Topic: Please help - is this a toothpick holder?

[Decolucretia]

This item has been sitting on the ever growing 'glass mystery shelf' for some time.  I'm wondering if anyone might be able to help identify this item.  It carries a moulded stamp on the bottom inside of the vessel - very difficult to read but I think they are four numbers '1640' 

http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-7143

Is has the appearance of 'old glass' - is just over 6cm tall and 5.5cm diameter (not including the handle).  Is this a toothpick holder?  Grateful for any leads....

[Ivo]

you guessed right. I think it is a modern mass produced piece from either Italy or from Oberglas Austria or Ruhrglas.

[Decolucretia]

Wow thanks Ivo - that is a record!  This one threw me however because when it was subjected to UV light it glowed green - I didn't think this was usual for more 'modern' glass - is this correct?

[Ivo]

"Glow" is not the same as "emits visible light"- there are many gradations of refraction and false results, so I think you cannot actually draw conclusions on age or glass composition.

[Decolucretia]

Thanks Ivo - clearly I have more reading to do in the 'UV' area 

[Bernard C]

Decolucretia — I completely disagree with Ivo.

See Raymond Notley's Pressed Flint Glass, Shire, 1986.   On p.5 is a photograph of two similar items, with the caption:

Two crudely moulded mugs used for packaging in the 1880s.   Made in France or Belgium, they are roughly finished and not fire polished ...   The smaller would have been filled with prepared mustard and the larger with jam of dubious recipe.   The tops were sealed with paper or flat cork which was then waxed over.

There are collectors of these.   I have seen unopened examples somewhere, possibly in the Opie Museum of Packaging and Advertising.   Yours is the mustard size.

Bernard C. 

[Decolucretia]

Oh the plot thickens!  Thanks Bernard - it does have the 'look' of old glass though I'm no expert.  It just caught my eye at the local opportunity shop and was the right price   

I don't have that book in my reference library but will attempt to get a copy.  I rather like the idea of the jam (of dubious recipe)  but I'll settle for the mustard    Thanks for providing the quote - much appreciated.

[Ivo]

This pattern is available shrinkwrapped with toothpicks in them from restaurant suppliers - there may be more than one source. To see if it is an old version or a recent one I'd have to turn it over - but the numbers of the mould point at contemp.  The item in the Notley book does not have a size mentioned, and has a different pattern.

The idea that a 2" item held mustard and was paper covered and then waxed over may be speculative. I have a collection of some 60 mustards and toothpicks - and the typical mustard glass is between 3" and 6" tall.

If you look at page 27 you see that the Jacobean version of the mustard has a lid because it needs one. It is exactly 2" (3"including lid) and will hold around 3 teaspoonfuls of mustard.

[Decolucretia]

I've added pictures of the bottom of the item and the top view for further information.

http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-7152
http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-7153

The numbers in the second photo are barely visible (in the middle of the bottom of the item) - I can barely read them with my own eyes.

[Bernard C]

Ivo — Apologies, I was not aware of these being sold today as toothpicks.

I think the Jacobean is irrelevant here, as it was sold as tableware with a higher standard of finish, and its small size suggests that it was intended for use with a strong English DSF mustard, such as freshly made Colman's or a prepared like Taylor's.

Decolucretia — I doubt whether yours was ever sold on its own as tableware.   As a container, Ivo evidences that it was sold recently containing toothpicks.   Fine, but that does not preclude its use in the past as a sales container for something else, and, from your photographs, it seems to have the necessary recess for a card or paper disc, so may not have been originally intended as a toothpick holder.

I wonder if it's in either of Heacock's two books on glass toothpicks?

Bernard C.