Topic: Plate etched bird design. Was: Any antique drinking glass experts out there?

[peejyweejy]

That's lovely Ming!

[ahremck]

A very common bird found all over Australia(and Asia as far as I know.

Look at the Google image of a Rainbow Bee-eater and you will see the two trailing feathers are for control when catching insects in flight.   
http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.anbg.gov.au/gardens/visiting/exploring/fauna/birds/birds-cayley-300/rainbow-bee-eater-300.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.anbg.gov.au/gardens/visiting/exploring/fauna/birds/checklist-07/index.html&usg=__ISV68ponVbyFAlQ1ASrNHX4ZZg8=&h=338&w=300&sz=15&hl=en&start=14&zoom=1&tbnid=cr_14uQF_gicUM:&tbnh=119&tbnw=106&ei=X6LTTdq4FonYuAP41Iy6DQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Drainbow%2Bbee-eater%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1572%26bih%3D919%26gbv%3D2%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1

Ross

[peejyweejy]

Ahremck - that looks pretty close to me 

[Fen]

Here's mine to add to the discussion. It looks like a very strange bird indeed. With the fence and the disproportionately large flower and greenery - the bird was difficult to photograph as the pattern from the other side of the glass is also seen - those are the flower's petals not extra feathers. I always thought it was some fashion for things Japanese but made in England. Wrong?

[KevinH]

I think it is fair to say that several of us had earlier agreed, although with reservations about details and degrees of artistic licence, that these etched birds are not accurate representations of a particular species. (But I still think they are generally based on a heron of some type.)

For Ming's example shown above, Peejy mentioned "tendril thingies" and Ross commented on "trailing feathers" with a link to a type of bee-eater. As far as I know, trailing feathers, or tendril thingies, of most birds that have them are extensions of tail feathers. They do not sprout from below the body with the tail showing above them - which is how these mystery birds are shown. In Ming's example, there are certainly what appear to be legs below the body, but I believe those are actually parts of the background flora and the bird's legs are exactly as in the other examples. It's just an effect of having the bird set directly over background stuff, unlike the other examples where the bird is clear of the other elements.

Probably best to focus on the overall style of decoration rather than trying to pin things down to some country-specific creature.

[Ekimp]

I have a small jug in the same pattern with the same two birds.

The jugs from Cathy B and Sid in replies #13 and #46 both have the handle applied from the bottom up. My small jug has a handle applied from the top down. Andy McConnell says the bottom up type handle “...became standard practice at British works during the 1870s”. Before that the handle was always top down. As the design is on a jug with the top down handle, it suggests a date for the design at least as early as the transition of handle type in the 1870s.

Mine has a polished pontil scar and is 100mm tall.