Can we put the glass on it, John?

Some decades ago, Mrs H and I were browsing round a small and rather uninteresting local antiques fair. A dealer was showing an old chamber pot to a potential customer who had presumably asked about a maker’s mark on the base.

It was possible to tell from a distance that the chamber pot wasn’t anything special. For obvious reasons they were churned out in huge numbers and tend to be a little – er – functional. Anyway, in a loud voice the dealer called out to her husband – “can we put the glass on it, John?”

She meant the magnifying glass of course, to examine the maker’s mark as if it might possibly be George Jones or Royal Doulton and not some second division pot works which is what it clearly was, even without looking at the mark.

Ever since, Mrs H and I have often responded to anything pretentious with – “can we put the glass on it John?”