Topic: Watercress bowl & underplate set - who?

[Jayne]

Wow just found this thread! I posted my green uranium version of just the bowl around a year ago, I am looking for an underplate. Christine has said it's called a "Cress Set" Maybe topics should be merged?
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,48668.msg274307.html#msg274307

I'm thinking perhaps the cress is the small type used in egg and cress sandwiches, the mustard and cress variety rather than watercress?

[Jayne]

Ah just found Angela's Cress Set thread! Pics showing underplate! Now to track the maker, some ideas from Pamela in the link. Should topics be merged mods?

http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,52741.new.html#new

[Lustrousstone]

I said they were for salad or grapes and that Sowerby called theirs a cress set

[Jayne]

Apologies Christine, correction Christine said Sowerby calls theirs a "Cress Set" (as opposed to watercress) but they are used to catch drips for washed cress, grapes, salad etc.

[Jayne]

Very similar to Hortensja, Poland 1937 stronica (page) c15 - Salaterki na nózkach (footed bowl) # 270 a

This pattern book came with PK 2007-3 and was contributed by Thistlewood/Ross. Glen, could you have a look, please?

Can anyone help on the PK listings please? I have gone through as much as I can find, but I don't see anything. Do I need to be a subscriber to see the full articles?

[Simba]

Wow Jayne you have been busy I have a job keeping up with you today...but to get back to the cress issue I would say it was watercress which was very popular as a side dish in Victorian times and beyond.... the mustard and cress we buy in plastic tubs today is a far more modern thing. There were even special trains called the Watercress lines bring watercress into towns. It has to be kept in water until it is served as it goes limp very quickly hence the drainage holes and tray. I have seen pottery versions as well.
I like your uranium one..there was one on Ebay a few weeks ago with a tray. I will let you know if I see one again

[Jayne]

Interesting Simba you may well be correct! I remember my Grandmother washing the (mustard and) cress and draining it in a colander before adding it to the table/sandwiches, she was a servant from age 14 during the 1930's and brought a lot of habits from "The Big House" to her own life. Doubtless she couldn't afford one of these sets, but that's what made me think of the mustard and cress type, which also wilts quickly. I wasn't aware of watercress being popular during those times, thanks for the info. Anyway we won't argue about the type of cress or other types of food that may have been drained. I wonder what other makers have named their sets, and more importantly who made our one? 

[Anne]

Merged

[Simba]

Jayne....strange coincidence at work here..... while trawling through the 1958 Hermanova Catalogue on the Sklo CD to find the catalogue numbers for these candlesticks, I found dishes on page 12 pattern nos 19484 and 19356 that look like our Cress dishes and then I found a vase on page 9 pattern 18781 that is the same pattern as my amber mottled pattern dish we were discussing earlier. Still can't find where I found the candlesticks from though?

[Jayne]

Great find! It certainly looks like a possible match.  (Thanks for the merge Anne. )

So on Marcus Newhall's Sklo Union CD Rom:
 
Stolzle Hermanova Hut Glassexport Pre 1958 Catalogue, pattern number 19484 appears very much like our "Cress Set" bowl.

(2 sizes mentioned, 13, 24cm. (remeasured mine at 22.5cm diameter, not sure how accurate the catalogue measurements are).

And Stolzle Hermanova Hut Glassexport Pre 1958 Catalogue, pattern number 19356 appears very much like your amber "Cress Set" underplate.

(8 sizes mentioned, 10.5, 13, 16, 18.5, 21.5, 25.5(?), 28 & 32.5cm)

We must get Pamela to take a look, or any other opinions?