Topic: Bowl with gilded & silvered insects,applied fish feet,ruby glass eyes

[flying free]

described as chips on all fish and on bottom of fish .  Pics were v difficult to view clearly but it looked pretty.
When it arrived I immediately realised the 'chips on the bottom of all the fish' actually were enormous great big chunks out of the bottom 1cm of every fish i.e. their tails that the bowl should stand on, was missing. The bowl rests now on the ribbed base and polished pontil mark of the bowl.
Anyway, here it is.  Apparently Moser according to sellers listing.

I can't find a match for the insects (of course  )  There is a pic in Gulliver's Victorian Decorative Glass page 171 of a bowl I think is by the same maker but no id for it - different gilding as it is gold flowers on that one and they look to have that raised surround and then infilled, and the fish don't seem to have the enamel mouths on that one.  Otherwise seems to be the same maker.
It's approx 3 3/4" diameter, square, ribbed, 12 ribs same as the one in Gulliver's.  The fish have orangish enamelled lines around their mouths and are gilded with inset ruby glass eyes.  Pretty but would have been prettier with feet.
Does anyone have a match to the butterflies and bee please?
thanks
m

[keith]

That's some bowl ,with or without feet,I'll look through my books but I think I'd have remembered something like that,another great find.

[flying free]

thanks yes it's really pretty - or would have been.  I can live with the chips on the fins, but the missing feet is not a great look 
and paid a lot for it as well.  Fingers burnt on this one.
m

[TxSilver]

I had a bowl very much like yours. The pictures may make you feel better about your bowl. I think they are fairly old. When I bought the bowl I thought it was probably Murano. However, I changed my mind after doing some research. I believe the bowl is Bohemian (maybe Harrach) or made by an old English company -- I forget which now. Your bowl makes me favor Harrach or a similar company.

[Mosquito]

Hi M,

I think your piece is English, I've seen similar pieces attributed to Webb; however, Walsh Walsh is also a strong possibility.

An 1883 advert of theirs reproduced in Barbara Morris's Victorian Table Glass & Ornaments shows pieces with the same three-sided form and with very similar applied fish.

See here for a thread on a similar item: http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,37302.msg204164.html#msg204164

Steven 

[flying free]

Hi all, sorry for the delay in replying but I was trying to get some time to check out the possibles 
Anita, Steven, you make me feel better about my fish feet     I suppose whilst I do buy damaged glass, this was just not what I was expecting.. you know how it is, small chips turn into great big chunks and it's disappointing.  I do have the odd very old piece that isn't damaged, one in particular a Stuart vase with applied raspberries and trails etc  and I guess I compare everything to that.

Steven, I had another look at the Gulliver's book and thanks for the further reference and links   Mine isn't triangular but square, I can definitely see the similarity between the Walsh fish and the other pieces though.  However mine also is enamelled in madder red around the mouth of the fish, which none of them in the book are irritatingly.  Anita, my instinct was English on this one, mainly because of the flat gilding/enamelling, but I will broaden my search again to look at English and Bohemian makers.

Thank you all for your suggestions and help - much appreciated.
m

[flying free]

Anita it seems you maybe right.
A very similar bowl here identified as Harrach
http://www.madforglass.es/Harrach/Harrach175.html
This one is triangular with the red eyes that look to be the same as mine and the applied fish with the mouths in a similar position to mine, all gilded, as well as butterflies.   
I hate to keep questioning previous research and id's but Steven what do you think as to the triangular ones maybe being Harrach not Walsh ?  or is that Walsh id a definitive id please?  or perhaps it's just a coincidence they are so similar?

On the other hand, I've gone back to the thread you linked to, to the original post here below, and I knew I had seen somewhere fish with enamelled mouths like the ones on my vase and this one I think has enamel around the  mouth - it seems to be the only one where the fish have that.
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,37302.msg204119.html#msg204119

grrr, it's irritating when something that should be so distinctive, appears to possibly come from so many sources.

and thanks every one for your help
m

[TxSilver]

m, I ran into the same problems when trying to ID my white bowl. My last result was "probably Bohemian or English." That was the limit of my uncertain certainty.

[flying free]

oh thanks Anita though as seeing all the different examples is quite wonderful I have to say.
 It's a minefield out there
The one on another thread on here,  that has the same applied red eyes as mine and the enamelling around the mouth, but is different in that it has two feet each side of the bowl and  two 'lizards' rather than fish at the ends of the bowl (bowl is oval) and is coloured glass over silver leaf on the body, seems to have been id'd as Stevens and Williams on page 61 of Manley's Decorative Victorian Glass according to this

http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,37302.msg204119.html#msg204119

those eyes and the enamelling round the mouth are very similar if not exactly the same as on my bowl, so I query now whether I should be investigating STevens and Williams for the maker.
m

[flying free]

this one is square, described as white opalescent, has a trailed amber glass rim and four amber glass lizards like mine at each corner, no trailed red mouth to them, height 9.7cm diameter 13.1cm
identified as  by Richardson  c 1885
http://blackcountryhistory.org/collections/getrecord/DMUSE_ST59/