Topic: when is a piano insulator not an insulator ? when its got a lid

[SNJ]

When it has a lid!

Either the factory must have loved the design or they couldn't think of anything new. Either way, it looks to be a standard chunky insulator - lobed, with a smooth bowl-shaped interior - with a top lip added to locate the lid. Would anyone be able to suggest a producer, please? Or, for that matter, a possible use?

Base diameter 3½", height 2½". Good wear to the underside.

[Paul S.]

intriguing   -  you'd have to look back at previous insulator postings on the Board to see if there's a possibility you can match the base with a previous known design.
The colour isn't something I've seen before for an insulator, I don't think, and as to use, how about something for a trinket tray.

[Lustrousstone]

I think it's a marriage because the top and the lid don't seem to line up properly and the shades of blue seem different. I've seen insulators in pale blue Paul

[Paul S.]

thanks Christine  -  it can be a problem sometimes, viewing pieces on the screen only  -  not perhaps the best method for accuracy.    Regret I've been out of touch with these things for a while, but assume this colour not the most common shade for insulators.    

[SNJ]

Thanks, both. Definitely the same colour glass in the flesh. The colour variation may well be because the base is so much thicker than the lid.  Agreed that the shape of lid and base aren't perfect but then, I'd suggest, that if it was produced as a cheap utilitarian piece it might not have made financial sense to make a great effort to produce a perfectly matching lid. I'm guessing that the jar may have been something like a container for ointment, cold cream or similar, in much the same way that modern skin creams come in 'deceptive' glass pots with thick walls to disguise the tiny amount that they contain.

[Lustrousstone]

The effort to match a lid would be no greater than the effort to produce a non-matching lid. Mould machining has been pretty precise for a long while and these are early 20th C rather than late 19 th C

[Lustrousstone]

I have just remembered that we had this conundrum before http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,57798.0.html

I wonder whether these were factory or even wholesaler marriages to sell off old stock when the bottom dropped out of the piano insulator market.

[Anne]

Thanks for finding the earlier topic, Christine. Rather than have the two topics I've merged them into this one to keep all our thoughts together.

What bothers me about the base being a piano insulator repurposed is that raised retaining ring for the lid. I've looked at a fair few piano insulators and none of them have had such a ring. Some have a raised fancy edge rim, but it's not the sort that a lid would fit on. 

[Lustrousstone]

This one has http://lustrousstone.co.uk/cpg/displayimage.php?pid=408

[brucebanner]

Could be one missing a lid, i wonder if a rubber seal would have made the design fit together better?.

What are the odds of  two the same shape having  lids in different colours, could it be just a badly made mould.