hello Frank,
Nice picture, resembling very well the photo’s of Sydney’s glasses.
Could be the bell is somewhat wider at the foot, but than it is handmade and differences are often found in handmade glasses. The decanter fits lovely to the glasses. The shape of the known Carex decanter (seen in one of the pictures of Jay) is one based on an old, very often used, design from the Gilde service. Only there the stopper differs to match the square form of the foot of the Carex glasses.
The shape of the decanter in your picture (where on earth did you find this???, very curious) differs from any Leerdam decanter I have ever seen.
So at first glance, this is the service Sydney is looking for. As the decanter also differs from Carex as pictured, think Sydney’s glass service is a different service all together and most probably not Leerdam.
Botterweg with a lot of knowledge (known to you I presume?) and other glass dealers are all convinced (Sydney contacted a lot of dealers) this is not a Leerdam glass service.
Only thing I could imagine that it was a prototype, which could than explain why nobody knows this service. The shape of the decanter I personally find to be not Leerdam, but that is just my feeling, which is of course very subjective.
But then, if it was a prototype, you probably would expect, as it is a family service Sydney inherited, this would have been known in the family to be a unique service.
So for this time being, not having an answer from v.d. Kley-Bekxtoon, still think this is a “foreign” (not Dutch) service.
So Jean Luce still looks very possible to me.
Don’t leave me (us) in the dark too long, am very curious where you found this picture.