Early Dated 18th C. Norwegian Hen Form Rosemaling Ale Bowl

During the course of any given year I attend dozens and dozens of estate auctions here in the Gloucester, Massachusetts area. Usually seeking out Asian works of art in the forms of porcelains, bronzes, jades, scrolls and textiles.. This past week I caught wind of an auction down in Newport Rhode Island area, its not far, so I took a ride down after hearing about some things of interest for me.

True enough, it was a good auction and quite a few rather decent Chinese porcelains were on deck. Over the course of the sale several pleasing lots happily came my way, and with them a few things had been mixed into the lots by the auctioneer. Odd bowls, a stoneware set and a curious paint decorated carving had been added to one Chinese porcelain lot. After the sale it all got packed up and I headed back to Gloucester.

Upon return to the office I put the odd carving on my desk and began wondering just what it was. It had an inscription dated "1702" and looked very Scandinavian, a chip carved Hen shaped bowl about a foot long, very old looking inside and out. After doing a bit of poking, an answer was found as to the objects identity. It was a very early Ale Bowl, which were tradition drinking vessels in Norway and were most often made in the form of a double ended work with dragon or serpent heads on each end, similar in appearance to a Viking Ship. More rarely they were made in the form of a Chicken or Hen!

They are apparently always chip carved and deeply hollowed out and as in this example have a charming clean shape enhanced by color and geometric panels done with hand panting.

Date mark on Hen Form Norwegian Bowl "1702"

 

So we took a few pictures, put together a description, condition information and popped it onto our Ebay Account. So it was up on the venerable online auction site with our Chinese objects, Cape Ann paintings, Bronzes etc.

Within what seemed like minutes we had quite a few folks bookmarking it and an Email asking for a direct sale instead of letting the Ebay auction to run it's course.  I declined the offer to sell right away and went back to see a few more folks had Book Marked it.