Topic: Blue Georgian bowl

[Antwerp1954]

I recently bought this rather elegant bowl. Height 9cm. Bowl diameter 10.5cm. It's made of lead glass in two parts. Good pontil mark and folded foot which shows wear. The bowl shows striations from being hand blown. It was sold as Georgian but that of course covers many years. Can anyone pinpoint a date more accurately?

[neil53]

Hi Stuart,

"Bristol" Blue glassware has been made for a long time and the Bristol Blue company in Bath still makes it today, as I am sure you know.  I have a not dissimilar bowl up on my web site at http://18cglass.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=20&products_id=308 which I reckon dates to about 1800.  What age you can put on your's really depends on metal, wear, and other factors.  Is there any significant age, stones in the glass, or anything else that would suggest it's been around for a while?

Best wishes
Neil

[Paul S.]

Hello   -  In my opinion, this is not what is understood, usually, to be the colour of Bristol blue, which is a uniform dense rich blue, sometimes also refered to as 'poison bottle blue'.      That's not to say this wasn't made at Bristol, and some might even call its colour by the name of the city, but it's the dense colour that is called 'Bristol', and Neil's piece is a good example of that sort.

During the C18, blue glass was produced in varying shades........from a very watery insipid hue, through to the deep rich blue we do associate with Bristol.

This was probably made as a footed sugar, and the folded foot might date it to the middle third of the C18 - but then again the folded foot was revived apparently in the early C19 - although either will qualify it for being Georgian

The striations are from hand forming with tools, rather than just blowing  -  is the rim fire polished Stuart, or cut and bevelled?         

[Antwerp1954]

Thanks for the replies. The bowl is very similar in form to the one Neil is selling. It's also reminiscent of the bowl alluded to on p 22 of Millers but also to one on p.23. The rim has not been cut or bevelled and shows signs of wear/usage. The sort of wear that perhaps was produced by a spoon hitting the bowl rim

The metal contains many small inclusions but very, very few air  bubbles. It's definitely been around a long time.