Info Please: Polychrome Flow Blue on Butterscotch Ground?
Posted by Kay Hudgins on October 2, 2019, 9:13 pm
Help! I've been trying to ID my object for years. Yesterday, flipping around on the internet, I found your site which has a 3 page educational article from research by Ellen Hill, Helen Swan and an Education Sub Committee identifying rare Ironstone "Ground" colors. The article is Additional Color on Flow Blue or Mulberry China: Polychrome, Ground Color and Gaudy-Type Decoration . Halfway down on page 3 is a piece showing as "Butterscotch" background. It is almost identical to mine. I have attached photos of my piece which includes a carved Venetian-like wooden stopper. There is a repair on the top of the bottle. The piece is Aprox 10 inches tall with cork top & 4 inches widest. With the lightweight stopper it weighs 1.5 lbs. Marked on glazed bottom "1048 M" or at least I think that is what it is. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Re: Info Please: Polychrome Flow Blue on Butterscotch Ground?
Hello Kay, Have seen this type of bottle before. People call it either a sauce bottle or a barber's bottle. This is the first one I have seen in a ground color. Usually they have the white back ground with flow blue and polychrome. At some point the original stopper was lost, as it would also be ceramic and colored the same as the bottle, so someone made a stopper for it. It is still a very nice piece in an unusual ground color. Hope this info helps.
Hi Kim, thanks for your reply! Until stumbling upon the Rare Ground Colors article on your website, I had no idea my piece is Ironstone! I thought it was some kind of glass because it's so heavy, silky, luxuriant & brilliantly colored. Also, I've always assumed Ironstone was white. The photo of the bottle (page 3 of the article) is essentially the same as mine with just a bit of variation. In the article I think the authors indicate that many unmarked pieces with these types of ground colors were made in England & were not sold in the American market. I find all this just fascinating!