Topic: Sugar bowl ?

[Paul S.]

I did consider the lidded sweetmeat/urn/lidded jar - but the brain said they were earlier than the possible date here, and they were taller usually, and from what I've seen they are more ornately delicate and mostly with much cutting.
The world is awash with sweetmeats of the classical style, but can anyone point us in the direction of a qualified sweetmeat of this pattern and size?        Do we know when they changed from those tall delicately cut pieces to this squat style?

Being thick I frequently need to quote from those better informed, and coming back to Harold Newman, when speaking of sweetmeats he says of the contents   …….

""...……….    various kinds of sweetmeats, probably dry sweetmeats, such as chocolates, nuts, cachous, candied or dry fruits, etc. (as distinguished from 'wet sweetmeats', such as trifle etc., eaten with a spoon and more likely served in jelly glasses ………...…………""

no mention of chicken hearts and livers

But back to the shape etc.,     if this were Georgian then IMHO it would be of the typical C18/early C19 appearance.         In Barbara Morris' book 'Victorian Table Glass And Ornaments', the lady shows a c. mid C19 honey jar with cover similar in basic shape to this one, though admittedly size isn't provided  -  mushroom finial to the lid with short stem and thick flat foot.

[LEGSY]

 

[bat20]

Interesting stuff Paul,do honey pots have a cut out for the spoon?

[Paul S.]

pass ……...…                      honestly, I've no idea, I've never owned one, but certainly such holes on lids occurred in the second half of the Georgian period  -  I have a mustard pot and the lid is 'holed', but I'm unsure of the date of the pot.        I can't see if the example in the Morris book has a spoon hole in the lid.

I'd suggest the problem is that, as with many of us who have an interest in Georgian glass, we see so many of those traditional tall cut lidded sweetmeats that anything substantially different from that appearance requires good provenance to convince us that it's still a sweetmeat.

Gadrooning is a feature with a long history of use, so doesn't really help with dating, and the shape here would certainly be very unusual for a Regency sweetmeat  -  such designs as this one are mostly biscuit boxes, large butters - but who knows, perhaps it was just a large lidded sugar.

[bat20]

I've come across a few jars described as being for preserve and being about the same dimensions.It would be interesting to look into what type of preserve was used.

[Paul S.]

might you not need a rubber sealing ring, or grease-proof paper - as in Kilner Jars  - for preserves intended to be stored for any length of time?        With an ordinary lid such as this piece I'd suggest not for preserves, though honey, jam and other single sitting edibles might o.k.         But who knows.

Preserve wildlife, pickle a squirrel;-)