, having discovered glass :D

Offline Anne E.B.

  • Members
  • **
  • Posts: 2099
    • U.K.
Old, useful but not beautiful!
« Reply #5 on: January 10, 2006, 12:30:12 PM »
Hi Christine.  My hexagonal bowl is quite big - 9.5" at its widest.  However, the base is 6.5" at its widest, and each side measures just over 3" long.  What it was originally intended for, I just don't know.  It lately occurred to me that it might have originally been a container of some kind with a lid.  The raised circles are basically just slightly raised marks on the bottom, I imagine where the bowl has been held in place when being made.  It could be a bowl to hold a smaller flower pot in, or just a bog standard multi-purpose bowl.  Getting hold of a trade catalogue would perhaps be the only answer, or access to archives.   I think it would look fab. on a plinth, so I'm on the look out for one. There's an amber hexag. plinth (Davidson's) on ebay currently, but I checked the size and it was too small, so I'm on the lookout for a larger one.

I live near a book seller/dealer who also stocks old magazines and such.  I thought it might be interesting some time to have a look through some to see if there are any retailer advertisements for glass.  Thats my new project :P  

Haven't been to the World of Glass at St.Helens.  Sounds an interesting place.  May be one for the summer.

Anne E.B. :P
Anne E.B

Offline Anne E.B.

  • Members
  • **
  • Posts: 2099
    • U.K.
Bovril bottles
« Reply #6 on: January 13, 2006, 03:59:41 PM »
Just for interest - and connected to United Glass Bottle Co. I've just bought this set of old Bovril bottles :roll: .  They have BOVRIL LIMITED impressed on the sides along with the weight in ounces.  On the two larger ones is a pattern/reference number and UGB on the base of one.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y195/glassie/bovril002.jpg

I don't actually remember this type of Bovril bottle with its long neck, which presumably was for pouring.  Does anyone remember these (meant in the nicest possible way :lol: ) and when would they have been in use?  Would they have had a stopper of some kind?

The amber colour is identical to my UGB kingfisher bowl, and I bet Christine's planter too. :P  

Anne E.B. :wink:
Anne E.B

Offline Anne

  • GMB Tech Support Manager & "Board (never bored) Dame"
  • Global Moderator
  • Members
  • *
  • Posts: 14601
  • Gender: Female
  • I has a stick to poke the server with yes!
    • Glass trinket sets
    • Cumbria England
    • My Glass Collection
Old, useful but not beautiful!
« Reply #7 on: January 13, 2006, 04:32:52 PM »
Oh Anne, they're interesting. I don't remember them that shape at all. They've always been the squat rounder ones that I recall seeing.
Cheers! Anne, da tekniqual wizzerd
~ Glass Trinket Sets ~ GlassLinks ~ GlasSpeak ~ GlassGallery 
 ~  Glassoholic Blog ~ Glassoholic Gallery ~

Offline Anne E.B.

  • Members
  • **
  • Posts: 2099
    • U.K.
Old, useful but not beautiful!
« Reply #8 on: January 13, 2006, 05:34:34 PM »
Me too.  I seem to recall ones with a metal screw on top, so they were more like jars, unlike these which are more bottle like and have no 'thread' for a screw on lid.  I've looked thru' my collectables books and have spotted old advertisements/posters for OXO showing tins, but nothing for Bovril. A bit of googling is in order I think :shock:  

Regards - t'other Anne  :wink:
Anne E.B

Offline Anne E.B.

  • Members
  • **
  • Posts: 2099
    • U.K.
Old, useful but not beautiful!
« Reply #9 on: January 13, 2006, 06:12:48 PM »
A google turned up some interesting info.  Bovril was invented by James Lawson Johnston, a Scot in 1870-1 in response to the need for cans of beef for Napoleon's army.  Johnston developed "essence of liquid cow" :?
and eventually set up a factory in Shoreditch in 1884.  Because of the BSE scare in 2004, the recipe was changed to yeast extract.  Uniliver now own Bovril.  

Old posters shown on the web look to be around late Victorian/early Edwardian times and show the bottles or jars with the longer neck.  They have red paper labels, much in the same way that they still do now.

Quite a few are for sale on ebay.  Some have threads for a screw on top, others like mine don't.  A large old Bovril jar currently for sale has "Made by Forster's Glass Co." impressed on the base instead.

I think I'll contact Unilever to see if they can help date the bottles.

I don't think I can ever think of Bovril now without thinking of "liquid cow" :?  Yeeeuk!

Anne E.B. :wink:
Anne E.B

 

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk
Visit the Glass Encyclopedia
link to glass encyclopedia
Visit the Online Glass Museum
link to glass museum


This website is provided by Angela Bowey, PO Box 113, Paihia 0247, New Zealand