Antique Epergnes between £0 and £0
An epergne is a dining-table centrepiece holding several glass vessels, trumpets, flutes, lily vases or small dishes, in a single metal stand, so one ornament served the whole table.
What Is An Epergne?
Glass is the defining material: it's named in 44 of 56 titles on Sellingantiques. The frame, where it's named, is silver plate, pewter, spelter, white metal or gilt bronze. The form emerged in the eighteenth century to raise fruit, sweetmeats or flowers above the table, and glass-vased versions on metal frames became the standard flower-holding centrepiece through the nineteenth century.
The version you're most likely to meet is a Victorian coloured-glass epergne on a plated or base-metal stand, dated somewhere between the 1860s and 1900. Cranberry is the commonest colour, in 15 of the sampled titles. Uranium and vaseline green, ruby, pink, milk and cased glass all turn up in ones and twos.
Around that centre sit several smaller strands. Clear cut glass and crystal on plated or early fused-plate frames occupy the upper end. Figural stands are a recurring curiosity: an eagle in pewter, St George slaying the dragon, a Fox and Grapes white metal frame. Single vases and flutes are also sold under the heading, and pairs surface occasionally.
Dating is broad more often than exact. "19th Century" and "Victorian" between them cover 26 listings, so the decade is usually the dealer's judgement. Where a decade is stated it clusters on the 1880s and around 1900. The dated field runs from 1800 to 1930 and stops there. It's a slow category, roughly six a year, listed by 38 different dealers, so almost every one arrives from a different source.
What Sets Them Apart
Count the vessels. Titles that state a number, seven cut glass vases, a quadruple with four uranium vases, three trumpets, a four-arm frame, sit above the single-vase and single-flute entries. Scale works the same way: the few titles saying large, substantial or very tall run above the small vases at the bottom of the range.
The frame does much of the rest. Gilt bronze and ormolu, early fused plate and carved Black Forest bases hold the top; spelter and white metal sit at the bottom. Glass quality tracks alongside it, with cut glass and crystal clustering at the upper end and plain or etched blown glass below.
Colour carries the middle. Cranberry, ruby and the green vaseline pieces run through the mid and upper-middle range, well clear of plain clear glass at the same scale. Pairs, when they appear, generally sit above single examples, though not always.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for epergnes between £0 and £0, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
Epergne comes from the French epargne, a saving. The whole point was to save guests passing dishes about the table.
The Antique Epergnes between £0 and £0 Glossary
- Epergne
- A table centrepiece holding several glass vessels in one frame or stand. Titles often use centrepiece to mean the same thing, especially for cut-glass and plated examples.
- Trumpet
- The tall flared glass vase used in these frames. Listings count them, so a three-trumpet epergne carries three.
- Cranberry glass
- Pink-red glass coloured with gold, and the commonest colour in the category by a wide margin.
- Uranium or vaseline glass
- Yellow-green glass containing uranium. Both words appear in titles, sometimes joined as green vaseline.
- Cased glass
- One layer of glass laid over another, as in a pink and white cased lily vase.
- Frilled rim
- A rim worked into wavy folds while the glass is hot. Titles also spell it crimped or crimpled.
Frequently Asked Questions
What glass colours are most common?
Cranberry leads, named in 15 of 56 sampled titles. Ten of those say cranberry glass outright, and several combine it with ruby, milk glass or vaseline in the same piece.
Uranium and vaseline green form a recognised second strand, alongside ruby, pink, milk and cased glass in smaller numbers. Clear cut glass and crystal make up the rest.
Are epergne stands solid silver?
Rarely. Silver appears in eight titles, and it almost always sits next to the word plated.
Only one sampled title claims sterling. The other stands are silver plate, early fused plate, spelter, pewter, white metal or gilt bronze.
How old are most of these?
The dated field runs from 1800 to 1930. The earliest are fused-plate and cut glass centrepieces dated to 1800 and around 1820; the latest are an Art Deco French centrepiece and one substantial piece, both 1930.
Most of the naming is bracket rather than year. Twenty-six listings say only "19th Century" or "Victorian". Where a decade is given, the 1880s and the years around 1900 dominate.
Why do single vases get called epergnes?
Vase appears in 10 of the sampled titles. Some are frilled-rim hand-blown vases, some trumpet vases, one a cased lily vase, one an Edwardian flute on a sterling base.
They're the same vessel forms that fill a multi-branch frame, offered on their own. They sit at the lower end of the range.
What are figural epergne stands?
Stands modelled as figures or animals rather than plain arms. The samples include an eagle in pewter, St George slaying the dragon in silver plate, and a Fox and Grapes white metal frame holding opaque glass.
Each turned up once. Gilt bronze and ormolu frames with mythical creatures, several of them French, form a related group.
How often do epergnes come up for sale?
About six a year reach the market on Sellingantiques. It's a small, slow category.
Thirty-eight different dealers have listed one across the archive, so almost every example arrives from a different source rather than from a few specialists.