Topic: A Very Rare W H Heppell Covered Dolphin Dish

[mhgcgolfclub]

For reference a very rare W H Heppell covered Dolphin dish in opal glass. Both parts are marked with a date lozenge for 24th November 1882.

I can only remember seeing one other before at a fair i this shape but about half the size. There is one shown in Raymond Slack's English Pressed Glass on page 105. Described as a butter dish measuring 3.5" in height. This one measures 5.75" in height and length so may have been a butter or sugar bowl.

Roy

[agincourt17]

Thank you for showing this, Roy.

This is the only one I have seen photos of other than that shown in Slack. Interesting  that there seem to be at least 2 sizes.

The registry date lozenge for 24 November 1882 – parcel 17 covers a bundle of 3 design registrations, RDs 390584 to 390586, but I have not seen the corresponding design representations for correlation.

Fred.

[Paul S.]

National Archives data as follows.........

Images for all three Registrations were submitted by Heppell to the Board of Trade in the form of sepia photographs.             
The first - Rd. 390584 - is this two-part well known butter/covered sugar as shown by Roy, and in the original photo is shown as an opaque white material, and not easy to see whether this was opal, or simply white Vitro-Porcelain.

The second - Rd. 390585 is another sepia photograph, showing what appears to be a vase with a small handle low on the body.   The top of the vase is in the form of a large open mouth of a fish, and the body of the vase is that of a slightly contorted body of a fish.         Here again the factory picture is of an opaque white bodied material.
The use of an upright fish - often with gaping mouth - seems to have been a not uncommon design for a vase etc. -  am sure I've seen this sort of thing in ceramics/pottery on occasions over the years.

Finally - Rd. 390586 is a photograph of what appears to be a clear glass water jug - again in the form of an open mouthed fish but dissimilar in shape to the previous Rd.

My pix of these pieces aren't good  -  I seem to remember it wasn't easy photographing these sepia pictures as the light kept reflecting and I couldn't get the quality of images I wanted.                   The original photos don't include any sizes or heights.

The Register lists these three Rd. Nos. for Heppell, but omits any description of intended use - so no help with a guide as to purpose, although we can probably feel sure as to the use for 85 and 86.

[agincourt17]

Thank you, Paul.

That's really helpful.

Fred.