What would you call this footed glass piece with a round, cupped top like a shallow bowl and a smaller foot? Is this a comport? A compote? How about a pedestal candy dish, the cheese dish to a cheese and cracker, candy dish or even a holder for a pillar candle?
Unknown Clover Cut Crystal Compote
I always called these “comports”, but I noticed more people call them “compotes”. Let’s take these from the top, using our trusty Mr. Webster.
A comport isn’t even listed in my dictionary. Hmm. Dictionary.com describes it as a heavy glass dish from the 18th century. I guess my vocabulary is a bit out of date!
A compote is a long stemmed dish to hold fruit, nuts or candy according to my hard copy book, and it’s the same in the newfangled online version. The term compote originally meant stewed fruit and people served the fruit in these fancy dishes. I guess if you have to eat stewed prunes for a treat then putting them in a pretty dish would help. Well… maybe not!
This is about 2 1/2 inches tall, about the right size and shape to have been the cheese part to a cheese and cracker set. The cheese dishes in these are short comports um, I mean compotes. It has just a trace of gold left on the top flat rim. I don’t think it was a mayo bowl as it’s too small for that. (People apparently ate more mayonnaise than cheese.)
I’ve had this one for several years. It was one of those pieces that I kept hoping would someday whisper its name in my ear so I could identify it. That never happened and when I found it again this spring I decided to go ahead and list it. It is on Etsy here.