Featured Bride Basket

Hey Glassies:

I don't recall that I've posted in this forum before; I'm usually concentrating on furniture. Nevertheless, I scored this bride basket on a quadruple-plated silver figural stand by Simpson Hall Miller & Co. The glass basket is in a moire pattern. The piece is about 13 inches tall U.S. I'd guess 1890s for a date.

Please fill me in on what you know about the company, or who you think might have made the bowl, or some kind of ballpark figure about what you think an asking price for something like this might be where you live, or in a big midwestern U.S. city if you knowledge extends that far. I don't know much about the topic, but seeks to learn more.

Thanks!!

 

Love it. Does it not need a handle to be a bride's basket? Guess I might consider this a compote, if I had to put a word to it without any prior info. Far out of my wheelhouse here.

 

Yeah, compote works as well. Not sure that a bride’s basket needs to have a handle or not. In any case they were originally known as berry baskets. It’s all good!

 

A rose by any other name... Is it a certainty that both parts started out together? The lady would work well as a lamp base & the bowl can definitely hold its own without further ornament.

 

This is a fruit stand, likely 1880s, though a few year either way possible. As suggested, a basket would have a handle - the term 'bride's basket' came about because cake and/or fruit baskets, with or without glass inserts were popular wedding gifts, the earliest I've seen 'bride's basket' used in ads or catalogs is the 1910s for tall slender pieces intended for flower arrangements.

Will check my references in a bit for your piece or one bearing similar elements, since manufacturers often used the same parts on various pieces...

~Cheryl

 

Very cool, that’s great information Cheryl! The person that sold it to me called it a bride’s basket, so I did as well. Great to know the real name (fruit stand), which I will not hesitate to use in the future!

I was told that the bowl and stand have always been together, so I’ll go with that, but there’s no written proof.

 

Very nice.

 

Sorry for the delay - life got in the way. The closest I found are these two in an 1883 Derby Silver catalog:




~Cheryl