What are these hand painted ceramic balls ?

I found these the other day, amongst a pile of Christmas decorations

The all depict the same picture in three different sizes (quality of painting gets worse with size)

The crazing is a bit suspect, but thought they were interesting enough to buy as they were cheap

What do you think they were for ?

 

Hi,
I have a couple of blue and white ones. I think they are carpet balls. It was an indoor "bowling" type game.
greg

 

Pretty sure these are transfer printed fake carpet balls. Hobby Lobby had bins of them about 12-15 yrs. ago, but I only recall those ones in one size.

 

Hmmm, they can't be fakes, I don't want them to be !!!!!!!!

 

I know how you feel (from bitter experience). The giveaway on yours is the vent hole, Victorian carpet balls were a solid mass of maybe stoneware (or ceramic).
I haven't had any originals in a while, but if memory serves, they weighed about half a pound each. Carpet bowling was a Victorian indoor game similar to croquet, there was a small cue ball, I think the game originated in Scotland.
Although I believe yours are purely decorative, they would make a nice display.

 

These are very heavy (solid)

But it won't be the first time I've been fooled

Is it them chinese again ? !!!!

 

See the small hole in your last photo, that was a vent to allow air to escape in the manufacturing process, if they feel solid and hefty, it may be because the ceramic walls were thick.
If you search eBay carpet balls for sale, 4325 items come up. If you narrow that to antique carpet balls 54 items appear that include antique carpet sweepers and runners. Eliminating the obvious, there are maybe 12-13 examples of Victorian balls.

 

Thanks for all the info by the way, there are lot of them on ebay, I was only looking at the antique ones before. But haven't been able to find anything similar to mine.

I noticed there's a seem running through the big one, is that another indication that they are not right ?

 

Reading this page:

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/feat...cle_ef783469-7f4d-56ea-938e-041f91116e83.html

I'm not sure they are carpet balls, why 3 different sizes, with the same pattern, and the large one is almost 6 inches ?

I can't seem to let this one lie

 

Even if not old or valuable, the balls are pretty and could look nice sitting on a sideboard with other nice things.
They look old, but I have no idea.

 

In many places, the original ones were called carpet bowls, not balls. The truly old, solid, individual balls/bowls commanded decent prices for a while there.

New, hollow versions were introduced from China in, if I recall correctly, the 1990's. They were rather ubiquitous design accessories for a time. Home magazines showed them on display, heaped in bowls. Lots of places carried them, from catalogs like Gumps to "home" stores like Pier I. Prices varied widely.

Once the "heap 'em in bowls" trend died down a bit, the "used" ones hit the market. MANY of the hollow ones have been sold as "antique" when, in fact, they are not.

 

I have a large bucket full of them that were sold at Christmas Tree Shops in the 90s. Mine are blue and white. Nowadays, they're used as decorative accent pieces. I've never seen the red ones and I quite like them even if they're new.

carpet balls

 

Can someone please show me one that looks similar to mine, and I will be satisfied, as all the ones I've seen look small, a uniform set and nothing like these

What's the game the boys are playing in the decorations anyway, it looks like there throwing something through a hoop