above: Glass Rose bowl
from the World's Fair
in 1893, US definition
above: Glass Rose Bowl
from Czechoslovakia,
European definition.
Glass Rose bowls - from
The Glass Encyclopedia
A short explanation of Glass Rose Bowls:
Glass Rose bowls take two forms, depending on whether you are using the USA definition or the European one. The USA "rose bowls" are spherical with crimped tops like the one in the picture top left or very similar. European rose bowls are larger, without the crimped top, and often with a metal lattice top like the brown one on the left which was made in Czechoslovakia.
Rose bowls with crimped tops were popular in Victorian times, and were made in all the major Victorian forms of glass like Burmese, Peachblow, and satin glass. These Victorian rose bowls are highly collectable today. In Europe they were called "potpourri bowls" and the name "rose bowl" is used for more or less spherical bowls with a metal grill on top, designed to hold rose stems.
Crimped-top rose bowls were mostly used for dried rose petals and other potpourri, or to float rose blooms or as vases for short stemmed flowers. Many were purely decorative, and some are too small to be used for any practical purpose other than ornament. The first bowls in this shape were probably made in the 1870's and there are documented rose bowls from the 1880's.
Some of the most beautiful were made in England in the 1880's by Thomas Webb. There were also many beautiful Victorian rose bowls made in Bohemia and in the USA. Rose bowls come in a range of sizes from miniatures less than 2 inches in diameter to very large ones, more than a foot across.
In America production of Rose bowls has continued until today. Fenton Art Glass, for example, included rose bowls in the shapes they produced in their earliest days, and still make them today. Some of the Fenton rose bowls have three small feet.
More recently rose bowls have been made in Italy, and sometimes these are confused with the antique originals.
