Topic: lidded, handled, Bohemian/German what?

[Paul S.]

Almost certainly European Continental - rather than British  -  and thought I had seen the shape before, but can't find it in my books, and I notice there is, incidentally, nothing like this in Silber and Fleming.      The piece shows considerable surface cutting  -  almost the entire surface is covered with ovals, circles, diamonds and stars, then given the enamelling treatment, which is very naive and made me think might have been home applied, but probably not.   The brass finial is crude and looks hand made - and the angled/flat cut on the top of the handle is probably decorative.       Base is mostly taken up with a very large ground/polished pontil depression, and includes a very large 'stone', which measures about 8mm x 2.5mm.    Height, inlcuding the finial, is about 5.5"/140mm.        It obviously has some age, and has 'been through the wars' in more ways than one  -  a chip from the handle has been re-applied with glue.   Is it for drinking from, or just storing honey in     -     I really haven't a clue, and very grateful for enlightenment.     thanks for looking.

[Frank]

Looks like someone 'painted' it for fun. I doubt it is enamel. Try removing paint in photoshop.

[Paul S.]

sorry for the delay in replying  -  have been trying to work out where my photoshop was           After your comments I did contemplate an immersion in Nitromors (paint stripper) - but checked with fingernail first, and found paint adhering strongly, so decided against butchery and will put away and re-assess later before doing anything irreversible.    Paint strippers contain, I assume solvents that weaken and disrupt the structure of ordinary oil based paints  -  but whether a similar action would work on enamel paints I really don't know.     I can see traces of gold paint within some of the cutting pattern, so who knows  -  maybe what you see really is original, but was applied poorly and has just become very distressed over the years.
However, thoughts appreciated.    I remain curious with regard to intended use, so if anyone has ideas, I'm open still to suggestions.

[Max]

looks like it might have been made in one place and decorated in another.   :huh:

[Paul S.]

thanks for your thoughts Max  -  reminds me a little of those humpen that had a rather limited range of enamelled colours.   Maybe one of those cottage industry pieces that Ivo spoke of once.       But what sort of liquid would require a lid?         Now if the lid was hinged I could see it as a tankard, but as it's not, well......so none the wiser. 

[Frank]

Its a lidded tea-cup. Lid keeps tea warm, still made for that very purpose.

[chopin-liszt]

And a lid will keep the smell of the tea in - brilliant idea!  :smg:

I did once immerse a ceramic bowl in Nitromors. Once several layers of thick black paint and mother's artistic efforts with metallic spray paints had been eaten away, we discovered a Royal Doulton "Waterlillies" lustred bowl underneath.

The paint stripper had left the lustre intact.

[Paul S.]

I would never have guessed for tea  -  I am surprised, and grateful for answer, of course.       Very risky the Nitromors though Sue, need to be fairly sure it won't ruin something of value.

[chopin-liszt]

The Royal Doulton was fine, Paul.
I love the smell of that stuff! I know I shouldn't sniff it. Used to use it in the lab all the time - I do know it's nasty. Dichloromethane. yum.  :usd:

The John Ditchfield apple pwt mother tried to adapt to make a stand for some silver irises she'd made did not fare nearly so well......

[krsilber]

I agree it doesn't look like a professional job.  True glass enamels (as opposed to the enamel paints used on models and so forth) are heated after application, and the ground glass in them actually fuses with the underlying glass, so they are less likely to show the amount of chipping yours does.