{"product_id":"vintage-silver-plate-fluted-bud-vase-weighted-foot-c-1940-1970","title":"Vintage Silver Plate Fluted Bud Vase, Weighted Foot, c. 1940–1970","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA small bud vase in silver plate, about eight inches tall, built in three parts that read as one line. The rim flares into a shallow fluted trumpet with a scalloped edge, the flutes running down into a slender baluster stem that narrows to a waist and then swells again. At that waist sits a narrow collar band in a warm gilt tone, the single note of contrast on the piece. Below it the foot spreads into a domed shell, radially fluted in the same rhythm as the rim so the top and the bottom answer each other.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe foot is weighted and closed underneath with a disc, which is the construction used on small hollowware to keep a tall narrow vessel from going over when a stem is put in it. Underneath, the plating is worn back across much of the surface and the warm copper alloy body shows through in broad patches, with darkened tarnish caught in the recesses of the fluting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe same wear runs up the outside of the stem, where the silver has thinned across the belly and the copper reads through as a warm bronze glow. On the rim and the foot, where the plate is thicker and the surface less handled, the silver is still bright.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe metal question is settled by the foot, and it settles the other way from what the two tone appearance first suggests. A solid silver vessel, whether sterling or continental eight hundred standard, is the same metal all the way through and cannot wear to a different colour. This one wears to a warm copper alloy across the underside and along the stem, which is exactly what silver plate does when the deposited layer is polished and handled away over decades. It is plate, and it is offered as plate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat also explains the warm stem. It is not a designed contrast between two metals, it is the copper showing through on the part of the vase a hand closes around. The gilt collar at the waist is deliberate; the glow on the belly above it is not.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo maker mark, standard mark or pattern number was found on the exterior or on the underside of the foot. That is common on small plated giftware and it carries no date by itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat does carry evidence is the construction. The body is thin stamped sheet rather than raised or cast, and the fluting on the rim and the foot is machine regular, every flute the same width and the same depth. That is industrial production and it rules out the hand raised work of the nineteenth century. The weighted foot closed with a disc is the convention American makers of small hollowware settled into through the middle of the twentieth century for candlesticks and bud vases of exactly this scale. Taken together the piece sits in the postwar decades rather than earlier.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1940–1970. Dated on construction, since no mark is present and an absent mark carries no date. The thin stamped body and the machine regular fluting are industrial rather than hand raised, which rules out nineteenth century work, and the weighted foot closed with a disc is the mid twentieth century American convention for small hollowware of this scale. The range is what that evidence supports; a maker mark would narrow it\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFooted bud vase with fluted trumpet rim, baluster stem and domed shell foot\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSilver plate over a copper alloy body, with a gilt tone collar at the waist. Offered as plate, not as sterling and not as continental silver\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBase\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eWeighted, closed underneath with a disc\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNone found on the exterior or the underside\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApproximately 8 in. high by 3 in. diameter at the foot\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGood decorative condition with honest wear. Structurally sound and standing true. Plating worn through across much of the underside and along the belly of the stem, exposing the warm copper alloy beneath, with darkened tarnish in the flutes. Rim and foot remain bright. No dents, splits or losses found. Sold as found and not replated\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne stem, and the vase does the rest. The narrow throat holds a single rose or a sprig of something upright without any of the propping a wide mouth needs, and the weighted foot means it will not go over when somebody walks past the table. At eight inches it is the right height for a bedside, a bathroom shelf or a place setting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe worn plate is the part worth arguing for rather than apologising over. Bright uniform silver reads as new. Silver that has gone warm and coppery exactly where hands have held it reads as something that was used and kept, and it sits far better beside brass, walnut and old leather than a polished piece would. Grouped with two or three other small metal vessels at different heights it does more work than its size suggests.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67556004331625,"sku":"VE-1741","price":193.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/01_8fa0c85b-8bc2-45ba-af12-5a4c9962fb73.jpg?v=1790557407","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/vintage-silver-plate-fluted-bud-vase-weighted-foot-c-1940-1970","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}