Topic: A Plinth Matching my Flamingo Centrepiece

[pamela]

http://www.pressglas-pavillon.de/tafelaufsaetze/07032.html

Hi at all 

This plinth was donated to my museum by a very generous person  :chky: who remembers that it once bore such a label. It was a gift for his parents' marriage late 30ies.

We presume bowl and birds to be from Inwald, and as the bowl fits perfectly on the plinth: Inwald also?

TIA

[Mosquito]

Hello Pamela,

This pattern of plinth has been seen under Poisson Volant sets, so Inwald seems likely, see here:
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,17405.0.html
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,17431.0.html

Steven

[Anne]

Pamela, what a superb centrepiece! I love it.

Your plinth looks very similar to one I have which I had identified as a Bagley plinth from the Bowey and Parsons book, Bagley Glass:    http://yobunny.org.uk/gallery1/displayimage.php?pos=-1103 - I wonder if plinth moulds were sold to different makers so the same plinth may appear with more than one company's glass?

[pamela]

Thank you Anne and Steven, going to consult Bowey and Parsons' book tomorrow and have a look at it's measurements again - thanks, Bernard!

[pamela]

Measurements:
                     my plinth              Bagley acc. to Bowey/Parsons
height            3.25" 8,2 cms        3"
top inside dm  4.25" 10.7 cms      4.5"
base              5.75" 15 cms         just over 6"

The outer lower rim of mine is not as straight as Anne's - more sloping inwards /

Thus I would sort Bagley out for mine, BUT of course, my Inwald bowl could also stand on a Bagley plinth, as it is large enough in every dimension, but would not fit as perfectly as now.

[krsilber]

I know nothing about it or the plinth, but what a great piece!  Would a bowl like this have been used for something in particular?

[Bernard C]

Kristi — Here, in Britain, these centrepiece bowls were termed floating bowls, as they were supposed to be half filled with water upon which was floated flower heads and possibly tealights.   How they were actually used depended on the imagination of the owner.

...   I wouldn't expect a European catalogue to necessarily show plinths, as plinthed centrepiece sets were very much a British style.   It is instructive to see the photographs of Pamela's fascinating museum, as there is hardly a plinth to be seen, yet many, perhaps most, of those sets sold in Britain would have been supplied with plinths.   ...

Pamela et al — I was not challenged when I wrote this last autumn, but if there is some truth in this theory, then there may not have been one particular plinth that went with this centrepiece set.   We know that both Davidson and Sowerby were prepared to sell their accessories, such as flower blocks, flower holders, and plinths, quite separately.   I have no doubt that mainland European glassworks did the same.   If a centrepiece set needed a plinth for a particular market, the glassworks may not have been involved at all — the importer/wholesaler buying in an appropriate plinth.   Conversely, simply because a mainland European centrepiece set in Britain is usually found on one particular plinth, that does not always necessarily indicate that the plinth was by the same glassworks.

Please keep your minds open to all possibilities.

Bernard C. 

[krsilber]

"Please keep your minds open to all possibilities."  Good advice for all occassions!

Thanks, Bernard - now I have more British terminology to remember!

Did bowls like this often come with candleholders?  In the US "console sets" (bowl with large rolled rim and matching candlesticks) were very popular, and I'm wondering if they are analogous.

[Bernard C]

Kristi — I don't think the term console set was used to any extent here in Britain, but the more general term garniture set or just garniture was used for any main item garnished by two matching pieces.   Garniture sets were quite variable, more or less any combination can be found, including 1+4 combinations for the table centre.   For instance 3-piece vase set plus two posy vases, bowl plus four candlesticks, bowl plus two vases, clock plus two posy vases, and fish plus two candlesticks.

Bernard C. 

[Ohio]

Bernard...interesting discusssion. Here in the US, stands or plinths as you call them were extremely common, made by the tens of thousands. I just went through & counted 15 major US manufacturers that  produced them to go along with what we here in the US call console bowls. We also followed the same practice as you regarding float bowls, however it was more common the use the bowl in conjunction with a flower frog when filling it 1/2 way up with water. Stands over here seem to have been predominately black although colors were made & sizes (top diameter) varied greatly depending on bowl size. Black ones over here run from roughly $5 to $8 on average, colored one are at least double that. Ken