Topic: Kitten-handled creamer in white opaque glass – ID, please?

[mhgcgolfclub]

Fred

I was almost certain that there was a similar Davidson connection with a dog handle with cat on the lid . But when you said kitten I was not sure as looking closely at your creamer it does look like a kitten.

At one of the fairs I go to a lady has the sugar bowl with the dog handles for sale but it is missing its lid so I have not bought it. I do know that the sugar bowl is not marked having checked it and believe the lid is not marked either.

I posted a sugar bowl a while back in what looks like milk glass with a swan swimming which I think my be Davidson , soon after I found a matching creamer in clear glass.

Roy

[agincourt17]

Thank you, Sid.

Nice to have the actual images showing (where permissible) with the posts rather than just links.

I tend to assume, Roy, that lots of the unfamiliar pieces I see with finely-modelled animals (in milk glass, coloured opaque glass, clear glass or slag glass) are American or continental European, especially as the Americans seem to have a penchant for re-issuing pieces from old moulds. In addition, there are the modern blatant copies or lookeelikees of indeterminate origin (presumably some from the orient). Sorting the British 'gemstones' from the 'gravel' is always going to be rather haphazard and time consuming, but at least the GMB members working in concert are proving to be formidably keen-eyed prospectors. Long may they prosper.

Now, back to sorting those haystacks for needles...

Fred.

[Paul S.]

The following observations might be of interest in this canine versus feline debate.
 
The 1990 Wordsworth re-print of the larger of the two Silber & Fleming catalogues/books (published originally some time in the 1880's) illustrates some of the items discussed here.           
 
S. & F. didn't provide manufacturer attribution for individual items, although it's known that their catalogues included imported as well as British made tableware, glassware etc.            Presumably all of these dog and cat items shown in S. & F. will be from Davidson only - the date of the Davidson catalogue (1878 - 1888) coincides with the publication date of the S. & F. catalogue, and the Inwald items weren't made until c. 1914.                  Since none of the above links includes an Inwald cat-handled creamer, it appears this was a Davidson only design - correct me if I'm wrong please.
 
In the S. & F. catalogue the  twin dog handled item is shown in two forms  -  with, and without the lid.             Without the lid, but with rudimentary stem and scalloped/splayed foot it's described as a sugar basin.             With a cat finial lid, scalloped/splayed foot, but no stem, it's described as Butter Dish and Cover, and as said both of these designs will presumably be Davidson pieces.
 
The S. & F. catalogue also includes what appears to be the Davidson creamer No. 26, and the illustration shows a handle that is definitely modelled on a cat........... high arched back, with feline shaped head, and this matches the shape of the handle of Fred's creamer.             Looking at the above link from Sid which shows a drawing from the Davidson catalogue, there's no doubt that in the drawing of the creamer, the cat has been airbrushed to look like a dog - the back has been lowered and the shape of the head changed - perhaps dogs sold better than cats -  and it appears this same drawing is repeated in Pressglas-correspondenz.

A comparison, showing the difference between feline and canine handle shape - on the creamer - is seen more easily in the Pressglas-korrespondenz  -  page 82 showing the re-modelled 'dog', and page 83 showing the cat shape as per the handle on Fred's creamer.
Roy's worry that the sugar is missing its lid, seems to be unfounded (as far as Davidson is concerned)  -  certainly an open sugar without lid, with rudimentary stem and splayed foot exists legitimately from Davidson only, as shown in the above links and the S. & F. catalogue  -  provided Roy can tell the difference between the Davidson and Inwald designs, since the latter appears NOT to have been made without a lid.

Much of the above is obvious from the links provided so apologies if it seems boring, but just thought it might be useful to draw attention to the fact that S. & F. were illustrating Davidson production - and that their creamer was modelled with a cat and not a dog.     
Do people think that the pieces shown in that 1880's catalogue were indeed Davidson production? 

Feel free to criticise or comment

[pamela]

Paul, thank you - your statements are never boring but a pleasure to read! 

Only comment from here is that Inwald was established in 1862, and the 1914 catalogue is just the oldest found so far.

[Sid]

Hello

If no one has come across a dog handled cream pitcher, then I would suspect that the artist responsible for the catalog drawings simply made a poor representation of what the mould maker had wrought. 

Sid