Topic: Sowerby Uranium Spill Vase

[NevB]

I'm calling this Sowerby although it's not marked and I can't find it anywhere There are pieces in the catalogues with the same basket weave pattern. It's 2.75" tall in an unusual pale green colour, is this their green opal? The base has been ground level.

[thewingedsphinx]

Hi Nev,
I don’t think this is a Sowerby colour, I think it’s more of a French or
Bohemian colour, also the woven basket pattern was made on the continent and England.

Regards Mike

[NevB]

Thanks Mike, I think you are right, more likely French, possibly Portieux/Vallerysthal, I'll have a search.

[cagney]

  Possibly American as well. Barlow/Kaisers Guide to Sandwich Glass goes into some detail on the difference between Baccarats basket weave and the sandwich basket weave on colognes and small containers [some with covers] like yours. Roughly from the 1850-1870 period. An example of Baccarats weave pattern https://www.jeffreysevans.com/auction/baccarat-basketweave-hat/
An example matching yours except a different color and the table ring [foot ring] polished. https://www.jeffreysevans.com/auction/pressed-basket-match-toothpick-holder-7/
A good match for color https://www.jeffreysevans.com/auction/pressed-covered-basket-pomade/

  Lastly on this subject Barlow/Kaiser mentions that "Both patterns where made during the same period out of exceptionally beautiful glass. Midwest  [read Pittsburgh,U.S.A,] and French companies later used Sandwich's pattern on figural match or toothpick holders of lesser quality. Presumably this relates to lead glass vs non lead glass.

  This information hardly definitive. Seems most difficult to keep tract of who is copying who in 19th century glass sometimes.

[NevB]

Thanks cagney, the lavender one is identical to mine in the pattern and dimensions. We don't see an awful lot of American glass, except carnival glass, so I'm inclined to think mine is a French version, it's not lead glass. With regard to the "factory polished table ring", do they mean it has been ground rather than polished flat to enable the piece to stand level?, mine has been. Here's another photo to show the handles better.

[cagney]

  It is meant to mean ground and polished. A given, shorthand. This was not the usual practice. Seems to be specific to some articles in American pressed glass.https://www.glasmessages.com/index.php/topic,73232.msg406908.html#msg406908. Dresser/ other articles in color seem to be afforded the same option as tumblers as far as polished footings. Probably the higher price for these offerings in new/popular colors warranted it. Wether to level or upscale unknown. As most if not all pressers were being paid on a piece work basis I am sure they were cranking the stuff out as fast as possible. End quality control sometimes spotty at best. Photo of a goblet ground to level and only  semi-polished to a soft satin touch. Probably Union Glassworks, Somerville, Mass. U.S.A. c.1865.
 

[cagney]

https://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,73232.msg406908.htm#msg406908.  Aaarghh........

[NevB]

Thanks cagney, that clarifies it.