What is a celery vase?

A tall footed vase used at table for serving celery, a distinct Victorian form. It shows up in 57 titles, making it the most common named specialist shape in the archive. It has no modern equivalent, which is why the name reads oddly now.

How old are most of these vases?

The dated field runs from 1800 to 1960, and 642 of the 843 listings carry a clean year. The 1900s decade is the largest single bucket at 172, followed by the 1930s at 143 and the 1920s at 104. So the early twentieth century outweighs the nineteenth. A scatter of Georgian and Regency pieces appears in the titles, but not in numbers large enough to register.

Which glass sits at the top of the range?

Multi-layer French cameo and moulded opalescent glass occupy the very top. Titles that name a specific model or motif rank above unnamed pieces by the same makers. Small Victorian coloured posy, specimen and spill vases sit at the bottom of the range.

Are pairs common in this category?

Nearly one title in seven describes a pair rather than a single vase, and 'vases' plural appears in 130 titles. The samples run further than pairs: sets of three, garnitures, an epergne of seven cut vases, and collections of eight and thirteen hyacinth vases.

What does vaseline glass mean in a title?

Yellow-green glass containing uranium, which glows under ultraviolet light. 'Vaseline' appears in 18 titles and 'uranium' in 21, and sometimes both sit in one title. It turns up on Victorian posy vases and on Czech Art Deco vases alike.

Do any unusual one-offs appear?

A few things appear only once across the whole sample: a Chinese Peking blue glass bottle vase, a Russian glass vase, a Welsh silver-overlay vase and an oversized railway battery vase. There's also a Grand Tour bronze athenienne with a glass amphora, and one Gallé vase with a named former owner, the only celebrity provenance in the archive.

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Antique Glass Vases

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Decorative glass vessels made to hold flowers or stand on display, running from about 1800 to 1960, from small Victorian coloured posy vases to French cameo and moulded opalescent art glass.