Vintage Alabaster & Gilt Brass Trinket Dish

Vintage Alabaster & Gilt Brass Trinket Dish

A shallow round bowl turned from white alabaster, finished with a wide band of gilt brass at the rim and a small upright brass rest clipped over one edge.

The dish began life as a smoker's companion, the sort of object kept on a desk or a bedside table back when such things were kept everywhere. Its second career is the more useful one: earrings at the end of the day, a wedding band beside the kitchen sink, stamps, paper clips, a loose stack of coins, a watch.

Alabaster is a soft and slightly translucent stone, and it behaves accordingly. It warms in the hand, and it holds light rather than throwing it back, which is why it reads as quietly luminous next to a lamp. The gilt band has mellowed unevenly, and the stone carries the small marks of a long working life. 3.25” diameter 

Details

• Material: Alabaster with gilt brass rim and rest
• Form: Shallow round dish, vide-poche
• Date: Vintage
• Condition: Good vintage condition, with mellowing to the gilt and light surface marks to the stone consistent with age and use