Topic: milk glass jug Sowerby? help please

[brucebanner]

I picked this up today i thought at first it was pottery but i'm pretty sure it's glass i can not find any info on it, can anyone help?, there were two other creamers with it i think both are by Sowerby but i can not find the patterns for them either all are unmarked which has not helped. regards Chris.

[brucebanner]

It's 3 1/2 inches in height.

[Paul S.]

fractures in/on glass, should produce very smooth surfaces, as opposed to ceramics where presumably the breaks would show grainy/porous surfaces  - but if you can't bring yourself to break it...
I would have thought the foot rim should give the answer - or perhaps try a steel blade on the base somewhere.

Can't help with provenance etc., other than to say it doesn't look very Sowerby ish.          You have what appears to be a grape and vine decoration - so wonder if there is an alcohol connection somewhere - not the sort of image you'd expect on a milk/cream jug.

I wonder also if the lower busts/figures are related in some way.             The handle makes me think it has some age (assuming it's genuine), and I'll take a punt and suggest - vaguely - Bohemian

[brucebanner]

I have scratched this with a steel blade and it leaves a grey mark that can be wiped off, i found it with these two bits, (i'll put a pick on after this), it has no damage anywhere sods law, but mould marks front to back also the numbers 42  ive noticed stamped into the rim off the base. I don't really want to smash it up as i think it's mid Victorian what ever it is.

[Lustrousstone]

I think it's ceramic. Can you see light through it?

[RoyJ99]

Going by the photos I would say it is a type of ceramic called creamware.

[agincourt17]

I’m not sure about the jug in the opening post, but I’m pretty sure that the creamer on the right in reply #3 is Henry Greener, Sunderland, unregistered design dating to 1875-1885ish. (I think I have reference photo of a matching creamer somewhere, and will post it if I can locate it).

I don’t recognise the creamer on the left in reply #3 as a Sowerby pattern, but the ropework handle is not dissimilar to those found on several Edward Moore pieces.

Fred.

[keith]

Isn't this vitro-porcelain ? 

[brucebanner]

Yes you can see light through it, i'm looking at this vitro- porcelain and to an old post on this board to which the base looks very similar. I'm not sure if i can quote old posts but here is the link, (http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/albums/userpics/10318/normal_DSCF1335.jpg), also Walter Crane's "oranges and lemons" flower trough looks similar, but i have not got that to hand.

First time i have ever heard of this  Vitro-Porcelain i just assumed the old bits of milk glass i have got from Sowerby were glass. Do you think i should post the other two jugs separate? i don't like filling the board up and i have hundreds of bits i'm not sure on i would like to find out information on.

[Paul S.]

Bone china is also transluscent, but isn't glass.               Real Vitro-Porcelain should be opaque, and will probably show mould seams somewhere (I think)

The name Vitro-Porcelain is misleading, perhaps, to folk who might have little experience of C19 pressed glass.              It isn't porcelain but glass (the give away is in the Vitro bit), and being opaque and frequently coloured does have the appearance of china/porcelain.
Sowerby are credited with the invention of 'Vitro-Porcelain', and its success was due possibly to the fact that whilst cheap to produce, it imitated the more expensive genuine porcelain that the working classes couldn't afford.

I've never tried making weight comparisons between real china and Vitro-Porcelain, but would imagine the glass form to be heavier than the china equivalent.

No problem in quoting or linking to old posts by the way.