Cake or fruit stand; urea formaldehyde imitating white marble with green veins; Bandalasta; Birmingham, made by Brookes & Adams Ltd, 1927-1932

Pedestal fruit or cake stand, moulded in two parts from white urea formaldehyde with green marbling. The parts screw together on a metal screw. The shallow bowl stands on a central rimmed foot.

Fred Bulmer, a collector based in Leeds, Yorkshire, offered his collection of ‘plastic antiques’ to the V&A in late 1982. The Museum chose to purchase 59 objects from Bulmer the following year (for acquisition papers see MA/1/B3395). The objects were divided among the Museum’s collections according to object type: Furniture and Woodwork taking 26 objects (W.50 to 75-1983), Metalwork 18 objects (M.49 to 66-1984) and Ceramics and Glass 14 objects (C.41 to 54-1984).

Bandalasta ware was aimed at the then fashionable picnic market, the range increased in popularity after being displayed at Harrods department store, London, in 1929. This design was also availabled in brown or golden yellow.

The marble effect was achieved by manually scattering coloured moulding granules onto granules of the base colour before closing the mould.

C.42-1984