Topic: cut six sided bottle/decanter for show.

[Paul S.]

cut, slab-sided bottle designs occur uncommonly in the world of decanters - a few appear in the first third of C19 in the form of hyalith and lithyalin (Bohemia), then mid C19 rich cutting and ornate designs, followed by art nouveau, and plain bottles with large flat-cut areas seem to only re-appear with art deco, 1920 - 35.     
C20 deco chunky angular designs are fairly common on liqueur sets and full sized decanters - possibly more from the Continent than the U.K.           Moser and others dabbled, so did Barnaby Powell with a tapering square-section pyramidal bottle that had the name of 'Govette'.

This one is deceptive in appearance - first glance it appears to remain simply as it left the mould  -  but all of the six sides are cut/polished and there's a large shallow pontil depression - the inside of the neck has been ground/polished though unfortunately the stopper is missing  -  plenty of base wear appropriate for getting on for a century in age, and one or two small white stones/seeds.   
There's no doubting its origin was somewhere on the Continent - possibly Bohemia - as can be seen from the matching No. which looks to be a 41 - but correct me please if I'm wrong - otherwise unmarked.       
Height is c. 24 cms (9.5 inches).             Quite why the opposing, slightly deformed marks to the lip - I've no idea  -  could be the remnants of mould seams.   They're not damage marks - certainly moulded into the rim.

Almost certainly a dead end in terms of a maker, but thought folk might like to see this as we get few bottles in this deco appearance  -  but fire away with comments if anyone has more info  -  sorry the pix aren't too clever.     

[NevB]

It may be my eyes but if you turn the number up the other way it looks like there is a faint line/serif at the top of the left hand number making it a 1 and it becomes 17. Pamela has a similar one by Baccarat in the 1916 Service de Table catalogue but it looks perhaps to be eight sided.

https://www.glas-musterbuch.de/Baccarat-1916-br-Services-de-T.55+B6YmFja1BJRD01NSZwcm9kdWN0SUQ9MjA5NyZwaWRfcHJvZHVjdD01NSZkZXRhaWw9.0.html

[Paul S.]

thanks - I suppose that's one upmanship - or should that be two upmanship - thanks, definitely this is not British so you may well be correct re Baccarat, but not easy to see how many sides the catalogue piece has.              But I was hoping to be one up on anyone who might have queried the matching No. - insofar as ......  Continental sevens usually have the crossbar on the upright part of the seven  -  and this one doesn't of course.         What do you think - I'm certainly no expert on Continental script.            We need someone from over the water to help perhaps.      I agree the No. 41 is higher than we see usually as matching Nos., but I know other folk here have mentioned higher Nos. that this.

[Paul S.]

thanks again for the Baccarat link, I've printed off a copy of that catalogue page.         I'm very tempted to perhaps have a replacement stopper made for this one - along the lines of those shown in your link.               At the moment Bristol Blue are making a replacement stopper for me for one of their own bottles I bought when I was in their part of the world earlier this year  -  the body came from a charity shop and the colour is so vibrant it seemed a shame that it should be incomplete.          The only down side is that they need the bottle sent to them such that the stopper can be made a good fit.

[NevB]

You're welcome Paul. I looked into the use of the crossbar on the seven but couldn't find if it is used all the time. There was a reference to using a curl on the top of the seven to differentiate it but it might be in this case the person didn't have a very steady hand. 

[Paul S.]

so you think there's a possibility this one could read 17 ?    Time was we had members from over the Channel who would have known the answer to this one.

[glassobsessed]

I would read it as 17 first, all the signatures I can think of are viewed looking from the centre towards the edge when they are on the underside edge of the base. I presume it makes it easier for the engraver, the other way around there is nowhere to rest and steady your hand.

John

[Ekimp]

Have no idea but the shading on the drawings in the Baccarat catalogue suggests that the sides or facets of those are concave.

[Paul S.]

o.k. I can take a hint   -  I'd really convinced myself that it wasn't a seven in view of the absence of the crossbar.                    So, we'll go with a No. 17 then though it doesn't get us anywhere toward a maker  -  in fact I did wonder if a Continental seven written without the crossbar might have have indicated a particular country  -  oddly, even I write sevens with that little bar, and been doing it for eons.                                      Perhaps it will be easier to make a replacement stopper if the flats are in fact flat.

thanks to all contributors.

[flying free]

I'd think a continental 7 would have a bar across the stem. 
I always write mine like that but have noticed here that people don't.

m