Pressed Glass Heart Bowls Pair Swirled Ribbed Clear Candy Dishes 5 in

A pair of heavy pressed glass dishes in the form of hearts, each moulded with a swirl of raised ribs that sweeps around the body and breaks the light into bands. Both are clear, both are the same pattern and size, and both stand on a flat foot without a separate base ring.  Pressed glass of this weight is made by dropping molten glass into a metal mould and forcing it into shape with a plunger, which is what leaves the interior smooth while the outside carries the mould pattern in crisp relief. The swirled rib was a favourite of American and European pressers through the middle of the twentieth century because the diagonal catches light from every angle, so a dish on a table reads as bright even in a dim room. A matched pair like this was sold for nuts, mints and small sweets at each end of a sideboard.  Condition is very good. Both dishes are clear and bright with no chips or cracks found along the rims or points, and no cloudiness in the wells. Light surface scratching consistent with use appears in the bases under raking light.  Shown against a rule, each dish measures about five inches across the widest point of the heart and about three inches tall.