Topic: Glass bowl help please

[brucebanner]

Hello can anyone help me with this date etc, it's not English and has heavy wear to the inside and outside of the glass and heavy wear to the base, i think it's too big to be a wine rinser, i know the fern leaf design was common between 1860-90 but i have a salver with a similar pattern dated to 1770 ish with a very similar design, there is no pontil so i'm not sure how it was made. It's 5 inches across the rim, 3 1/2 inches in height and 2 3/4 inches across the base. regards Chris.

[Lustrousstone]

How do you know it's not English? I would suggest English or Scottish and Victorian, when Pteridomania was at it's height. That light engraving of ferns is very common on Victorian glass, particularly seen in Scotland in my experience. Looks like a finger bowl or a dessert bowl and not deep enough for a wine rinser.

It was cut off at the rim after foot application (the punty being at the other end of an oviod to the foot) and then heat treated.

If your measurements are exact, I think you can rule out the Continent

[brucebanner]

Ok, It does not sound English, really dull when tapped, i have a lot of fern engraved glass and this seems very crude for Victorian they are normally pretty precise and detailed, well at least the ones i own, i'm not sure if old Scottish glass has a high lead content or not so it could be Scottish?

[Lustrousstone]

I'm not sure you can used lead content as a determiner of origin!! Scottish glass covered the full gamut of qualities and has a 400 year history - I edited the book http://www.scotlandsglass400.co.uk/data/book.html

[Ivo]

The fern theme is post-1860ish and has been used in France and Denmark a lot - just like the UK. There is no telling where it was made - I would guess the age between 1860 and 1900.