19th c. French Melon Bell

Found in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, this 19th-century French cloche à melon was hand-blown from thick glass with a small solid knob at the top and a wide flared base. Cloches like this were the first form of greenhouse in a French potager, set over the lettuces and the young melons in early spring to hold the heat of the sun against the cold of the morning, so the harvest came weeks earlier than it would have otherwise - a small piece of glass worth its weight in fresh greens before the rest of the village had any. Each one was blown by hand and no two are the same, the glass faintly greened and full of small bubbles where the breath caught in the cooling. Sylvie sets it over a fresh cheese on the dining table.