Victorian crystal table fountains.

Elaborate table decorations of blown and cut glass were popular in the mid-eighteenth century in England but then seem to have fallen from favor, perhaps because of their fragility or perhaps because silver objects were more obviously luxurious and had more eye appeal. The trade cards of Maydwell and Windle, and Colebron Hancock, both English glass-cutting firms of the period, show objects that seem to combine the functions of a candleholder and a fountain, (1) but none of these are known to survive. About a century later, however, elaborate table centerpieces of glass and metal with holders for various combinations of flowers, sweetmeats, and goldfish emerged (see Fig. ...