Very heavy cut glass bowl (ABP?), simple cane pattern with Gorham sterling rim. The bowl is 5.25" high and 10" across. It has 2 horrendous cracks and would fall apart into 3 pieces if not for the rim. The rim is why I bought this in the first place. First, it is sterling (by Gorham if I am reading the marks correctly...I think mid-20th century, but not sure). Secondly, it is decorated with fox (or wolf) heads amidst grape clusters!!! There are 6 of these motifs. I want to at least salvage the rim (I believe there is no hope for the bowl itself). But, is there any value in the 'intact' bowl given its condition? I keep telling myself No; am I correct in this? I didn't include pictures of the entire bowl because the cracks are just so horrifying (so sad). I can if you'd like to see though. What do you think of that rim?
If this were my piece, I'd find a replacement bowl before taking the rim off of this one. Could that be a bore's head? Are there tusks or are those grape vine twirls? It doesn't look like the snout of a wolf or fox.
Do you mean find a replacement bowl and then swap out the rim? Now, that's an idea I hadn't considered. I wonder how hard it would be to do that (without damaging the rim). As for the animal, a boar crossed my mind as well. I couldn't find matches online for any combination of animal and grapes though.
I have no ideas about as-is value, but do believe it would be a shame to scrap the rim (despite the bowl's condition,) Yes, that it a Gorham mark. The punch following the inventory number, is probably a date mark, but without cleaning it up a bit, it is difficult to interpret. I would just be concerned about doing damage to the rim in the processing of removing it from the broken glass.
Steampunk! I can see all six attached to napkin rings, or filled and made into a bangle. It's sad about the bowl, but it's toast.
I think it's a fox, and a lovely piece of silver - can't make out the last mark, but the Gorham lion/anchor/G is a form that usually dates from 1898 to well into the 20th century; the 'D' code was used for silver on glass wares from 1898 until around 1907, its use as a suffix rather than prefix indicates manufacture at the small New York City shop. Nice that you want to save it, a glass restorer should be able remove it and fit it back onto another bowl of the same size, likely having to do a little grinding or filling - wouldn't think it be terribly difficult to find a similar ABCG bowl at a reasonable price. Will also mention an old friend's solution in a similar case, a rather wonderful French Art Nouveau silver mount from a shattered glass vase - being a skilled wood worker, he turned a beautiful walnut bowl to fit the mount. The silver over the wood was just gorgeous, while he lamented the loss of the pricey vase, he always said he hadn't really appreciated the silver until creating his 'make-do'... ~Cheryl
Thank you all! Yes, I will not scrap the rim, I love the look of it too much; just trying to figure out what to do with it? :O) ? Remove for some creative/artistic re-purposing (as suggested by scoutshouse; too bad I don't personally have these skills) or transfer it to a sound bowl (DragonflyWink, I like this idea too).
The glass bowl is a goner for sure. You may be able to find a new one the same diameter. It would look really cool on a wooden bowl too.
Yeah - I'd say just take the Sterling rim off now and toss the broken bowl. That way you can measure the rim and see if you can find a bowl with the correct dimensions that it would fit on. If by chance you do find a bowl that will fit just use some type of adhesive to attach it.
I posted about this to a group on facebook also. After examining other photos more closely, it looks like the date mark is a horseshoe, dating this to 1905! I will clean up that area better and confirm this. I will definitely be on the lookout for a replacement bowl! It is ABP in a Harvard pattern (differentiated from the cane pattern due to the cross-hatching on the hobs). Learn something new every day...
I did see it has the Birmingham Assay Office hallmark on it (the anchor, called the Birmingham anchor) but don't know much about the other hallmarks
A little knowledge can be worse than none at all. Silver newbies often get Gorham's mark confused with British marks.
Oh my goodness, Ray! I didn't mean that as any sort of beating!! Please continue to say whatever you are thinking about a piece here. Giving my thoughts and then finding out I was wrong (and why) has been a terrific learning tool for me.
Gorham has made fox head stirrup cups. I'd think the fox and grapes go together for that reason. Can you show a photo of the entire bowl? I'm wondering if it's a punch bowl.
I was looking at glass restoration sites last year. They use a very thin film that will secure the cracks and, I think they fill in the cracks with some type of glue made specifically for glass. I don't know how expensive it is but it might be an option.
Here is one site. They use a glue that is cured with UV Lite. Here is a before and after of a piece that was completely broken off. http://trefler.com/wp-content/gallery/glass-crystal/before-and-after-decanter.jpg
