Topic: Little cut crystal bottle and plate question

[Anik R]

This little cut crystal bottle (10cm tall without the stopper) and plate have been in my family for some time...  My parents got them as a wedding present 41 years ago (in Kraków, Poland) from a family member -- the 'set' was not new at the time.


- What was this little bottle used for?  There are grapes and leaves engraved around the body... was it for wine? Vinegar? Oil?

- Though my mother says the little bottle has always stood atop the plate, I've just noticed that the engraved patterns don't match -- the plate has got little flowers and branches, not grapes.  The sound the plate makes (a lovely ring) is also very different from the sound of the bottle (no ring at all... more of a dead clunk sound).  On the other hand, both pieces are an exact match when it comes to color and clarity of glass.  Are the two are a mis-matched pairing?  Would the little bottle have stood on a plate?


Thank you for reading and looking.

[Lustrousstone]

Looks like a vinegar cruet to me, but I've never seen one with an underplate. Bohemia or Czechoslovakia, depending on date, seem likely.

[Anik R]

Vinegar cruet -- lovely word -- and great to know what this little bottle was for.  Christine, thank you for taking the time to reply.    :kissy:

[Paul S.]

and very attractive it is too.  If I may add a little to the information already given........cruet is indeed the correct name applied to a container for a liquid condiment (for vinegar, oil, garlic juice, lemon juice etc.) - and if the contents are dry (as in pepper, mustard or sugar) then the container becomes a 'castor'.     Often seen in sets, they were housed in wooden or silver stands, and it does seem that a glass underplate is unusual.   The colour 'flashing' is typical of the origins that Lustrousstone indicates, and no doubt is still produced like that.   The technique of firing a coloured stain onto a clear glass ground - then cutting to give the impression of cased glass is probably attributable to the Bohemians - ruby or amber being favourite colours.  I may be correct in saying that the amber, such as this one, is produced by painting the glass with a derivative of silver suphide (then firing) - and the ruby by using a colloidal solution containing gold  - but I may well be wrong (even very wrong). .    Date wise it may well be nigh on impossible to be even reasably accurate, but somewhere between 1900 and 1940.
Ref. (for some of the above only)  -  British Glass 1800 - 1914  -  Charles Hajdamach......1991.

[Anik R]

Thank you for the information, Paul  .

It would be wonderful if the cruet and the plate did come from the first half of the 20th century and were Bohemian.  On the other hand, if they weren't meant to be together as a set, and the sound each gives off is different, then it's quite possible that they come from different time periods and/or glassworks.  I also suspect that Poland produced this type of colored crystal in the the earlier-to-mid 1900s as well. (I'm not quite sure.) 

It's unfortunate that the plate has got a significant chunk missing from its rim (visible in the first photo) -- but then again, being a sentimental piece, who cares  .   

[antiquerose123]

Hi Anik R. -- Just a guess here too that it it for Vinegar.  That what it reminds me off...

Perhaps the two were a sort of *marriage* as more of a selling point, and since the colors are similar.....who would notice when you have company.....and if they did notice, they should be looking at their food, not the wares. LOL.

Exactly ---->

It's unfortunate that the plate has got a significant chunk missing from its rim (visible in the first photo) -- but then again, being a sentimental piece, who cares .   

 :thup: