SOLD Terrific Flip-Top Sugar Bowl by Bailey-Walker / Utilities Specialties

Pottery : By Type : Restaurantware : Vitrified China : Flip-top Sugar Bowl

 

Here is a great piece of diner or restaurant nostalgia - a flip-top sugar bowl that dates from between 1923 and 1942. The china bowl carries a double bottom mark of The Bailey-Walker and Utilities Specialties Company. The underside of the metal lid is stamped Utilities Specialties Company / Jersey City, N.J .; and there is a partial patent mark on the underside of the lid, beside the bottom of the knob.

This bowl is 5-1/2 inches across and 3-1/2 inches tall with an attractive dark green stripe around a white, vitrified china bowl. The lid is chrome plated brass, with a piano hinge in excellent working condition. This piece would have been used in a commercial setting: a restaurant, diner, hotel, or company lunchroom.

This bowl is heavy ! It weighs 1 pound 12 ounces BEFORE packing.

CONDITION: Overall superb and an attractive display. The heavy restaurantware weight bowl glistens with only a very few (must tilt in bright light to find any) light surface marks and NO cracks, chips, flakes or repairs. The lid is flat and straight with NO warps or twists and is clearly original. The lid does have numerous all-over light bumps and dings (we hesitate to call them "dents") expected from use, but they are hard to see until it is held up close, because the chrome is so bright and shiny.

PLEASE LOOK AT OUR CLOSE-UP PHOTOS to see details, and please note that the chrome plating has worn through from use in several small areas, where golden brass shows through on the piano hinge, at the base of the knob on top of the lid, and on the metal rim ring below the knob.

We could not find out much about the Utilities Specialties Company, but the Bailey-Walker China Company operated in Bedford, Ohio between 1923 and 1942. This company specialized in producing durable china for commercial customers including hotels, restaurants, clubs and churches. From the bottom mark on the bowl, it is clear that Utilities Specialties purchased china pieces from them to fit with metal parts and sell to the trade.

A beautiful example of a long-gone era in eating establishments.

Item ID: 2009-00190