Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: brucebanner on March 16, 2014, 09:42:59 PM
-
I seem to be collecting these but i'm not sure what they are, this one has a folded rim similar to the Georgian folded foot, i have a various bits with folded bases of all ages so i know there used for extra strength, it's hand blown with a broken pontil and age wear to the base.
It's 7 inches in height 5 inches across the rim and 4 1/4 inches across the base.
regards Chris.
-
looks about right - they're seen with and without a foot - this appears an unusually tall example - but the flattened rim is usually the give-a-way. Ceramic examples could be quite large. However, not sure whether there is a difference between a leech carrier and a leech jar, the carrier being presumably taller - Ivo might know.
-
"I seem to be collecting these . ." That's funny ;D
-
"I seem to be collecting these . ." That's funny ;D
Not quite sure why this is amusing, but realising that you're collecting something can happen some considerable time after you've collected it. This happened to me when I realised I had all three versions of the Davidson No. 10 Grid Fitting in my spares boxes, and, because you have all three, they tell a story. So I put them on my collection shelf in company with the rest of my little collection of interesting bits and pieces, mostly damaged and therefore almost worthless.
Now a question. Why decorate a leech jar? Are happy leeches from a decorated jar better at what they do than unhappy ones from a plain jar?
Bernard C. 8)
-
A bit of a dark aera, leech jars. Of course, if it has an inscription 'leeches' there is no mistaking them. These jars were basically counter jars in pharmacies - most of these are ceramic, some lf them were glass. They have an outward rim for tying a muslin cloth ovr them, for proper aeration. For transporting leeches there were special pewter containers. The small footless glasses with an outward rim were not leech jars but seed storage - closed with a cork fixed with a muslin cloth and kept upside down.
Leech jars are in general quite large, the beasts need their exercise. Not quite sure what the smallest properly identified leech jar is. Other counter jars may have similar shapes, so confusion lurks.
-
Thanks for your help guys, what do you think to the age of it?, i have another different shaped jar i think might be something to do with chemists i'm going to post that now, regards Chris.
-
I don't think Nancy's comment was intended remotely to imply anything other than friendly surprise - perhaps more a sense of amused surprise that Chris should be finding leech jars on a regular basis. :) I also feel they are an interesting social product and have a couple which I've added pix of to this thread - at least I've always assumed them to be such, despite their being only about 3.5" (90 mm) tall. If you look in almost all the books you'll be hard pressed to find reference to these things, although I appreciate there is information on line.
My two are also decorated with a very typical second half C19 'ferny' sort of basic wheel engraving - rather crude, and lacking the better quality wheel decoration of the larger example from the op.
As a purely personal opinion, and in view of some of the features of this example I'm tempted suggest that date wise it might be from somewhere in the first quarter of the C19.
-
I would put them later, around 1860.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pteridomania
-
thanks Ivo - I was suggesting that my two smallish examples were after 1850 - which agrees with the details in your link.......... are you suggesting that the taller example from Chris at the beginning of this thread is also around that date? - I did wonder if the folded rim and snapped pontil on his piece might have sugested an earlier date than my smaller pieces. :)
-
Well i seem to collect similar pieces of glass, group them together then something else catches my eye, it's roemers at the minute and i know nothing at all about them. Paul you always seem to have something of real interest in your collection, how can you beat these bits of social history there all fascinating modern and old.
-
Unlike many others here Chris I tend to collect only in a general sense, but reckon I have a catholic taste which is odd for an atheist - and the ability to collect like a magpie. ;D ;)
Down side is I'm forever shoving stuff back into charity shops - and although I'm never good at any one thing, like you I enjoy the social and historical interest that comes with these pieces.
I'm sure we have folk here who know something about roemers, so you should be o.k.
-
Paul, I also have some of the fern-engraved examples, in addition to plain ones.
Guy Gaboriau's book of medical antiques is an excellent reference book that features them, including one similar to the cobalt blue example here.
Chris I think your original item is too tall, tall enough for a stopper. Is it ground inside for a stopper?
-
maybe useful to add some factual information about sizes again
http://www.leeches.biz/care-leeches.htm
A seed storage bowl of 350 ml is just not large enough to hold leeches.
-
You're comparing apples and oranges. You're also using modern standards. Leeches collected in the 19th century are gone now. They were so popular that collectors had to move further and further east through Europe as supplies were exhausted. The ones in your reference are modern farmed leeches. They look longer to me. They say 50 to a large jar. I'm sure 19th century users of leeches (and many many ordinary people did use them) did not worry about modern animal welfare standards. They wanted one from the chemist and they needed a little jar to put it in temporarily.
-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirudo_medicinalis
I am assuming nothing but so far no leech jar or pot à sangsue has turned up in any medical or glass catalogue of the era.
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,43125.msg240902.html#msg240902
-
As a reply to Julie i would say my jar has never had a stopper it's lovely and smooth and unmarked on the inner rim, regards Chris.
-
This jar holds two pints of water that fills it just below the upper rim, perhaps this is the equivalent of the the Stuart tankard argument i stepped into not so long ago. Whatever this is it's a great looking piece of glass, i'm no plant expert but does anyone recognise the flower on the side might that suggest it contained that specific plant seeds, is it an aquatic plant of some sort?, thanks for all your help it's been a fascinating read especially the old post Ivo put a link to on this thread from a previous GMB post, regards Chris.
-
Chris
I've wracked my brain over the plant on your jar to no avail. Maybe Kew could help. Or the RHS. They might know if it is indeed a seed storage rather than a leech storage jar and what the plant might be. Just a thought. :)
-
the engraved flower head on Stuart's large leech jar has some similarity to the earlier C18 method of of creating a stylized rose that appeared on some Jacobite glasses - segmented into six petals. I'm not suggesting this piece has connections to that cause - perhaps it's just an easy or simple way of engraving a flower head. It may well not be intended to be a specific flower.
As a child, I do remember paddling in a particular brook - looking for bullheads and loach under stones, and seem to remember seeing the occasionally leech - which from memory were quite small things.
-
The plant could be the lesser spearwart,a sort of water based buttercup.
-
I trained many moons ago as a pharmacist and pharmacologist, and medicinal leeches were (and still are) widely used in research, and are making a comeback in some fields of medicine.
We used to use the European medicinal leech (Hirudo medicinalis), and I can assure you that most examples are far from small (anything up to 9 inches long and an inch in diameter when satiated on blood).
We kept our leeches in a little water in plain cylindrical stoppered glass jars (anything up to a 100 leeches in a 5 litre jar) and they were fed on chunks of liver and clotted blood. They were notoriously good escapologists, quite capable of pushing the stoppers out of the jars, and we used to tie muslin tightly round the tops of the jars to try and keep them contained. It was not unusual to come into the laboratory in a morning to find large, juicy, escaped leeches attached to just about any surface.
Satiated leeches are not too gross to deal with, but hungry leeches can, and do, bite quite readily, and are fairly difficult to remove from skin without harming them until they have finished their meal.
Fred.