Topic: Engraved finger bowl?

[Paul S.]

thanks Peter  -  what can we say, except thanks for showing a marvelous collection of Lynn pieces  -  and most useful for those here who perhaps lack the necessary books and might not know the variety of shapes etc. produced in this historic moulded pattern.
Only wish I could afford to buy those from you  -  but will know where to come when I win the lottery

[oldglassman]

 Thanks Paul
                     As you said its handy to have items available to illustrate posts, luckily I have a few !!!,

Just a teeny comment though the rings are not moulded but tooled on the exterior of the vessels, I am sure my friends at georgian glass makers would make any of the items you mention and as you will find from the link , very well priced ,

http://www.theglassmakers.co.uk/glasseslynn.htm

cheers ,

Peter.

[bat20]

Thanks for all the replies,l and I'm sure others have learnt loads again.I guess the sugar for these bowls would have come in a loaf and you would cut it up ,using tongs to serve?..so my earlier comment on no spoon marks on the inside is not relevant. .

[oldglassman]

Hi ,
         I could very well be completely wrong but I have always had the thought that for the finer tables sugar could have been prepared,crushed to powder downstairs and served upstairs in the "sugar bowls" silver sugar sifters were very popular at fine tables and needed powdered sugar and I cant see them upstairs doing there own crushing,I don't think the lack of any inside base scratching rules out its use as a sugar bowl if indeed it was crushed sugar , it would only have light use I think,
Just a thought ??

cheers ,
Peter.

[bat20]

Ahh,good old cheap labour!..your right.it was ground up in a mortar.Sugar was used in many dishes -sweet and savoury   
Sugar was used in many dishes, both sweet and savoury.
Sugar was one of the most important imports. Great fortunes were made from using slave labour in the sugar plantations. By this time, sugar had become affordable to use in a wide variety of dishes, as well as in tea and other drinks. More

For example, potted meat preserved in sugar was popular. Such sweet sauces as Orgeat, an orange and almond flavoured syrup, and Ratafia, a fruit and almond flavoured cordial, were popular. Sugar syrup was shipped in casks from the West Indies and refined in England. It was boiled until it reached the point of crystallisation, cooled and poured into clay cone-shaped moulds. The liquid drained away leaving solid sugar cones. Sugar cutters were used to take lumps of sugar off the cone. Caster sugar was obtained by grinding the lumps in a mortar.

[Paul S.]

thanks bat - very interesting - particularly like the sound of Orgeat and Ratafia - big fan of orange and almond flavours.........   probably at about the same time an entire family could get drunk on Gin (Hollands) for one shilling (currently that would be five pence).

Peter - correction noted thanks.

just before we put this one to bed, there is occasionally some doubt as to the exact purpose of pieces which are related closely or vaguely to this general bowl shaped appearance - and I'm thinking here of tea mixing bowls where - as far as I know - the sides are straight and the overall depth is noticeably greater than a sugar.          Unfortunately, some pieces fall mid-way in size and appearance - so if you think I've captioned the pix wrongly do shout - apart from those examples that are obvious from their shape, I'm not remotely experienced at determining those of a different design or shape.
I've attached pix showing firstly bowls I'm fairly sure are footed sugars, then some about which I'm unsure as to purpose  -  they might be footed sugars or possibly mixing bowls  -  finally there are tallish straight sided pieces, with feet, which I believe are mixing bowls.

In amongst these is what appears to be a water bowl  -  it has the return base (ogee shape) and the cutting looks to be typical of late C18 - it also has a six point radial star cut to the base  -  apart from this one piece, I think I've excluded any pieces that I know to be definitely finger bowls.

As for dating sugar bowls, I've had a squint through some of the books, and glass examples of the design discussed here, seem to appear around c. 1800, but there were silver sugar sifters that were used well before then, and as Peter has said the lump sugar was crushed below stairs.

[bat20]

Thanks for showing Paul,really interesting,when did tea mixing bowls start?

[Paul S.]

certainly not when the tea caddy was first used, as originally they were only small containers.         Probably around the late C18 I'd imagine, but having just looked at Wiki there seems to be some doubt that the glass bowl was used for blending the different types of tea.              There is the idea that at first the bowl was used for sugar, apparently.

[bat20]

I very much doubt this piece could be much older than the dates we have all mentioned,but for interest sake there is a glass in Bickertons' with the exact same engraving pattern dated to 1765.this glass is in the opaque twist stems,in my book plate 433,it's a bucket bowl DSOT 12 ply spiral outside gauze.I wonder how far back this flower pattern goes ,maybe it came here with bohemian engravers?