www.925-1000.com

If anyone gets this, I'll eat my shoes.

4" long and assayed in Birmingham in 1911. I think it's all there; though there is a rough point on the glass which may betray the absence of something.

Miles


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Hi Miles,

A stirrup cup, perhaps?

Trev.
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No, I don't think so Trev. I've just tried drinking from it, and much of the water ended up on my face and shirt front.

Miles
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Hi Miles,

The only other thing that springs to mind is a vase that would fit in an epergne.

Trev.
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Heat the glass, apply silver mouthpiece to skin, wait till the evil humors are draw out, repeat as necessary.
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Trev, I don't think it's an epergne vase, though you have cast some doubts in my mind.

Wev, that's exactly what I had in mind, but since you didn't give its name I'm going to wriggle out of my shoe-eating duties.
It's called a cupping glass or ventose. The thin silver mouthpiece probably dissipates some of the heat from the hot glass before it reaches the skin, thus making it considerably less painful than solid glass versions. I really don't feel like testing this theory though.

I'm still curious about the rough point which gives the impression that something has been snapped off.

Miles
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Miles, I do not think it is a cupping cup. the shape is a bit narrow for that use. (Don't ask how I know, but trust me it is not a painful process and the heat involved is only enough to create a vacuum in the cup.) A cup would have been blown so the cut edge would be under the applied lip, it would have had no other glass added to the "pointed" end.

It may have had a "stem" to hold it into a sterling base (I.E. a crystal sherbert with a sterling base). I can picture it on an epergne, as a posie vase, or maybe even a holder for a silver wine funnel. Without the rest of the piece the possibilities are many and varied.
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It was sold to me as a breast milk expressor cup, and came in what the seller suggests was a midwife's bag along with some other medical instruments and objects.
It seems strange that a epergne vase should find its way in there.

Miles
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My dad told me never to ask what's in a midwife's bag but the item may have been in there with the rest of the epergne for the table celebrations on the birth of a child Miles!

Who made the item by the way?

Mike
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Anything's possible, I suppose!

The maker is Sydney & Co.

Miles
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