Posted 8 years ago
philb7586
(2 items)
This claret jug came from my grandmother who lived just outside of Paris and along the Normandy coast for most of her life. I cannot remember exactly when I was given this jug, but it seems like its been with me forever. I've carried it with my through multiple moves across country and Ive always placed it near the entrance way to welcome me home and so that others could enjoy it as well. Until recently all of the metal was black and I assumed it was pewter and supposed to look like that. A few weeks ago while doing some spring cleaning, I decided to see if I could give my jug a gentle cleaning and was stunned to see the black come of and this beautiful metal work come to life. Since then I've been doing some research and here is what I believe is true about my jug.
It appears to me that this is an Art Nouveau style, French fabricated silver or pewter with obscured glass claret jug from the late 1800's. The style of the spout and handle, the metal detail work with the roses, lilies, and face engraved on the front have lead me to this conclusion. Also the hand painted, gilted, chrysanthemums that adorn the glass bulb seem very French to me and are consistent with other French designs I've seen on line. The specifics of the jug are:
Overall height is 12.25 inches to the top of the spout minus the small adornment at the top.
the length of the spout front to back is 3 inches with a 1.5 inch adornment on top. The inside of the spout appears to be sterling silver.
The neck of the jug is only 1 inch wide.
The glass is quite thick and opaque, with 1.5 to 3 inch chrysanthemums painted on the sides highlighted with what appears to be gold leaf. The painted flowers are thick, almost like an embossed effect. For all these years I thought they were Dandelions...who knew.
The capacity of the jug is 650ml.
The metal top is 4.75 inches tall, while the bottom is 3.25 inches tall and 3.5 inches wide.
The underside of the jug has a hand carved letter I followed by a . and a small c on the opposite side although I'm not sure if that was carved there or just something in the cast.
So there it is, my favorite object, my claret jug. I may never know its true history since most of the people familiar with this piece have passed away. I may never know its true value since there are no Hallmarks that I can find other than a hand carved letter I on the bottom. Thats fine with me, I simply enjoy seeing it when I walk in my front door, even more now thats its cleaned up and showing its true beauty. Thanks for taking a look at it. It would be nice to find other similar jugs to compare and maybe learn a little more about what I have.
Hello everyone, after several busy years of my day to day life, I'm back on the trail of discovering the origins of my claret jug. After much careful examinations, I found some marks which I believe could hold the clues to this jug. I've added them to the pictures I already have here in hopes that someone may recognize any of these marks and give me a new branch to search. Thank you all for looking and sharing.
What a marvelous piece as an introduction! And a priceless family treasure too !
Hope Paris1925 will know who made it...
Welcome to CW :-)
Stunning piece
That's fabulous.........!
Might well be Daum, as one name to search for.
Or Legras, look thoroughly all over the mount for a mark :-)
It will be very small. Here's what to look for .... bottom left.
Thano you all so much for your wonderful feed back. I will look very carefully for a mark on the mount. What kind of symbol am I looking for? Is it the small rabbits head? I thought it looked like something from Daum initially, but I saw no marks to indicate this was true. I must admit I love the mystery and excitement of possibly finding the origins of this peice. It makes me love it even more.
I think Vetraio forgot to give a link ;-D
Here is one, for silver plate French maker's marks:
http://www.silvercollection.it/CONTINENTALSILVERPLATEQRS.html
Beautiful !
Merci David!
Thank you again everyone. I will conduct a very close inspection of the jug today armed with all of your recommendations and post my results to share with you. Now I must ask a question that will show my novice at this subject, when you reference the mount as the place to look, is that on the underside of the base or in the adornment on the outside? I seem to remember viewing some marks that ohers have found on their jugs that were I'm bedded in the design. Is that correct ?
I apologize ....
http://www.925-1000.com/Ffrench_marks.html
It really could be anywhere. The French marks are unobtrusive unlike English sh marks which are blatant.
Phil, with all the ornamentation, first look on flat surfaces around the rims, the handle, then anywhere if you don't find any there :-)
Take a loupe, they are tiny!
Thank you all for your comments. Im back on the trail after several year hiatus hoping to find more on the origin of this jug. I posted several pictures of marks I found on the jug in hopes that someone would recognize any of them. Thank you again.