Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. > British & Irish Glass
Old, useful but not beautiful!
Anne E.B.:
Hi Christine. My hexagonal bowl is quite big - 9.5" at its widest. However, the base is 6.5" at its widest, and each side measures just over 3" long. What it was originally intended for, I just don't know. It lately occurred to me that it might have originally been a container of some kind with a lid. The raised circles are basically just slightly raised marks on the bottom, I imagine where the bowl has been held in place when being made. It could be a bowl to hold a smaller flower pot in, or just a bog standard multi-purpose bowl. Getting hold of a trade catalogue would perhaps be the only answer, or access to archives. I think it would look fab. on a plinth, so I'm on the look out for one. There's an amber hexag. plinth (Davidson's) on ebay currently, but I checked the size and it was too small, so I'm on the lookout for a larger one.
I live near a book seller/dealer who also stocks old magazines and such. I thought it might be interesting some time to have a look through some to see if there are any retailer advertisements for glass. Thats my new project :P
Haven't been to the World of Glass at St.Helens. Sounds an interesting place. May be one for the summer.
Anne E.B. :P
Anne E.B.:
Just for interest - and connected to United Glass Bottle Co. I've just bought this set of old Bovril bottles :roll: . They have BOVRIL LIMITED impressed on the sides along with the weight in ounces. On the two larger ones is a pattern/reference number and UGB on the base of one.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y195/glassie/bovril002.jpg
I don't actually remember this type of Bovril bottle with its long neck, which presumably was for pouring. Does anyone remember these (meant in the nicest possible way :lol: ) and when would they have been in use? Would they have had a stopper of some kind?
The amber colour is identical to my UGB kingfisher bowl, and I bet Christine's planter too. :P
Anne E.B. :wink:
Anne:
Oh Anne, they're interesting. I don't remember them that shape at all. They've always been the squat rounder ones that I recall seeing.
Anne E.B.:
Me too. I seem to recall ones with a metal screw on top, so they were more like jars, unlike these which are more bottle like and have no 'thread' for a screw on lid. I've looked thru' my collectables books and have spotted old advertisements/posters for OXO showing tins, but nothing for Bovril. A bit of googling is in order I think :shock:
Regards - t'other Anne :wink:
Anne E.B.:
A google turned up some interesting info. Bovril was invented by James Lawson Johnston, a Scot in 1870-1 in response to the need for cans of beef for Napoleon's army. Johnston developed "essence of liquid cow" :?
and eventually set up a factory in Shoreditch in 1884. Because of the BSE scare in 2004, the recipe was changed to yeast extract. Uniliver now own Bovril.
Old posters shown on the web look to be around late Victorian/early Edwardian times and show the bottles or jars with the longer neck. They have red paper labels, much in the same way that they still do now.
Quite a few are for sale on ebay. Some have threads for a screw on top, others like mine don't. A large old Bovril jar currently for sale has "Made by Forster's Glass Co." impressed on the base instead.
I think I'll contact Unilever to see if they can help date the bottles.
I don't think I can ever think of Bovril now without thinking of "liquid cow" :? Yeeeuk!
Anne E.B. :wink:
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