Topic: ID and Info - Jade 3 corner bowl

[Susie Bassoo]

I found this website by accident after my granddaughter was looking at some items in my cupboard and decided to be curious about ' old things' as she called them! So we are doing some research together. Must point out that the technical and computer expertise comes from the 7 year old!

This jade colour 3 cornered bowl which says British Made in the centre.

[Cathy B]

Welcome to the board, Susie!

Bernard Cavalot and Angela Bowey have written pages differentiating these cube patterns, and will be able to tell you much more than I can, but for now, I believe your bowl is a beautiful Jobling 2077, as seen on this page here: http://www.glass.co.nz/icecube.htm.

I know what you mean about having to learn from your kids. My girls have just given my husband a tutorial in animating power point presentations (he hasn't got the time or patience to muck about with help menus...)

[Susie Bassoo]

Thanks - We are setting up a research folder - I hope this doesn't make my granddaughter hoard like me though - she is now eager to look in more cupboards.

 

[Bernard C]

Susie — Welcome.

Cathy kindly provided the basics, but I am adding a few extra notes that you and your granddaughter might find of interest.

Note that the photograph shows the 3-Handled Salad Bowl on the wrong plinth by a different manufacturer.   It was sold on its own, with Jobling's black 2535 waisted plinth, with the plinth and a jade flower block, and, rarely, as a centrepiece with the plinth, a jade nude lady and block.   In jade, it was made from about 1933 to the late 1930s.

The manufacturer, James A. Jobling of Sunderland was and is much better known for Pyrex.   You can find their "JAJ" trademark on old Pyrex ovenware.

These bowls sold wholesale ex-factory gate at 39/- per dozen (3/3 each) in 1934.   To this you have to add delivery and the costs of the wholesaler and retailer, so the shop price was probably around 5/11 or 5/11½.   The plinth was 8/6 per dozen, the flower block 5/6 per dozen, and the nude lady centrepiece figurine and block was also 39/- per dozen.

Jade was the most costly glass that Jobling produced at this time — simply because some of the ingredients were very expensive.    Baker & Crowe, in their A Collector's Guide to Jobling 1930s Decorative Glass provide the full ingredients list with percentages by weight for Jobling's jade:

Sand 61.73%, Soda Ash 13.82%, Potash 1.08%, Lead Oxide 9.42%, Alumina 7.49%, Quicklime 2.78%, White Arsenic 0.47%, Boric Oxide 0.27%, Fluorine 1.25%, Chlorine 0.31%, Sulphur Trioxide 0.91%, Uranium Trioxide 0.34%, Cupric Oxide 0.11%, Chromic Oxide 0.018%.

Apparently this is technically known as Uranium Moonstone.   The minute amount of uranium in it flouresces under Ultra-Violet light, so the bowl looks very bright in direct sunlight.    Looking at some nasty chemicals in the ingredients list you can understand why many small glassworks and studio glassmakers buy their glass as ready-prepared cullet.

If you want to read more, you should be able to borrow the above book through inter-library loan from your local library — or ask here.

Bernard C.