Topic: What distinguishes a celery from a vase?

[Frank]

For example S&W c1910

[David E]

Good question. I'm not sure whether there is a particular distinction other than ones having a particular size, and a shape to keep the stalks properly upright.

But I do know that a higher wartime tax (WWII) on luxury goods saw some makers marking 'normal' vases (by acid-etch, sandblast, etc.) with the word 'CELERY' as a means to avoid this tax and allow them to sell them as flower vases.

[Frank]

But this was made 30 years before that war. I suppose the obvious solution is to categorise these as 'Vases' as well as 'Celery' to help people find them in the Glass-Catalogue.

The catalogue gives no size indication on the celeries, the one I showed above cost 8/6, cheapest in the catalogue was 1/9d. Cutting certainly added to the price! (Wholesale not retail)

[Anne]

According to Raymond Notley's Popular Glass of the 19th and 20th Centuries, celery vases were made as early as the 1870s. but in fact they can be found in Mrs Beeton's Everyday Cookery and Housekeeping Book (published 1865), where it says under Celery: "... place it root downwards, in a celery-glass, which should be rather more than half-filled with water." (The water stopped the celery from drooping or going limp during the meal.) The example given in the book is shown below.

[Bernard C]

My understanding is that pre-1940 celery vases were intended for celery.   In 1940 UK Purchase Tax was introduced and applied at various rates to the wholesale price of non-essential consumer goods, until 1973 when it was replaced by VAT.   Initially the rates were 11%, 16% and 27½%, but they changed fairly frequently, and I know that just post-war the rate on new private cars (if you could get one) was 33%.

There was a significant financial incentive to push the definitions as far as possible in your favour.   So, for example, in the late 1960s I owned an old and battered 1950s Ford Thames 100E commercial van, which was free of tax when new, had had the back windows inserted after the statutory period to avoid the heavy hand of the tax collector (one year, I think, but it could have been three), and a bench seat bolted to the floor at the back (a de-luxe red leather one, very comfortable).

Re glass, food serving and storage equipment was exempt, so vases were described, sold, and sometimes marked as celeries, ashtrays as dishes, and possibly lidded powder pots as covered jams, marmalades, or butters.

I've also seen gentle hints in trade catalogues that matching flower blocks and plinths could be supplied for fruit bowls, not, of course, that anyone was suggesting anything.   I am sure that some very carefully worded orders were received and processed scrupulously accurately.

The best I've seen is a vase marked "CELERY" that you couldn't get a stick of celery into!

Bernard C.  

[Glen]

And then there are items that would be considered "celeries" in terms of shape, yet were apparently for washing grapes in. Brockwitz Curved Star (Imperat) "celery" vase (which some people call a Cathedral Chalice!) is apprently for washing grapes, as per the Brockwitz catalogue.

(And to be fair, I doubt the celery police ever came round to make sure that their vases didn't have the odd daffodil in them  )

[Frank]

Interesting, thanks everyone. I suppose that these mostly get sold as vases now. S&W did a variety of shapes - all of which I would assume to be vases when seen out of context.

[krsilber]

I always picture (and the ones I've found in books pictured) something with a stem and foot, like a very large goblet.  That could be an American thing, though.

[jsmeasell]

Very good discussion. In the US, the names for items and the wages and moves (number of pieces to be made in a turn) are preserved in records from joint sessions of and correspondence between the American Flint Glass Workers Union and the National Association of Manufacturers of Pressed and Blown Glassware. The only thing I've discovered about pressed celeries is that they were considered "set ware" (part of the table set: butter, cream, spoon and sugar) and that wages differed between celeries weighing 22 oz. (or less) and those weighing more than 22 oz. I'll keep looking in these records.

[Liz]

The most common American Brilliant Cut glass celery trays are oblong, ranging from 31/2 - 5 inches wide by 11-14 inches in length. Here are a few pictured in Evers Standard Cut Glass Guide:
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p194/Liz33813/03-24-2008074323PM_edited-1.jpg

Less common are the low and tall footed celery's as shown in Bill & Louise Boggess, Identifying American Brilliant Cut Glass:
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p194/Liz33813/03-24-2008072555PM_edited-1.jpg
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p194/Liz33813/03-24-2008073705PM_edited-1.jpg

Also, in the Boggess book..a rare, handled celery:
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p194/Liz33813/03-24-2008075928PM_edited-1.jpg

When did the tray become more common than the upright celery's or is that mostly an American thing?