Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: meltdown on March 26, 2018, 11:43:42 PM
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This is a very heavy, truncheon shaped piece of glass, rounded one end.
The other end as you can see has 'ribs' around the base.
A very solid object - could it have been a truncheon do you think?
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Could it be a "pestle" as in "mortar and pestle"?
How big is it?
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Hello John,
Thank you for your reply :-)
The glass is 25cm long and weighs 866g.
Now you say it, it did cross my mind but I thought it too large and heavy. I have looked again at the rounded end and there are a couple of fleabites and scuffing to the edge which would suggest it has been used as such a thing. It has a snapped pontil to the rounded end which is rough, you might think it would have worn down over time to something smoother.
I'm guessing you are most probably correct, I would not have wanted to be the person to use that on a daily basis, you would end up with one arm looking like Popeye's!
Well thank you John, you have confirmed something I had dismissed simply because of it's size.
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For something industrial I suggest rather than domestic
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A rather long Victorian glass dump?. There are similar colour normal size ones on eBay.
Mike
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A rather long Victorian glass dump?
For info (and fun, with apologies to all readers) on what can become a complex discussion ...
The item is not a "dump" (aka "dumpy") in the sense of a "door-stop" which was the terminology in earlier books, and stated in Harold Newman's "An Illustrated Dictionary of Glass", published 1977.
In some collector circles, especially paperweight collectors, this item would be referred to as a "whimsy" or a "paperweight related item". It gets classified as such because it is made from green bottle glass just like the door-stops ("Dumps"). But because it does not have the required stability to stand alone and hold open a door, it cannot be a "Dump" / door-stop. But wait ...
... A "Dump" was apparently named as such because it used so-called "end of day" glass in preference to simply dumping it out of the furnace. On that basis, anything that was likely 19th or early 20th century and made at the "end of the day" from bottle glass could be called a "dumpy item". And yet ...
... There is another complication. The true door-stops were indeed of a size, shape and weight that would suit the function of holding open a door. Many were decorated internally with tinfoil petaled leaves, or lots of air bubbles, or had sulphide inclusions and so on. So what about items that looked just the same but were a tad too small or a bit too thin or just plain wobbly? They do exist, so what were they if not "Dumps"? ... They were (in the more modern language of collectors) "paperweights" or "mantel ornaments" or "whimsies".
And that is what the OPs item is - a whimsy. Unless of course, it was purposely made, either on contract or in large numbers, for a specific role and not just something put together at "the end of the day". ...
... In which case, Christine's "industrial" idea would seem very reasonable - and maybe it was just what it looks like, an industrial pestle (or a very solid "drum stick" ... or maybe even a truncheon).
Sorry about all that ... and all the dots ... ;D
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oh, I wouldn't worry ................... we have others here who also find amusement in said specks. ;)
I was going to look in my Nailsea Glass book, but can't find it presently - seem to recall it contains a variety of examples of whimsies/friggers, but have looked in the two Christie's Michael Parkington catalogues since he also collected such things. Cheroot holders, walking sticks, pipe tampers, seals, knife rests etc., but nothing like this in evidence.
My opinion is not a whimsy - but industrial I'll go with - though no idea what presently. Assuming it had an attachment on the non-rounded end, then for what use might you need something with a glass end?
the op might contact the Nailsea glass museum - it's possible they might know the answer.
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I suggest it's an industrial pestle...
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Hi , Drumsticks are usually more recognizable as such (33 cm) though a knock on the head with one of these would have the desired result methinks.
cheers
Peter.
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A big proportion of the flower foil dumps and airbubble ones must have been used as ornaments on shelves not on stone floors to hold doors open as so many are in such lovely condition, you can tell a Victorian doorstop made out of glass from its usual terrible condition chipped scratched and bruised.
I also think the dumps with flowers were production pieces made in there thousands not end of day as some are really complex and the glass is such good quality and clear.
Why use glass to keep a door open when wooden wedges or iron were available makes no sense to.me.
Like the drumsticks, I found some sort of glass stirrer earlier in the week I think is Victorian.
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Unfortunately, 'dumps', often those with complex interiors seem to have been produced more recently than the Victorian period - some are in exceptionally good condition.
The answer as to why use glass to keep the door open may relate to many similar situations where something which once had zero value and considered only of immediate utility use, was commandeered into service as the first heavy object to come to hand and which did the job.
These dumps originally had none of the antique value they now possess - look how much of our history we binned 1850 - 1950 before we realized the past was interesting and valuable.
how about an industrial sugar crusher? If you look at the much smaller sugar crushers used when making hot toddies in rummers, they had a similar domed head, which became worn with use - though these are not I don't think what we now call stirrers.
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I will put a pick of the stirrer on later, yes I have seen a few Chinese 60's copies they are nothing like the originals as far as I have seen, all the flower dumps I have had or own have signs of age and if they are being copied who is doing it, some have three layers of glass almost Sommerso and would a dull Victorian house with hardly any contents stick a decorative thing on the floor to be knocked around?
They are also a bad design for a doorstop especially the taller ones and the top heavy ones they would just tip over and roll away.
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agree - in fact something like a cold iron would be a much more suitable heavy object, and it wouldn't roll away. ;D
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It could be a Victorian sex toy?
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I thought the Victorians denied that sex even existed. ;D
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There are sex museums in amsterdam maybe contact them, its a good idea Bat and looking at it i think you could be right.