Featured Cut glass sugar? urn? sauce? with silver accents - many photos

Afraid if I put this in pottery/glass, the silver people won't see it ... and if it was in the silver section, the glass people may not see it - I think I need help from both! Just purchased this afternoon, sorry for the state it's in - dirty and unpolished.

Nearly 9" (22.5 cm) high
Too large for a sugar bowl? What do you think? It does have a cut-out in the lid for a spoon/ladle.

Two similar pieces on rubylane are being described as 'Anglo Irish' ... possible?

The silver band at the top of the lower half has very hard to read hallmarks ... I can make out the lion passant, but I think I see King George III where the town stamp should be. To further complicate matters, the makers mark is only partially legible ... and appears to be stamped on top of the date letter! I thought maybe the hallmarks were intended to decieve, but it's really such a small amount of silver on the piece - what would be the point?

After staring at it for a bit ... I started to wonder if the top was married to the bottom? The pattern isn't an exact match. I cannot imagine it would have been too easy to find an oval/elliptical lid that fit without cutting ... but there are some lines in the lid that are just slightly 'off' making me wonder if it was cut down.

As much as I'm trying not to ... I'm bonding with it.
I welcome any thoughts or comments as to origin, age, function ....

 

Oh My - that is sooooo pretty. And older than I thought it would be too. Let me see what I can do with what little of the marks is still there.

 

Well, you know it's sterling and George the Third looks right with the pigtail and his nose in the air. I don't think the partial maker's mark was stamped over the City Mark - which when not present is assumed to be London (if I recall a remark to that effect made by AF a while back.) So I ran through the London makers that start with I, have a big dot centrally located between the I and one other letter and have a rectangular punch shape (as opposed to something fancier.) You would not believe how many that still left.

The sterling and rough age are the most important things to know. The maker is probably irrelevant - some blokes in a shed, as AF would say.

That's all I can do at this relatively late hour. Perhaps Ladybranch can work some magic with the image of the maker's mark that could provide a clue as to what it was stamped on top of.

 

Another, Oh my, what a lovely piece. Baker beat me to the same conclusions. The London city mark was not stamp many times on narrow smaller items and especially not on them back in "them thar days." I worked on editing the pic in hopes of making out the 2nd letter in the marker's mark with no luck. I think the maker's mark was kind of doubled stamped because if that is the date letter code on the bottom, the shape of the punch doesn't seem to match any of the punch shapes used from 1786-1821 when this particular Geo. III stamp was used. Whatever stamp is on the bottom, looks like it is an oval or round shaped punch.
http://www.silvercollection.it/englishsilverhallmarks.html

I had the same luck as Baker on the maker's mark of "I," big dot in the middle, whatever the 2nd letter - no luck. There were many I dot maker's marks that meet the time frame of 1786-1821, especially the I dot B. Some examples are on the following page:

Scroll down about 1/3rd of the way to see at least a half dozen "I dot B"s with their time frame 1804-1827/
http://www.silvermakersmarks.co.uk/Makers/London-IA-ID.html#IB

>The maker is probably irrelevant - some blokes in a shed, as AF would say.<

Ditto! Just being able to say of the George III era is the best selling point. Sorry, I have no help for you on the glass.

--- Susan

 

sidebar....again...
if you click on New Posts.....you never miss anything and can choose what to or not to look at !.....

 

Thank you, Bakersgma! I'm happy that you also see George III's head there The style of the piece looks appropriate for that date range too, I think.

Thank you also for taking the time to try and find a silversmith with an "I dot ?" mark (that was very popular, it seems).

I need to clean her up and see if she plays nicely with my Early American glass.

 

Thank you so much, Ladybranch/Susan!

Good thinking about the shape of the date stamp - I hadn't thought of that.

Thank you for also taking the time to search through the sea of "I dot ?" marks. Maybe, once some of the tarnish is gone, I'll be able to see more of the second letter ... but, as you and Bakers stated, it probably doesn't really matter.

Any ideas on what its intended purpose was?

 

For berries?

 

I'd think "cold" dessert sauces such as Madeira, Praline, Peach, Lemon, etc.

 

"The chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!"

 

Hmmm ... that lid would be useful for keeping any fruit flies away while dining in the garden
might be a bit small though ... thanks for the suggestion ... now I'm craving strawberry crêpes ... yum!

 

I could see this holding brandied hard sauce for a plum pudding ... since I'm not fond of either, I prefer the ones you've suggested. Maybe over a small dish of Bassetts Vanilla ice cream?

 

Or if you're set on strawberries, a bit of Madeira sauce is the BOMB............

PS gotcha on the hard sauce/plum pudding thing.......once a year is more than enough

 

I don't think that is the original lid
The base has curved design, the lid has angles and appears to be a different type of glass and cut.

The lid fits and could be used with the base, I just don't think it is the original lid.

 

One consideration on the lid being original would be whether the same marks appear on it's edge trim. I assume that the ones already shown are on the edge of the lower section (my bad), but clarification would be helpful.

Whoops! Just went back and reread the OP. So the question should be whether any markings at all can be found on the edge of the LOWER section.

 

Yes ... I think it may be a "marriage". I stared at it for over an hour before I realized the top didn't match the base! I seem to be starting a home for misfit antiques.

 

Sometimes my meaning gets lost in my 'wordy-ness'

There is no silver, and no marks, on the lid ... (it is shown alone in the third photo down)

The base has nearly double the amount of panels as the lid. Plus, the lid has very angular cutting while the base is more scalloped.

 

Ah! I missed that too! Sorry.

You're probably right about it being a marriage in that case.

 

Hah.......marriage in need of Divorce !!!