Topic: Sowerby Butterfly, How many pieces ?

[Simba]

Just took some pics to demonstrate the difference !!

[petet63]

Seems to be a bit of confusion on this. I have re measured the pot I have. It has an Outside diameter of 3 and 5/8 or 9.5cm. An inside diameter of 3 and 3/8 or 8.5cm. Without the lid it is 5.5cm high. Could new moulds be slightly different in size as one mould only lasts so long ? and the thickness of the glass does sometimes differ slightly as well. Simba's pictures do show two pots that I had in the back of my mind (I need to find a way of finding info in my head !!) one at 3 inches and one at 3 and 5/8 inches so has anyone got the smaller one  I am looking at this as Two pots Two Candle and a Pin Dish with the Tray of six pieces in total. I am a touch OCD (we all are in some way) and when you take the two candles off the tray would the pieces left look odd as if something is missing, a ring holder would even things up and make the tray more balanced. (Just thinking out loud, feel free to ignore that  )

P.S.  I would think of a pot and lid as one item.

[Lustrousstone]

There are definitely two sizes of pot, which should be measured in inches. A set with one large pot is a valid set, as per the catalogue. But we don't have all the catalogues, so we don't know if and when they show two pots to a set. Moulds did vary slightly (see the Bagley items here where I reckon post-war cost cuts came into play. This is also true of the cheese dish) but the difference is this case is too much and the larger pot is definitely a post-war size as per the 1956 catalogue. However, the 1935 Pottery Gazette does show two sizes of pot. I suspect pre-war was two pots and post-war one pot. Here is help in dating your set. http://www.sherriff-family.com/butterfly.htm


(I only said the some catalogues count all the bits)

[Simba]

That is a very interesting article in the link you provided. Certainly my green set is not as crisply moulded as the small part frosted trinket pot I pictured before.

[meegs]

Hello everyone,
Just for the records here are a couple of my photos.

The large trinket pot has a diameter of 3 3/4 inches and is 4 1/2 inches to the top of the finial.
The small trinket pot has a 3 inch diameter and is 3 3/4 inches to the top of its finial.
Like Simba the smaller pot appears to be a much crisper mould, possible accentuated by the lovely soft acid etching/frosting.

Cheers
meegs

[Simba]

I have finally managed to buy a complete set with the two small pots it is part frosted but only the reverse of the large tray and the actual butterflies are frosted. It is uranium and positively zings !! I have included some photos for Anne if she needs them.

[petet63]

After all this time and I see a complete set...I never did manage to get mine together. A very nice set.

[Anne]

Thanks Angela, I love this set, it is just so substantial yet pretty!

[Bernard C]

Apologies, everyone, commenting so late, as I've only just seen this topic.

I must have bought and sold a dozen or more complete sets over the years, either the seven piece pre-war version or the five piece post-war version.   My recollection is that Adam Dodds told us that he didn't remember the small pot, so it looks as if the small pot mould went walkabouts during the war.   I've never bought incomplete sets because of the different types of frosting and the variability of some colours;  matching them up would be difficult.   I think Adam has commented on this colour aspect.

Bernard C. 

[chopin-liszt]

I had the bottom part of a pot.
It went into thousands of pieces...  
(thankfully, easy to find with a black light, as it was a uranium one.)

Does anybody know what the proper (as in official) way of disposing of broken uranium glass is?
Is one allowed to just bung it into landfill via one's bins, wrapped up?
Or do you have to contact authorities to have it dealt with as radioactive waste material?