Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

[thenickelguy]

Have not bought a coin for quite some time, let alone an ancient but I was cleaning up my basement and found something I bought over 20 years ago.

This footed bowl appears to be pewter, but maybe it's bronze. It is not an ancient bowl but it kind of looks like one.

I was going into an antique shop or a yard sale in the Pocono Mtns a long time ago. The place was a mess but I persuaded the seller to let this 5 inch high footed bowl go, complete with old dents and original crack. It has a great old color to it. Do you think I overpaid for a quarter?

I like it. Underneath it has an E S and maybe a frog symbol and a mark that looks like sort of like an X.

 

Edited June 22 by thenickelguy

[robinjojo]

Great purchase for two bits!  I like the color, and the crack gives it character.

[CPK]

Cool! Any idea of the history behind it?

[Hrefn]

I think it is a broth bowl circa 1700, like this one.

 https://www.bonhams.com/auction/22681/lot/142/a-pewter-broth-bowl-english-circa-1700/

[thenickelguy]

21 minutes ago, Hrefn said:

I think it is a broth bowl circa 1700, like this one.

 https://www.bonhams.com/auction/22681/lot/142/a-pewter-broth-bowl-english-circa-1700/

Awesome! I think you nailed it! The one on Bonhams got a nice price. I know I got my 25 cents worth. I actually like mine in the beat up condition. It now resides in the kitchen atop a Pie Safe with a coffee grinder, a butter churn, a brass bucket, two copper funnels and a food chopper.

[Al Kowsky]

12 hours ago, Hrefn said:

I think it is a broth bowl circa 1700, like this one.

 https://www.bonhams.com/auction/22681/lot/142/a-pewter-broth-bowl-english-circa-1700/

Hrefn, Wow 😮, impressive research 🤩!

[Hrefn]

10 minutes ago, Al Kowsky said:

Hrefn, Wow 😮, impressive research

Thanks!  From the appearance I was sure it was old, and I estimated it was late 1600’s.  Pewter was more likely than bronze for a household implement.  I put something like “17th century pewter bowl” in a search engine,  examined the images it retrieved, and Voilà!

I tell my children, “You have the Library of Alexandria in your pocket.”  The ability to uncover information afforded to us by search engines, the internet, and a smartphone is mind-boggling.  It allows one to leverage what one does know, or guesses, in a fashion undreamed of a few decades ago.  Once it would have been necessary to take an object like this to Sotheby’s or the Museum of Fine Arts to identify it, or be prepared to spend many hours in a very well-equipped library laboriously searching old auction catalogues and books.  

Now, one minute and a few clicks.  And a modicum of luck.  

 

[thejewk]

A beautiful little item.  I too would have grabbed it.

[thenickelguy]

Thank you all!

What I thought was a frog  and an odd letter X is probably a "crowned X"

I think anyway, It is a mark for better quality pewter from what I have read since yesterday. What the E S is for I suppose are the makers initials.