Posted 9 years ago
artcraft
(1 item)
I have a client that just came in with a very unusual ice water pitcher by Meriden B. Co.. The top section (top rim, lid, handle and spout) come separate from the body of the piece with two screws at the handle and spout and the outer body section is a sleeve that fits into the base. The unusual part is the sleeve section is comprised of some kind of compressed pressed paper board with an oil painting on it; a glacier scene.
The model is #215 can not find any thing like it.
A fabulous item. Would love to know more about the scene. Is there a boat there too?
Patent for 1868 .... Early for arctic exploration.
But then Sir John Franklin was 1845.
Sir John Franklin and his 128 crew in the British ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror were seeking the fabled Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans when they became stuck in ice. The men all died and the ships vanished
The wreckage of the Erebus was just discovered this past September, the Terror still remains to be found.
The discovery of the Erebus wreckage (or was it the Terror?) gives new meaning to "Canada's Arctic sovereignty" .... a disputed concept.
There's some discussion of the marks here:
http://www.smpub.com/ubb/Forum21/HTML/001211.html
" .... The bottom of the pitcher has Trademark Meriden Britannia Company , Meriden Conn. 1854-1898 and has the following two patent dates: June 13, 1868 and Nov 3,1868. ....."
and the reply:
"I'd date your ice-pitcher from somewhere between 1868 (when the patents were issued) and 1882 (when the patents would have expired.)
A more precise date would require finding the Meriden B. catalogs for those years and locating your item. Your item most likely has the catalog number stamped on the pieces below the circle trademark."
&
"Also note that Meriden B. catalog numbers don't indicate the year of manufacture. For example, the 1873 catalog lists tea sets numbered 1883 through 1887.
The numbers weren't assigned sequentially. Later catalogs may have lower numbers than earlier catalogs.
Also, the same numbers were reused on totally different kinds of items, sometimes even in the same catalog."
i think that the illustration is from a painting by Frederic Church from around 1855 or so.