Topic: Sowerby pattern number 1931 celery vase , RD 77881, 2 August 1887.

[agincourt17]

Sowerby pressed glass celery vase, the body with a central decorative panel of a branch with hanging foliage, and with vertically-reeded borders above and below. 8¾ inches high. The inside of the bowl is marked with the Sowerby peacock head trademark and RD 77881 (which was registered on 2 August 1887).

(Permission for the re-use of the images on the GMB granted by Simon Jones).

It appears on page 5 of the Sowerby pattern book XV (1895) as pattern 1931, and is part of an extensive pattern 1931 set of tableware (including comports, dishes, butter dish, sugar bowl cream jug, etc).

(There is also a flared-sided version of the celery vase – pattern 1931½ ).

There is no indication in the pattern book that the 1931 pattern is from a registered design.

No photos of the pattern on the Thistlewood Sowerby CD-ROMs.

I will add the details to the Glass Queries Gallery Sowerby pattern numbers album at
http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/thumbnails.php?album=1001
and the Glass Queries Gallery GMB RD numbers database at
http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/thumbnails.php?album=763
in due course.

Fred.

[Paul S.]

I don't routinely have Board of Trade images for Registrations after the end of the lozenges in Jan 1884 Fred, so off the cuff can't provide a Kew picture for this item.             
Cottle, Slack and Thompson all include this Rd. No. in their sequence of registrations, and although - as usual - Slack doesn't provide a description of use - Thompson says "pattern and shape of butter", whilst Cottle says simply "Butter Dish".
However, I'd suggest these descriptions from Cottle and Thompson are misleading, insofar as we now know from the factory pattern books that 77881 would appear to be a Registration for ornamentation only.              This knowledge is due mostly to the Thistlewood's publication of the factory pattern books.

I've just have a look at the Thistlewood's CD Volume Three  'A CELEBRATION OF SOWERBY', and on 'Continuation pages' 106 and 107 there are a variety of images for  factory pattern 1931 and 1931.1/2  -  proving that these refer solely to the decoration and not the shape.

I will try and get a Kew picture of the Celery for you when next I go to TNA  -   from the foregoing large amounts of information I'm assuming this Rd. No. must have been allocated under CLASS 3. 

[agincourt17]

Thank you, Paul.

[Paul S.]

Not being that experienced with Sowerby pressed material, I was also a bit surprised by the apparent confusion of some early single factory pattern Nos. that seem to relate not only to different ornamentation, but also to differing shapes, which struck me as unusual.          From memory, Nos. 1928 and 1935 cover a variety of decoration and different shapes -  open sugars and milk jugs, I think.

quote............."No photos of the pattern on the Thistlewood Sowerby CD-ROMs."................     I wasn't sure if you had seen these pages or not, although it's possible that not all of the shapes in the 1931 suite are on the CD.