An unusual Art Deco crystal trinket set (tray, two lidded pots and a pin dish) produced by Stuart & Sons at Wordsley, each piece beautifully hand-decorated in enamels with depictions of blue butterflies. The oval tray which measures 9¼ x 7¾. All pieces are acid etched underneath with the Stuart trademark.
Charles Hajdamach’s ‘20th Century British Glass’ has a substantial part of a chapter on Stourbridge enamelled glass – it shows a crystal candlestick enamelled with butterflies of different hues on page 118 (plate 230), and on pages 120 and 121 (plates 232, 234, 235 and 236) there are pages from the Stuart pattern book showing a variety of enamelled butterflies on a range of pieces. Of particular relevance to the trinket set, plate 235 (page 121) shows design sketches dated 21 January 1929 depicting a powder bowl of similar shape to that in the trinket set surmounted by butterflies, and Hajdamach states that ‘blue butterflies were first introduced in February 1929’.
(Permission for the re-use of these images on GMB granted by tann10).