This hand blown glass champagne coupe with fluted stem was made around 1850, possibly in America. It measures 5-1/2 inches high.
I imagine during an exuberant New Year’s Eve toast, well over 100 years ago, the base snapped off. Rather than toss out the broken glass, a replacement base was made. A simple, nicely turned wood replacement base was attached to the remaining stem and the champagne was poured once again.
Happy New Year to my friends and followers of Past Imperfect: The Art of Inventive Repair!
I often wonder if many repairs were instigated by the staff of fine homes who were given the cast offs and broken bits then repaired the items to enjoy a useful and beautiful object.
I have missed your weekly postings. I always look forward to them.
Joy, a lot of the “stuff” from the big house, I do not mean Sing Sing, ended up in staff housing. When we look at that comfy, homey, English look with the over stuffed chairs and furniture that looks out of scale, it was because these were cast offs and reclaimed by the staff. A great look.
This champagne coupe is lovely. I wish there were people doing this today. I have a couple broken pieces that I would have repaired in this fashion. They are pieces that I paid too much for but will not toss them.
Thank you Andrew. Happy New Year. Happy hunting.
I think those are good points from the above writers. Getting the cast offs was probably a perk of the staff. Though in most cases, one can imagine people repairing china, glass, etc., but there is something about the purpose of this glass that makes me think if they were drinking champagne, they probably didn’t have it repaired. This is one of those times when we may be too far removed from the people and their times to know what habits were then. It is easy to project today’s thought patterns onto people of earlier times when they may have thought in a different way altogether. Interesting post.
It must be nice to drink champagne out of that! Thanks you Andrew. Happy New Year!
Happy New Year,
Beautiful find, the contrast of wood and glass has a very modern, contemporary feel.
Cheers to 2016 and more weekly postings.
Lovely, but the bubbles are missing!
Cheers for 2016