Featured Antique Blue transfer ware item, open salt, sherbert or ice cream cup?

This is a little item from a blue and white job lot. It is about 3.8ins at its widest. At first sight I thought it was an eye bath, but the shape is wrong. Then I thought it must be an open salt, but they are rare in blue and white pottery, and I can only find one or two round ones on line. Someone on another forum suggested it was a sherbert or ice cream cup, which also seems possible, although rather small. Again, I can't find anything similar online. I also thought that it might be for mustard, because a small spoon would fit lying against a corner. What do people think? I don't think the pattern will be of much help, it's a bit generic, but the pedestal shape is quite striking.

 

Thick pearlware glaze, classical shell moulded foot and scalloped rim, I'd say about 1800-20, likely Staffordshire. I think you are right about it being a salt, you see plenty of glass ones this size/shape from the period. So a nice scarce find.

 

And also silver ones of the same time. Very nice little thing.

 

P.S. I think the odd corner is something put on to correct a glaze fault, I can't find a break underneath.

 

Thank you, actually the answer I was hoping for! I have several glass salts from that time, beautifully cut and worth very little, too many have survived. Did you decide it was pearlware because of the bluish tinge underneath? I'm trying to learn ceramic pastes etc. but not very good so far.

 

Thanks, I will have to search online for a silver one this shape, to see a prototype. I hadn't thought of that!

 

There was a great deal of interchange in shapes. You get bone china teapots in classic Georgian silver shapes, for example.

 

Yes the blue in the accumulations of glaze and the slight iridescence is very typical of a pearlware glaze which fits the period and item too. I suspect the discolouration is old restoration that has aged, this is often how it looks after a few decades. You likely won't see a break as it will have been filled and painted over, don't try and remove it to check though unless you are planning on having it restored afresh. It will affect price but uncommon pieces can still do well despite restoration, the fact it is old restoration generally hurts the price less than a fresh restoration in my experience.

 

Thank you! I am familiar with the silver shape in porcelain tea ware, but it never struck me that this could be called that, although now I can easily picture it made in silver, that seems the perfect description, and I've just found a few oval pedestal silver salts online, although none with a similar diamond shaped base. I once put a tea canister online, describing it as "silver shape", which also turned out to be pearlware. Several American forum members were baffled, they had never heard the term before. I don't know what they call the shape in America, perhaps they don't have many examples, and of course not all shapes have a name.

 

Thank you for your comments! Since I'm in the bottom end of the market in ceramics - job lots of oddments, mostly - a lot of my pieces have damage. I see it as proof that the object has been loved and used in the past, but of course it sometimes makes them unsaleable to others. (I even quite like rivests, it shows the pieces was worth repairing, and they actually do a very good job of closing cracks.) This repair must have been a very good one at the time, especially if there was a break or piece missing, although now it is a bit unsightly. I've noticed that experts on television sometimes point out small bits of damage on lovely pieces and then underestimate the sale price by quite a bit, because collectors are buying for love, not investment. Now that I know that this can be described as a "silver shape pearlware Georgian salt" I will soon be putting it on ebay, to see if it can find an appreciative home.

 

I've never seen one before, for certain. Then again Americans don't see many salts at all except for the all glass ones.

 

It's all relative of course, a 1990's Doulton figurine with a knocked off head and restored foot is for the bin; something like your piece the restoration will affect value but it is definitely worth saving and selling; a Safavid pot at a general auction without any damage would make everyone think it was a fake!

Nothing wrong with trading at the shallow end, you get to find and save historic items like this and save them from being lost forever by people who don't know any better. It's recycling too which is good for everyone.

 

Staple repairs were sometimes done on valuable pieces, but I once saw a staple-repaired soap dish. And it was a cheap soap dish. Sometimes repairs mean a piece was loved and there's a story in there somewhere. I'm more into the stories than the value as often as not.

 

From Jzyk & Robertson's "The Open Salt Compendium' (2002):





~Cheryl

 

Wow, thank you so much! The Leeds salt is very similar, it could be from the same mould. Thanks to the clue I've just found another Leeds salt, similar to the one in the book, in the collection of York Museums, which also looks the same, although also painted rather than transfer printed. The one in the book is described as very rare, but maybe I will come across another like mine, if I hang on to it for a while. Of course it may not be Leeds, so many pearlware pieces are unattributed, but it's really growing on me! I'll keep searching for pearlware, Leeds, salt, boat shape, pedestal . . .