EDITORS
David Watts
G ASS CIR ___,LE
N~WS
27 Raydean ~oad
Barn~t, Herts. E?.
Gabriella Gros
9 Harman Drive
London,
N.W.2. 2 EB
MUSEUMS
MOVE TO
CONTRAST ING NEW
HOMES
The long-awaited moves of
Corning glass collections
entatlves cf the Glass Ci
Hurst Vose, wera present
and have record their impressions of thes
BROADFIELD HOUS GLASS MUSEUM takes its
ing at Kingswin ord, now in the Borough
in 19th century glass.
The officia opening was graciously
No D 15 September 1980
the Stourbridge and Dudley” id the
has at last taken place anrl c•p:res-
cle, Herbert Woodward and Ruh
t the official opening cerPm nies
outstanding events.
from an attractive Georgi ,n
udley, West Midlands, and~~
by
HRH Princess
was sunny, scarcely marred
ot Kent
on Wednesday 2n April l.980 0 The afternoo
shower, the pla e gay with bunting, flowers
attractive
and ost charming, unveiled a pl
accompanied
by he Mayc,r of Dudley, Cllr. M
Hajdamach,
Dudl y’ s Keq:•er of glass and Fin
a member of the Glass Ci_rcle. . Princess Mi
six
rooms by lo al gla:;;;s specialists includ
ward. The roy l visit”or showed a lively i
Bohemian
glass becau•:;,_, of her Austrian des
demonstrations f glasJ-blowing by members
engraving by Mr Mic:1ael Fairburn. To roun
Byrne, managin
director of the Webb-Corbe
sets of tumblers made by local glass firms.
and waving flags. The Prin
que and
then toured the Muse mt
s Gwen Homer, guided by Mr
Carles
Arts and, like
many of thos involved,
hael was conducted round eac • of Lhe
ng Messrs. H.J. Haden and H.
terest in the
exhibits, espe
ent,
she explained) as well
f Stourbridge College of Art
off a very happy occasion,
t factory,
presented the Pri
The origin 1 intention was to open the useum later in the year, but
was brought fo ard to coincide with the Ro al visit to the district.
colossal task
t removing, arranging, displ ying and guiding the 1700 e
well as organi ing the mass of illustrative material and supporting acti
was nobly
unde taken by Mr Charles Hajdamac and his assistant, Mr Roger
aided
by Mr No man Jackson, the Museum care aker. Much midnight oil wa
and when one a·mires the attractive and com etent results, one can only
the Herculean abours were concentrated int but a few short weeks.
THE CORNING MUSEUM OF GLASS was officially pened on Thursday 29th MaJ J9
The new Museum has risen like a phoenix fro the devastation left by
t 11c
which ruined t e 1951 luilding five years a o. The new building is a 1=
stunning affai , designed by architect Gunn r Birkerts, and featuring spe
glass sculptur s by Dominick Labino, Stanis av Libensky and Jaroslav lry
Corning Pr sidcnt Tom
Buechner has made sure the antique glass is ho
of flood
range on the f j rst floor of the ne Museum; the ground floor j ·~
occupied by mu eum staff who are presumably more expendablei
The majori
y of the 20 000 glass items eld in the Corning collectio
t show Jn the dark ‘time tun el’ or circular masterpiece
galle·ies opening off the orridor which are arranged
t
the evolution the glass industry from 15 0 BC to the present day.
For those .ngaged 1 studying glass,
tn central core of the buildin
devoted to a::; lendidly appointed
research Ubrary which houses the muse
comprehensive ollccti r,n of two dimensiona material on the histo~y and
of glass.
Glass Cir
effort was wo
on glass tabl
fflE WORLD OF
It i sur
concerned wit
their huge An
le m.mb ~s who attended the pening must surely have felt
th wh1li. with the dded attt ction of dinneT appropriatel
, ”7Lth glass dinner service and tabl centt’epi ces.
EWING MUSEUM
ising to discover that unti
beer and btewlng. Coura&
or k ry which dominate,
now London has had no muse
have now put the matt r ti&h
he South I by Towe I
!bits, a~
itJ s’
odswvrth,
burnc
h5lip T ul.>-i<.lge L •~-msullant for containr;.rs and drinking vesseJ s nd the Muse..un
has ::icquired hi-3 rollection of pressed beer glasses and cans for their u-m display.
'e can look c0r~~rd to watching this aspect of conveying t~e precious beverage fr"ffi
tun to ltm grow u1der P~Jlip's guidance.
'l'hf opening h01rs are weekdays, 10.30-6.0 (7.00 on Wed.)
and 11.00 5.30 on Sun.
COR "ING SPONSORS PI:ILBY IN TYNE AND WEAR
This unique exhi bi :.ion to commemorate the artistic contribution of Wil 1 ia-n ;1-i
1 1 • • th f scovered.
1ose wht. -/~t a ong, to oin ~~· e ~n o· simply. admire the results found L.
o~t sa~, s y1ng experience. . 1~ res
2 uf~s o the dig are summarized in an C”‘:t!’<~r e
attractive 6-i.: ,;., ..... report contain~n~ 1gures and 4 photos of the furnace which y
can be obt lt ed
from treas~rer Ph1hp Whatmoor for 65p inc. P.& p; All profits gt>
to finance he dig which 1s sorely short of funds. Fur.ther excavations of th,
s’te are scheduled for the three weeks from 3rd April 1981 and visitors and tho!:
prepar~d to wield a trowel will be w~lcome.
Book
Review GLASS 13)’ RUTH HURST VOSE, Collins ARCHAEOLOGY Series, 22 µ., 25 Figs.
5Splates and 2 maps, Price 12.95.
Thi· book is the fr irth in the new Collins Archaeology series and i .–~ 1U’.)St
welcome addition to a l an ..area of books on glass history. The autho · is fully
qualified for her subject as a glass historian, museum curator,archaeo~tgist and
writer. She brings at once a
very professional approach: gone are th~ Jay~ of
writing about glass
for the sheer pleasure of it. The first 131 pages .•t~ devoted
to a worldwide survey .-,( glassmaking from antiquity to the 20th C.
Th,. ,mphasis
on furnace design, chemistry of glass composition and the colouring ageuts used
is both welcome and highly relevant but other sections,
particularly on the After
decoration of glass in the later period~ are of small importance for the immr liate
needs of archaeology a•:1 might have been dispatched more briefly (perhaps by
reference to her. earlier book of the same title in the Connoisseur series) to
improve the bs bnce by ;-:iaking room for more details on the archaeological aspect~.
Chapter
six compet~11tly surveys the archaeological evidence for glass furnaces
in Britain and summa~i~es allthe important finds including a welcome review oJ the
author’s cwn excavation of the Haughton Green glasshouse,Denton. This is imr ,,rt.
ant as the first early coal-fired glasshouse to be located and for its manufal • uu.;
of good quality coloured and, in particular, opaque bi.ack glass which is known
from only a few sites in Europe.
The tee nology of glasshouse excavation is covered in chapter seven.
Location
comes first and the use of the proton magnetometer is described as a vital sict
to the prelimina’l’)’ location of possibly important f€atures. Humorously, the
Houghton Green f~rnace was located with a simple do-it-yourself copper devin1n~
rod although the author,llke the rest of us, is unable to explain how it works!
Problems of excavation,conser.vation, a highly technical section on dating, and
the reconstruction of glasshouses bring us to page 183. The rest of the book is
devoted to a list of sites to visit with some nice pictures of glassho11se cones,
a glossary of terms and chemical analyses of clays, crucibles and gla~~ ~Qmples,
an extremely .valuable bibliography set out chapter by chapter and the rndex.
Ruth Hurst Vose
concludes that “there are exciting years of disco,.:.t:y ahead” .
. This book should fulfill her hope to p~ovide an inspiration and backgr0und
knowledge
for many furt1er discoveries: nkely produced in every respect it. deserves
a widespread and welcome reception.
D.C. Watts
READINGS IN GLASS HISTOK Y No 11 (The Si.donian Glassmakers and their Mar
•t.) by
member Anita Engel witr, 96 pages,66 f igurea and 4 maps is now available L. in1
Pho nix Publications, f.O.B. 8190, Jeru~alem, Israel, price• 12.50 + I l.C~ p&p.
Readings Nos. 1–10 arc now available at$ 94.50 per set (instead of • 105) -lu!,
$ 6 p&µ (instead of$ >).
OUR FORH’ATHERS
rn r;LM is the Sixth W.E.S. Turner Memorial Lecture by presi”‘ •nt
Robert Charleston ar cl , printed in Glas Technology Vol. 21, No. l. Feb. 1980, 2 -JG.
GL SSC RCLE ~IBETINGS
GL SE FR 1HE DE T -INTRODUCTORY, By R.J. Charleston
eting held in Baden 1cwe1J House,
Queeu’s Gate, on 14th Ap 1, 1910
Our Presid~nt Is paper t”as drsigned a~ an introductory section to a Joint pape
b• hi~ and our m mbcr Mr E.T. lJall.
h d
“b t
‘ f th 16 h Mr Charleston, after a ~uirk glance back tote ovt oor anque ~ o e t
C., b gan with a review of tltG organization of meals in the 18Lh C., with th it’
ser·es of courses and ”remnvc_,” of individual dishes, often mixing together in one
course dishes which in med~–~ usage succeed each other on lhe table. The culmin
aticn of a grand meal was the dessert ( from “desservir” – to’vold’ the table), when
the table was
clearerl of the preceding course(.s,) and fruits and sweetmeats w~re
brought on. Thif course was often the object of an extremely complicated essay in
decoration, frequently with symbolic meaning, the actual dishes etc. for the servl~L
of the eatable part of the course being accompanied
by three-dir~nsional figures in
confectioner’s materials or porcelain, more
rarely in glass. The complexity of
these decorations sometimes made it necessary to serve the de.sse.ct in a separate
room
50 that it could be set out in advance, to save undue delay.
Glass often played a central role in the arrangement of the dessert, and
·-~q
indespensable for the service of jellies, creams and other .. wet” sweetmeats, as wdl
as for ”dry” sweetmeats such as candied sugar-almonds, fruits etc. Glass bm,,; :1
were recommended for creams and the like as early as the mid-17th C.,. and “lit de
round jelly glasses” were specified in 1678. Already early in the 18th C. thcv~
are references to “pyramids of ,,weetmeats”, and by the middle of the century th(-::”‘.e
are common
in glass, being ~1adc of (usually three)salvers superimposed and dressed
with sweetm~at and jelly glasses , often with. small bottles cf flowers intersp<.::r.scd.
Hannah Glass• s Complete Confectioner ( 17·62) describes "... a high pyramf d of 01;,~
salver above the other ... fill'd with all kinds of wet and dry sweet-meats in g11ss
baskets or little plates ... the little top salver must have a large preserv'd Fiu:t
in it". This was usually put in a "top glass" or sweetmeat glass. A 1773 advert
isement refers to
"Glass salvers... chiefly 9 in. to 13 in. either in pyraulids or
aiQJle, orange or top glasses of different sizes". These "top-glasses" early on
le,it themselves to decoration by cutting (Lady Grisell Baillie). Normally there
we three pyramids down the ce1,cre of the table, but all sorts of variations were
practised in
accordance with cj~-cumstance. One of these involved the use of
"dessert
stands", on which little glass baskets hung from a central stem with cur
ved branches, this form too bei.ng often decorated by cutting.
As in the 16th C., so too in the 18th the dessert was sometimes lald out in the
open, occasionally with a consi~rable measure of elaboration,
The.complex
and luxurious de~rts of the third quarter of the 18th C. probably
gradually made way for a simpler style of table-dressing consisting of candelabra
and £lowers in the centre of the table and place-settings round the edge.
The lecture was accompanied by slides and a display of documentary material The
hosts were Mr and MrR Benson, Dr and Mrs MacDougall and Mr Turner.
JELLY AND SYLLABUB GLASSES By Tim Udall
Meeting held at the Museum of London, London Wall,on 20th May,1980
This paper dealt with w~t sweetmeat glasses, namely posset, syllabub, jell/ and
custard glasses.
Mr Udall started by giving some recipes of wet sweetmeats: 1ken
from 17th and 18th
c. cookery books. These recipes sometimes contained refer.nces
to diffet'ent types of glasses and to the way in which they were displayed en s-• v~r
or pyramids of salvers.
A number of slides were shown of prints, paintings and trade cards on whic-· 1
desaeTt glasses were depicted and also of sor,1e existing sets of de/ert glasse. A
systematic and detailed exam1nat1on of actual glasses then followeJ. First,
~Jidcs
illustrated near relatives of w•·t sweetmeat glasses -bonnet glasses, small-stt."W'
sweet,.eats, custard cups, dram~., firing glasses and dwarf ales and it was pointed
out that
them is n6 clear.-cut boundary line between these groups of glasses and
jelly and syllabub glasst:s which tend to met·ge into one another.
Gla ses of the 17th C. wer.c then discussed -the Ravenscroft posset pots,
double-handled posset glasses and early jellies.
Dealing with 18th C. gla~sc., s, slides U lustrated the "prototypti" j Uy al II
-5-
wi h l 1 -round fu•mel or hexagonal bowl, and the'whipt' sullabub glas ,,-:th
r pan top. About 50 sli
Rar st all are the s·ingle B handled glasses, an, only two examples , t:re shown ..
one pla one rib–r,1.-ulded. A great
var:i.ety exists in these small t’ ‘-;s-•s but
the col eclor is ~1.way. hoping to extend further tJ1e bounds of possibil’ Ly·’ … to
find th Beil by, the Wi, liami te or the knop with a co loured thread!
erni.ng ternd nn hgy, Mr Udall discussed the use to which hand led gL .,ses
He kne:.w of uo handled glasses that wer de-picte.d in prints or
r inring~.
were very ~eJ 1iorn mentioned in inventories or advertizemen.ts. He spei:.-
hat handled gl:JSses may have been intended for drinking rather than f<>i:’
rom with a spoo·1.
oncludP, FrAnc • s Buckley’s highly compU me tary remarks about these ~.:,.2111
were quoted -~n their day they held pride of place on the dinner tab]~.
would be att·r.)cted to the breathtaking si ht of these pyramids of sw ,. tmcat~
table. Our hr,sts on this occasion wereMi Coppen-Gardner, Miss Frazer
Hori e.
hopin;b to write an article for the rcle
OP.. the subject of jelly and
b glasses and he
parti.cularly wants to fin a doable handled (Not double n
) diamond or honeycomb moulded jelly or sy hbub glass to photograph. lf
anyone can help will they please contact him dire
SUMMER OUTING TO WADDESDON MANOR on 28th .June 198
Th s grand mansion, built during 1874-1889 by
le of a French Renaissance Chateau, houses
country. Much of the furnishings and fur
France
C. Pa
and a
impost!
most
of ma
and e
and w
and
. silve
that
and this includes exquisite carved and de
s houses. There is fine
Sevres and Meiss
our, marvellous paintings
by Dutch and Fle
g Rubens, and, a~ong the English school, s
vishing Gainsboruughs:- the portraits of L
ter.Nicholls
(The Pink Boy). Silver, scul
amels are all of first rate quality, but of
were
fortunate i~ this respect since our P
or
of the Waddesdon catalogue on Glass and E
a most illuminating talk on the glass collec
ing for the West ~•.’ing where the collection i
r visit.
e core of ci1e Wa~desdon glass is represented
an late 16th and !7th C. Humpen -and Veneti
fully enamelled a:1d of the same period. Th
doP is mostly i~ perfect condition. There
arly
18th C. ;.ubr glass, probably from South
gilt and var:i.c\•sly engraved
and cut. And
ne of the gre.:it r•st masterpieces in glass, the
he Rothschild collections for the British Mu
tional :rt Collections Fund. aron
Ferdinand de Rothschild in
ne
of the finest arL r0llcctions
iture was made in t}·· J.ith C. in
rated panelling frr:,1 g.ri?at 18th
porcelain, a collc ct hn of arms
ish masters, which i rlt•de an
eral Reynold’s and
s1.,me of the
y Sheffield, for i~~tance, and
tures, miniatures, r-jects d’art
ourse
we came to se,..: t:h., glass –
sident,
Robert Charle· lo!l is
amels (Puhl. 1977) a.~; , ntertained
ion “in situ” as well af
housed to be opened
spE ially
by finely enamelled German/
n glasses and goblets, again
glass, as everything else at
s also a group of late 17t~ c.
rn Germany, some mounted in
eLhaps one might
recall her~
Lycurgus Cup, was purchased
eum in 1958, with help from
d