Topic: A Very Queer Decanter - Possibly C19 Holmegaard? Part ID: Swedish

[Connie]

On weel, so much for that idea.  In the one picture it looked like a hole on the outside with a hollow tube running down the middle  :oops:

[Pinkspoons]

Ah, turns out this one is Swedish. Spotted another one, completely identical, with a very old-looking Made In Sweden label and an even older-looking cork stopper with metal ring - so probably c.1920s-30s in date.

A small note on the Holmegaard fyldehund / snapsehund decanters: They produced them with both clear and coloured eyes, and with straight legs, rather than the looped legs seen above. Production appears to have started no earlier than 1920.

They re-issued both the pigs and the dogs in the mid-late 1970s, both with clear eyes only. From what I've ascertained, these newer ones were only available direct from the factory, as they don't appear in the catalogues. They're distinguishable from the originals by dint of a signature - 'HG' +a single digit year code.

Attached example is from 1977.

[Cathy B]

If it had blue eyes it would be Holmegaard, but the eyes are clear so it is from Aalborgs Glasverk, 1885.  It is called a "Fyldehund".

Ivo, excuse a daft question, but is Aalborgs Glasverk Swedish? If it were, the label would be consistent with your original identification.

[Ivo]

Not so daft but not true, alas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aalborg

[Pinkspoons]

Aalborg Glassworks was Danish, as Ivo says, and ran from 1852 - 1922.