Topic: Venetian style bowl with cherub prunts but is it Sowerby or Salviati?

[glassobsessed]

When I see a bowl like this I automatically think Salviati but there are a few things about it that leave me wondering could this one be from Sowerby? It is a little unadorned compared to most,  something about the pale blue colour (which is clear cased) does not seem typical either and then there are the cherubs.

I bought two of them and turned down two more the same in amethyst, both had cracks behind a cherub.

If Sowerby then obviously not their range named Venetian, maybe from the years in the 1870s before it was introduced. Pages 75 to 81 of Sowerby Gateshead Glass by Simon Cottle are interesting if anyone has a copy.

Probably barking up the wrong tree.

John

[chopin-liszt]

Does the use of the four pronged pontil rod help to give any indication, either way?

[glassobsessed]

Not that I know of. Seen it on bowls that I thought definitely were Salviati, think I have seen five prongs too, sometimes see a small mark as if a small diameter rod was used and other times they are larger.

[chopin-liszt]

I'm sure Salviati did use a four pronged thing, it was a four pronged rod mark on that set of amber and gold finger bowls you had, and the construction of the base looks similar. (I had origninally thought they had "folded feet", but that is something else.)
I just wondered if Sowerby was known to have used such a tool, or if its use might eliminate them.

[glassobsessed]

If glass identification could be so simple.... I am certain they were used by Salviati but then so were all the other types mentioned.

The trouble in this case is the lack of documented Sowerby art glass from the period in question (around 1870-1878), I have never seen any, hoping someone may have. Sowerby are reputed to have employed several glassblowers from Murano for a few years at around that time.

[brucebanner]

I bet John a lot of the Venetian looking glass was made here early 20th century, i reckon it was made in Stourbridge and in Scotland and elsewhere, if you have Scotlands glass 1610-2010 look at page 45 the end decoration is near identical, plus i think there are some in Charles books.

[chopin-liszt]

Well-spotted!
Described as being Jenkinson, the prunts do have a loop at the top, but they're side on, so I can't make out any other features (whether lion, raspberry, strawberry, bull or cherub)
The bowl is a little shorter in height than yours, and decorated with internal coloured and white stripey swirls.
But I cannot see the construction of the foot, the image covers that up, as the photo is taken from slightly above.

The amber bowls you had ages ago, were cased in clear too.

[glassobsessed]

Forgotten about that, assuming I actually noticed when I first read the book after purchase... That bowl has "applied thistles" rather than cherubs according to the text.

Makes sense Chris, when a style is fashionable and demand is high every manufacturer will want a bite of the pie. The demand for this style was on the wane by 1900, seems to have been strongest between 1870 and 1890.