Topic: Engraved tumbler ferns and mayfly.

[bat20]

Hi again,this tumbler is light with a large polished pontil and a brittle ring,it's engraved with ferns and two mayfly's,maybe a fly fishermans glass?,it's about 10cm ht and I'm thinking maybe turn of the century,any thoughts many thanks

[Lustrousstone]

Ferns probably means mid to late 19C

[Paul S.]

nice tumbler bat - better quality than most pieces with pteridomania engraving, and my thoughts are possibly much nearer to the beginning of Christine's suggested dates.    Blown and with a wide, shallow pontil depression, it has in fact some features of much earlier tumblers - the very wide mouth being a feature of some earlier pieces - and including insects, which most ferny pieces didn't.
In truth I'm not entirely sure of what date to put on this one  -  it could be earlier than we are thinking.

Don't know that I agree with the mayfly suggestion, although it may well simply be a stylized example.    To me it has that large hindwing, robust looks of a dragonly, but who knows.

Let's see what others think

[bat20]

Thanks for the replies,having looked up mayflies I think your right Paul ,I think the thorax size and such large antenna put me off,and I don't fancy looking up Bohemian insect life on rivers to be honest lol,I hope you think it's from GB.

[Paul S.]

mayflies also seem to have those long terminal filaments sticking out from the abdomen - but not sure what their purpose or real name is, and nothing like those on your bugs - and seems yours has maybe lost some legs along the way?           But as I say it's a nice tumbler.

in the absence of any script, it's really not possible to be certain of any particular origin, and I know little about Continental tumblers  -  apart from perhaps the style of some Dutch engraving - but this one has as good a chance of being British (or more perhaps) as from anywhere else.