Glass Circle News_No.123, Jul 2010

Vol. 33 No. 2

ISSN 2942-652

ISSUE 123 JULY 2010

•
Frank Brangwyn: designs for glass

•
Unusual Thomas Webb vase

discovered

•
On twisted

stems

•
Goblets for

the Seven
Deadly Sins

•
Salerooms

•
Reviews

•
News

Anecdotes

Deadly glass
Limpid Reflections

Rare vase acquisition
The lemon-squeezer foot

Reports

Editor

Jane Dorner
[email protected]
9 Collingwood Avenue, N 10 3EH

Design and layout
Athelny Townshend

[email protected]
EDITORIAL

Editorial
Chairman’s letter/News

Frank Brangwyn

Diary dates and news

Glass Circle News

ISSN 2043-6572

Vol. 33 No. 2 Issue 123 July 2010

published by The Glass Circle

www.glasscircle.org
M

y thanks to all those who wrote

complimenting us on the last

edition; I wanted to print everything, but

it seemed immodest when the Letters to
the Editor bag was so full of interesting

discussion topics.
by Jane

The response to

the Readership Survey
was
astonishing

— well over a third of the membership

filled it in, either online or by post, and

a third of respondents said they would
be willing to write for the newsletter. I

will
be taking you all up on the promise,

that’s for sure.
The tables show the spread of answers

to the questions asked. Top favourite was

interesting anecdotes about glass (93%)

with books in second place (90%) and
news about sales and events nudging

close (85%). You wanted articles on
personalities in glass (67%), including

obituaries (50%), which, for obvious

reasons, one hopes won’t be necessary

too often. You had lots of additional

suggestions which I will take note of. On
the whole, though, everyone agreed that

variety and balance in the articles was

what you wanted.
The general topics favoured

cataloguing a collection (67%) with
the other choices attracting about

50% of respondents — except for tax

implications which not many seem to

care about (16%). The love of collecting
itself is clearly prime enthusiasm.
Your favoured period is definitely

and conclusively 1700 to 1840 (84%)

with 18th century drinking glasses,

sweetmeats, jellies or decanters most

frequently mentioned as individual

interests. No surprise there, but the

variety of what everyone collects is very

wide and made me wonder how I was
ever going to cater to all your interests.

They include: blown eyebaths; fly-traps;

fakes; utility ware; Dutch marine; salts;

optical instruments; postcards (old

and modern) relating to glass; celery

Dorner

vases; epergnes and

‘whatever turns up

by chance that I can afford or arouses

curiosity’, or put in another way ‘I collect

from ancient Rome to contemporary’.
Modern glass was mentioned more

frequently than I expected, as was tech-
nical development. Comments ranged

from The core interest should remain

English glass of the 17th and 18th centu-
ries’ to ‘I mainly purchase 1750 to 1900

but would love to learn more about later

glass, particularly studio’. Engraved glass
of any era seemed a general interest, and

a lot of you wanted tips on dating glass
— engraved and other. One respondent

summed up what others said with: ‘How
to age glass and identify the region of

manufacture, especially through tell-tail

marks that relate to manufacturing tools

and methods used, or styles and design

features common to specific periods or
regions; always stating whether based on

research or expert opinion:

Other suggestions that caught my eye

— and there were many more — included:

‘more articles for the beginner and how to
start a collection; ‘occasional information

about museums with glass or related
collections’; Conservation’; ‘information

about glass polishers/restorers and

glassmakers who can make replacement

parts’; ‘more coverage of ancient glass,

particularly Saxon and Roman; ‘notes

on useful websites’; ‘glass buildings and
crystal palaces’; and ‘how to photograph

glass’. If anyone has expertise in any of
the above, please step forward.

The readership survey

Dan Klein
Book news

Letters to the Editor

Curiosity corner

What kind of articles would you like

Glass Circle News to carry?
What general interest articles?

Anecdotes about interesting pieces of glass
93%

Cataloguing a collection
67%

Book reviews
90%

Valuations
55%

Forthcoming sales, fairs and events
85%

Display cabinets and lighting
50%

Saleroom news
80%

Scientific developments in glass
50%

Questions to the expert
80%

Tax implications
16%

Readers’ letters
78%

Interviews with personalities in glass
67%

Reports of meetings
60%
What historical period of glass are you

Limpid reflections
56%
interested in?

Obituaries
50%
1700 to 1840

84%

Small Ads
40%
Pre 1700

43%

List of new members
34%
1840 to 1900

42%

Cartoons
11%
1900 to now

39%

Printed by

Micropress Printrs Ltd

www.micropress.co.uk

Neither the Glass Circle nor any of its officers or committee members bear

any responsibility for the views expressed in this publication, which are
those of the contributor in each case. Every effort has been made to trace

and acknowledge copyright in the photographs illustrating articles. The
Editor asks contributors ro clear permissions and neither the Editor nor

the Glass Circle is responsible for inadvertent infringements.

Next copy date:

15 September 2010 for the
November edition.

COVER ILLUSTRATION:
Frank

Brangwyn design composite

Glass Circle News Issue 123 Vol. 33 No. 2

CHAIRMAN’S LETTER

Chairman’s letter

B
y the time you read this I will

have returned from a late spring

conference on the glass of the Italian
Bernard Perrot (1638-1709), and his

contemporaries. Perrot worked in
Orleans for many

by John

years.

This spring we have had lectures by

two Grand Old Men of British glass.
Brian Blench, who worked for many

years as Keeper in the Glasgow museum

at Kelvingrove, and is joint author of the

recent book on Scottish glass over the

last 400 years, talked about the history
of Scottish glass, His enthusiasm for
his subject increased rapidly as we

approached the present day. As he said,

we know very little about the first 100
years, and an awful lot about the last; at

least he does.
Charles Hadjamach, giving the Robert

Charleston Memorial Lecture, spoke

about 20th century British glass, the
subject of his recent book, and again

showed his greatest enthusiasm for the

glass made by those he had met during

his long tenure at Broadfield House

Glass Museum. Charles started his

talk with a summary of the genius of
Frederick Carder, who started work at
Stevens and Williams in Stourbridge,

and then moved to Steuben in New York

State. This was in part because at this
meeting we welcomed as our guests some

members of The National American
Glass Club who

P
Smith

were paying a visit to

England, visiting museums and markets.
The new-look newsletter has been

a great success with an astounding

nearly 40% of readers filling in the

questionnaire, many online. After

Bernard Perrot, Orleans, c.1700

Marbled glass. Red coloured with gold,
white with arsenic, high lead glass.
discussions by the committee and the

production team it has been decided to

produce a newsletter three times a year.

This decision has been dictated both

by finance — production of this quality

is not cheap and postage costs rise –

and partially by the time demands on

the editor and designer. We felt readers

would prefer three substantial, full-
colour magazines a year with 24 pages to

16 pages at quarterly intervals.
I commend to you all our outing to

the British Museum in the autumn
(details are on page 23). The chance
to be introduced to its collections by

world experts will not come again for a
long time. The quality of 16th to 18th
century European glass in the museum,
most acquired in the 19th century, and

much only available for inspection by

appointment, is remarkable.
The Victorian & Albert Museum is

coming to the end of the gargantuan task

of re-displaying its ceramics collection. It
has absorbed all the time (and overtime)

of the staff of the department of Glass

and Ceramics. We hope in the future
to feature more of their unrivalled

collection of 18th century British glass.
All of their glass is on show, some in

the period galleries, unlike Cambridge,

Glasgow, Edinburgh and other major
museums, where the majority of the

glass is in store.

Early working-class glass

The
rarity of early so-called ‘working-

I class’ glass is seldom discussed. Good

examples of all manner of fine glassware

dating back centuries, from the Roman

Empire, and especial-

ly the 18th century,

survive in seemingly remarkable quanti-

ties. Yet pieces clearly intended for the
use of working people, particularly from

the 19th century when the use of glass

spread down the social scale, remain un-

common.
The causes of this phenomenon are

fairly obvious. For a start, the rich and
middle classes could obviously afford

to buy glass, which remained a luxury

into the early 20th century. Further, the

wealthy generally led comfortable, calm

lives in spacious houses. They employed

servants to care for their chattels and
they rarely moved home. When their

possessions were broken, they could be
replaced with relative ease. The precise
opposite was often the case for the poor:

living in cramped conditions and subject
to the vagaries of unscrupulous land-

lords, poor harvests and the availability

McConnell

of dubious booze.

This has become

increasingly obvious to me over the
course of 33 years of buying/collect-

ing glass. For example, I have invariably
bought examples of 3-part moulding,

such as decanters and salts dating from
the early 19th century, whenever I’ve

found them. Yet their number perhaps
totals little more than 20 pieces from a

total hoard of perhaps 50,000 gathered

over the period.
With this in mind, I was naturally de-

lighted to stumble upon this crude little
dram glass, 8.5cms tall, the like of which
I’ve never previously seen. Probably a

pub of tavern glass intended for gin or

port and dating from around 1850, may-
be a little earlier, it is as rustic as glass
gets. The bowl was pressed in a 3-part

mould, the stem drawn out and then

jointed to the foot, which was similarly
pressed. The upper rim

was fire-polished

but the foot re-
mains surrounded

by sharp mould

extrusions that we
used to call ‘flash’

when making Airfix
models as kids in the

60s. Beneath the foot
remains a broken pon-

til mark, a feature absent

from later examples, which

were held by gadgets when
being fire-polished.
Seeing it lonely on

a dusty shelf in a
Faversham charity

shop, I took pity
on it and splashed

out a mighty 10p

and brought it home,

where it is now fully ap-
preciated and much happier.

by Andy

Glass Circle News Issue 123 Vol. 33 No. 2

LEFT:

(G1746) Wine glasses,

c1930

ABOVE:
(G2598) Gareth Morgan,
Girl with

fruit bowl,
2009
O

BRANGWYN GLASS DESIGN

Frank Brangwyn and glass

I n October 1930, at their Oxford
Street premises, E Pollard & Co

Limited held an exhibition of complete

interiors designed by Frank Brangwyn,

including furniture, carpets, ceramics,

light fittings and,

pertinently for this
magazine, glass tableware. As far as we

are aware Brangwyn had not previously
designed tableware but, brought up in

the tradition of Ruskin and Morris,

it is not surprising that he turned to

James Powell of Whitefriars not only for
inspiration but also as manufacturers for
the glassware.

Ruskin had written that
‘all cut glass

is barbarous: for the cutting conceals its

ductility, and confuses it with crystal;
Harry Powell exhibiting a similar

distaste when he humorously described
the output of Victorian glass-cutters

as bristling ‘with prismatic pyramids

like infuriated hedgehogs:
1
Whitefriars

had produced some tumblers and wine

glasses for Morris to designs by Philip
Webb in 1859, and fifteen years later

to designs by Thomas Graham Jackson,

giving the firm the confidence to break
away from the prevalence of heavy,
Anglo-Irish cut glass and concentrate

its skills on traditional English and
Venetian ware. An interest in historical

glass was first instigated by James Crofts
Powell in the 1890s and taken up by

Harry Powell, a multi-talented man, not

only an Oxford Chemistry graduate, but
also an historian,

manager and designer,

who was responsible for most of the

firm’s tableware between 1880 and

1920. The ‘Glasses with Histories’ range
was produced between 1889 and 1918
although some of the more popular

designs continued in production through

the 1920s. The range was inspired by

illustrations of glass in 16th and 17th

century paintings and glass, ceramic and
metal artefacts in museums.

Judy Rudoe describes the company

as being in a ‘category of their own in
combining elegance and simplicity

of form with subtle colour both in
their table and ornamental glass’ and
Brangwyn would have been well aware

of Whitefriars’ reputation.
2
On the

back of G1746, a sheet of measured

drawings for glasses, Brangwyn wrote

in a shaky hand ‘Powell has made some

glass designed by Sir Thos Jackson and
Phillip Webb who was with Morris’.

Whether the Powells and Brangwyn ever
met is unknown, but their paths crossed
regularly. For example, Whitefriars were

recommended to clients of the Century

Guild, the group founded by Arthur
Heygate Mackmurdo, Brangwyn’s first

mentor.

During the 1890s the work of both

Whitefriars and Brangwyn featured in

Parisian avant-garde establishments –

Siegfried Bing’s
Galerie LArt Nouveau

and Julius Meier-Graefe’s
La Maison

Moderne.
Powell painted the arms of

honorary members of the Skinners’

Company from 1903-12 whilst
Brangwyn worked on eleven murals for

the Company’s Banqueting Hall between

1901 and 1909. In 1906 Brangwyn was
asked to design an interior for Baron
Lionel Hirschel di Minerbi in the Palazzo

Rezzonico, Venice. Unfortunately

the two men argued and the project

never came to fruition, but commercial

instincts prevailed with Whitefriars
whom the Baron commissioned to make

a table service of 465 pieces of flint glass
with melted-in green enamel threads.

Unfortunately, due to the aftermath

of the war and Whitefriars’ move to

Wealdstone in 1923, the 1920s are

poorly documented; there is no mention

of Brangwyn in the surviving 1929-30

workbooks, no pieces from the exhibition

are known to have survived and the two

standard books on Whitefriars do not
refer to the collaboration.’ Given that

Brangwyn’s designs are in no way related
to the sculptural, larger and heavier ware

by Libby Homer

Glass Circle News Issue 123 Vol. 33 No. 2

TOP:
Powell & Sons glassware as exhibited at Pollard & Co, London, 1930,

from The Studio,

1930,
Vol 100, p443.
ABOVE:
(G1747) Three decanters, c1930.
© Pau

l Liss
cou
r

te
sy
Rac
he
l M

ce)

0
BRANGWYN GLASS DESIGN

which the company was producing in
the 1930s and that most of the skilled

glassblowers had been lost during the war
it seems surprising that the company was

prepared to accept the commission, even

on a one-off basis, especially considering

the following. In 1927 Gordon Russell
held an exhibition of Brangwyn’s furniture

and glass designs made by Whitefriars

which Lesley Jackson states was:

‘not truly representative of either their past,
current or future production, and in the context

of the firm’s wider output it represents something

of an anomaly. It shows the problems which can

arise through using an outside designer rather
than someone who has been trained in-house, and

especially a designer whose specialism is in another

field altogether:
4

The firm notably declined to produce

work for the architect Keith Murray
in the early 1930s and in 1932 refused
to participate in the national scheme

to improve industrial design by

commissioning artists.
However, Whitefriars did accept the

Brangwyn/Pollard commission, and
the Pollard catalogue clearly itemises

ribbed wine glasses costing 115s per

dozen, ribbed claret glasses costing 128s

per dozen, two ribbed decanters with

stoppers priced at 32s and 26s 6d, a plain
flint claret jug with blue chain costing

35s, a plain jug and cover (24s), a wine

glass with thread on body (13s 6d) and
a wine glass with cut-in lines (16s). The

only known photograph of the glassware
can be found in
The Studio,

1930.

Although hazy and poorly defined some

items can be identified, the wine glass
with thread on body, the footed claret

jug with Roman inspired chainwork,
the jug with cover and a simple decanter.

The latter could easily be mistaken for a
Webb item and is similar in shape to one

of Brangwyn’s designs in
Three decanters

(G1747), but without decorative

additions.
The four sheets of drawings illustrated

here, together with two other measured
drawings of decanters and some sketches

on a letter from the publisher John Lane

prove that Brangwyn had gone beyond
the stage of abstractions and into serious

design.’ Catherine Ross considers that the

work shows a significant understanding
of the skills and capabilities of the

glass-blowers, whilst commenting that
the designs are virtuoso rather than

commercial.
6
Brangwyn drew tumblers,

flutes, stemmed goblets, decanters, jugs,

vases, finger bowls and harnessed bowls,

variously decorated with pincered ruffles

and applied tears, prunts and threads
tooled or melted in. The wine glasses,

with blown feet, generally had delicate
baluster stems composed of a series of
knops and merese, the bowls waisted and

flaring at the top, although three designs

showed two-strand open twisted stems.

Some designs would indicate the use of
moulds. The items were to be of plain

or coloured glass, Brangwyn indicating

sea-green, ruby, sky blue, pale blue and
yellow, the latter a colour not adopted
by Whitefriars until 1932? There is
indication
ndication of cut glass on any of the

drawings.
Although there are some elements

of design which cannot be attributed
to any particular style or period and

may portray a misunderstanding of
the craft, Brangwyn’s main influences

would appear to have been Venetian

glass,facon
de Venise,

and Harry Powell’s

‘Glasses with Histories’. Number 01946

on the Venetian page of the latter’s
Design Notebook
was adopted for Baron

Minerbi’s service and could have been
the template for Brangwyn’s green

decanter with spiral threading on the tall

slender neck (see cover) .
8
A tumbler on

sheet G1746 is similar to Powell’s sketch
of a German vessel, number 01814, and

a simple footed tumbler on the same

sheet is based on a blue faience goblet
produced by Whitefriars in 1910.
Brangwyn had toyed with the use of

glass for electric lamps at the start of the
century when he was commissioned to

Glass Circle News Issue 123 Vol. 33 No. 2

ABOVE:
(G1740)
Glass and tumbler designs, c1930.
BELOW:

(G1741) Decanter and
fruit
bowl

designs, c1930

BRANGWYN GLASS DESIGN

produce a complete interior design for
the bedroom of Sir Edmund and Lady

Davis at their home, Lansdowne House

in London. The glass beaded lampshade
(illustrated front cover) is a scale drawing

for an Art Nouveau inspired metal
table lamp with a glass beaded curtain

and a domed glass cap. Similar designs

indicated brass or silver lamps with glass

caps. However the only Brangwyn lamp
known to have been made at this period
did not involve the use of glass.

The artist’s most enduring association

with glass was for stained glass panels
and windows, his first designs dating
from 1898 and his last, forty years later

in 1938. Siegfried Bing commissioned
Brangwyn to design six autonomous

glass panels, three of which are known to
have been produced by Louis Comfort

Tiffany’s company. As an educational
exercise I recently commissioned
Gareth Morgan AMGP to make one

of the other designs, Girl
with fruit

bowl,
and filmed the entire process from

drawing the cartoon to final leading.

Brangwyn’s designs for church windows

can be found at St Mary the Virgin,

Bucklebury, Berkshire; the United

Reformed Church, Abington Avenue,

Northampton; St Winifred’s, Manaton,
Devon; St Patrick’s, Dublin; St Andrew

and St Patrick, Elveden, Suffolk and St
Andre’s Abbey, Zevenkerken, Belgium.

Postscript
Brangwyn delighted in experimenta-

tion and new techniques. In keeping

with this ethos the catalogue raisonne of
his stained glass has just been published

as a DVD — a unique concept. This
method of publication has enabled me

to include all the standard academic

details (each commission has its

own PDF file which can be printed

out on a Mac or PC), together with

location films and interviews with

such luminaries as Brian Clarke, Peter
Cormack, Martin Eidelberg, Martin
Harrison and Patrick Reyntiens — as

well as the aforementioned educational

film. The DVD, appropriately titled

Frank Brangwyn: Stained Glass, a

catalogue raisonne
is available from www.

frankbrangwyn.org.

Endnotes

1.
John Ruskin, ‘Modern Painting on Glass;

The Stones of Venice Vol
II, London: George

Allen, 1900, p391. Judy Rudoe, ‘Glasses with
Histories”: Historical Revivals by Harry and

James Crofts Powell; in Lesley Jackson (Ed),
Whitefriars Glass, The Art of James Powell &

Sons,
Shepton Beauchamp: Richard Dennis,

1996, p43

2.
Judy Rudoe, ‘James Powell & Sons and the

Continental Avant-Garde before 1914; in

Jackson (Ed), op cit, p54

3.
Since glassware is not marked or signed in any

way it may be that Brangwyn glassware exists
but has not been recognized as such, or may

have been attributed to Webb or Jackson. It is

also possible that only one set of glass was made
for the exhibition.

4.
Lesley Jackson, ‘From Arts and Crafts

to Industrial Art: James Powell & Sons

(Whitefriars) Ltd during the 1920s and 30s, in

Jackson (Ed), op cit, p68

5.
The designs are assumed to be dated c1930.

The letter from John Lane is dated 16 February

1925, but Brangwyn was in the habit of using
any available scraps of paper for his doodles, so
the date may be irrelevant.

6.
In conversation with the author, 2001

7.
Wendy Evans, Catherine Ross, Alex Werner,

Whitefriars Glass. James Powell and Sons of
London,
London: Museum of London, 1995,

p229

8.
The Minerbi decanter is illustrated in Jackson

(Ed), op cit, p 107

Glass Circle News Issue 123 Vol. 33 No. 2

ANECDOTES

alesalmeewalorirt+STAMM,

..
n
111•11•04

A tale of two flasks
© An
dy
Mc
Con
n
e
ll/G
lass

Etc.

A
pplying date attributions to old

glassware is often difficult, if not

impossible, to achieve with accuracy. So,
when Roger Wood and Brian King each
found small pocket flasks, Brian certain-

ly had the easier job,

if only because he is
entirely capable of reading English, even

when rustically spelt.
Stumbling across his example, in the

publisher Richard Dennis’ West Coun-

try antique shop, Brian was immedi-
ately hooked by its legend, engraved in
diamond-point: RC and
Mrs Shusanna
Crawley June y.17. Anno Dom

1739. His

immediate questions to himself were:
could the flask in his hand truly date
from 1739? Was the stated date authen-

tic? Was it really 271 years old? Prepared

McConnell

to take the risk, he

stumped up.

The good news is, of course, that his

purchase is almost certainly as old as he

had hoped. Slightly battered and well

and truly scratched, his charming ac-
quisition is of a familiar type, including
examples decorated by the Beilbys, albeit
two decades later. As the Beilby special-

ist Simon Cottle recalls: ‘Apart from two

opaque-white versions (referred to in
Bonhams catalogue of 4 June 2008, lot

317, of which one is dated 1757, now
in Corning), there is a Beilby example
in the Ashmolean Museum inscribed

in white enamel
Thos Brown Nenthead

1769, which also has a painted wild-
fowling scene on the reverse. Tho-
mas Brown was a lead-mine

owner at Nenthead in what
was Cumberland. Whilst

the form is not typically
used in precious metal

there are numerous
Continental — es-

pecially Bohemian
— glass examples of

similar date with
polychrome enam-
elling of shepherds

and shepherdesses.

As a piece of

glassware, it is
charming, but as it

fails to qualify for
the premiership

category of ’18th
Century Drinking

Glasses’, it lacks col-

lector appeal. This

fact was clearly rec-
ognised by Richard
Dennis, who asked

just £80 for it and
was pleased to set-
tle for £70, cash.

However, as a piece

of social history it

whispers compel-

lingly to us through
history. We all con-

jure with thoughts
about where our
Roger Wood’s

flask, 18cm

favourite pieces have been during their

long existence, who has used them and
in what company? But providing us with

such detailed information, Brian’s flask

seems to call more loudly than most.

Roger Wood’s piece commands a more

academic interest. It had fallen into his
hands over 30 years ago amongst the

general fluff of a house clearance. He had

always considered it to be old but had
remained unsure. No hope that its silver

cap might be hallmarked: it was not until

around 1800 that small, lightweight fit-
tings, such as cruet bottle shakers, were
required to be stamped with date and

maker marks. Happily, the cap’s distinc-

tive shape and the style of flat-faced lapi-

dary cutting applied to the flask, derived

from early mirror-bevelling, provide suf-

ficient information to enable an attribu-
tion to around 1720, a revelation that
brought a broad smile to Roger’s face.

by Andy

Brian King’s 1739 flask 16.4cm

Glass Circle News Issue 123 Vol. 33 No. 2

SEVEN DEADLY SINS

Deadly glass

C urely an appreciation of fine
wineglasses goes hand-in-hand with

an interest in wine. It’s odd that meetings

of the Glass Circle don’t exploit the

licensing facilities that the Art Workers’
Guild now enjoys by offering a pay bar

alongside the complimentary teas and
coffees. Is it seen as sinful?
Perhaps those readers who relish some

of the curiosities printed in these pages

will be interested in some intentionally

wicked glasses from the last decade.
The red wine glasses pictured are

based on the seven deadly sins and are
designed by a young product designer,
Kacper Hamilton, who was sponsored

by Schott Glass to produce a limited
edition.

Each glass encapsulates a sin, which is

revealed through the ritual of drinking.
Hamilton says, ‘The seven deadly

glasses are about celebrating passion
and encouraging the user to be sinful

in a theatrical fashion: They are quite

large glasses, the largest being
Greed

measuring 200 mm D x 216 mm H

which holds a whole bottle of wine.
Compare that with the 18th century

ones mentioned by Peter Lole in the last

issue, which were ‘large’ glasses of about
90 ml or 8 to a bottle; see also the item

on sizes of drinking glasses in Letters to
the Editor on page 21.

by Jane Dorner

Each glass provides a different

experience of drinking wine. The aim

is to enjoy a sinful sensation in an

exaggerated and unfamiliar fashion.
It should be red wine — with all the

philosophical and religious connotations
that its symbolism contains.
Wrath is
to be drunk from the point

and then gulped down spontaneously.

Gluttony
is a glass for those who like to

feast with no shame.

Greed
is for those who will get extra no

matter what; the prunts represent a leach

sucking everything dry as a metaphor for
those who try and get every last drop.

Envy
is a glass where the wine can be

seen and its nose appreciated, but not

drunk as it will spill.
Lust
is there to excite, with the delicate
and sensual feeding of wine through a

glass ball.

Sloth
hangs and drips wine into the

reclined person’s mouth.
Pride
is there to be tall and pompous

whilst showing off a fine red.
The display case, looking like a

sarcophagus for the wine glasses, made

of mahogany with brass fittings and

a velvet fabric lining, would appeal to
the lugubriously-minded. Dame Edith

Sitwell jumps to mind.
The edition is limited to 25 sets,

made to order in borosilicate glass by

a London-based scientific equipment

glass blower. Several have been sold
to up-market wine bars and private

collectors. Hamilton has also designed
vitrine installations for Louis Vuitton

in Paris and Singapore, and is currently

working on a commission for a whisky
company designing glassware.

Contact [email protected]

or +44 (0)7957 441 405 for more
information.

97/titary

Lkst
Glass Circle News Issue 123 Vol. 33 No. 2

Glass Circle News Issue 123 Vol. 33 No. 2
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT:

Gluttony;

Envy; Sloth; Pride;
Wrath;

Lust; Greed.

nn
•
nnn
•
n
..
A
ll p
ho
tog
rap
hs
an

SEVEN DEADLY SINS

The glass that started it all

wrythen stems.
The sales tabulated here must represent

but an infinitesimal proportion of the

total sales, so particularly in relation to

the earliest and latest sales of a type, it
certainly understates the extremities of

the selling period. However, in defining

the main period of sales the sample is

large enough to give a reasonably correct

picture. Similarly, the mutual proportion

of the different stem types is also likely to

be reasonably accurate. The discovery of

examples of bills has been a fairly random

process and in some years there are no

bills at all in my records. For this reason
the summary is given in five year periods,

LIMPID REFLECTIONS

All in a twist

I
f one mentions to an acquaintance that

one collects 18th century drinking

glass, as like as not the response is: Ah!
You mean those nice glasses with white
twisted stems. Indeed it was just such

glass that started me off in the early

1950s on the path

by F Peter Lote

stem type normally

of a glass enthusiast;

to be specified on a

I wanted a couple of glasses from which

to drink sherry (all the rage at that time),

and found in a Glasgow dealer’s a couple

of opaque twist glasses, one with a small

hammered cup bowl, which I have still

in my collection (see photograph), the
other with a vine engraving, and whose

authenticity I subsequently questioned

and then disposed of some ten years
later for a nice profit. Inevitably I wished

to know what these attractive glasses

were, and prompted by the advice

column of
The Field I
acquired a copy

of WA Thorpe’s
English Glass.
Thus was

started the long trail to develop both a

substantial library and a respectable
collection.

Perhaps today opaque twist stems are

not as fashionable amongst collectors as

once they were, and I doubt if a writer
nowadays would subject the stem

formations to the detailed classification

that Barrington Haynes did some sixty

years ago. Nonetheless, as a genre they

still seem in the popular view to be the

epitome of 18th century glass, which is

odd, for they were a relatively short-lived

fashion at the time of their inception.
Armed with the analysis by Julia

Poole of the Bedford glass purchases in

the third quarter of the 18th century,

which complement and reinforce the
sales records that I have accumulated,

it seems worthwhile to reflect upon
the sales pattern of all types of twisted

stem in that century. Three descriptions

of these glasses appear in the bills and

are, together with ‘cut shanks’, the only

bill. Thus, this group of stems are noted

as: ‘wormed; ‘twisted; or enamelled’, in

that order of frequency. ‘Wormed’ are

of course air-twists, whilst ‘enamelled’

are opaque-twists and contemporary

usage would seem to refer to what we

nowadays call ‘Beilby enamelled; as
painted’. ‘Twisted; on the other hand,

is less clear cut; it remained in use

throughout the period of both the other

more explicit descriptions, and often
referring to apparently high quality

glasses. So whilst at times it might have
meant wrythen or incised stems, I firmly

believe that for some of the clerks who

wrote the bills it was a catch-all term that

embraced any form of stem twist. I have

encountered only one bill that listed both

‘twisted’ and enamd’ glasses, and even on
that one the entries were separated by

several days and could thus have been
the work of different clerks (Bill from

Joseph Cartony & Son to the 4th Duke
of Bedford in 1759.) Thus, I suggest
that in fact ‘twisted’ is used generally for

either air-twists in the earlier period or

opaque-twists latterly. It may sometimes

have signified wrythen stems, but since

those bills that have survived are almost

entirely to gentry and aristocrats it is

quite possible that none of the entries
I list below relate to the lower quality

Glass Circle News Issue 123 Vol. 33 No. 2

Period

No. of bills
Total:

wines,

beers, ales
Twisted stems

`Wormed’
`Twisted’

`Enamelled’
Total

6
80
2
6

8
10%

1735 — 9

1740 – 4
4
99
42

43%

1745 – 9
7
416
150
150

36%

1750 – 4
11

376
175

24
199

53%

12
634
156
96

66
318

51%

1755 – 9

1760 – 4
17

739
48
30
122

200
27%

TOTAL
2,344

531
198
188

917

Table showing frequency of twist types 1735-1764
LIMPID REFLECTIONS

in order to minimise meaningless erratic

jumps, and to make the overall picture
more clearly understood. It does indeed

give a quite clear expression of the peak
sales period for twisted stems.
For air-twist glasses, the first recorded

sale was in 1738 and the last in 1764,

giving an overall spread of twenty-six
years (although from 1758 until 1764 no
sales of air-twists are encountered, with

a final flourish of 48 glasses sold in 1764
to the Marquis of Tavistock, eldest son

of the Duke of Bedford.) For opaque-
twist stems the selling period was much

shorter, only six years, with the first sale

being in 1758 and the last in 1764. The

problem of considering ‘twisted’ stem

sales has been noted above, but they all
fall within the time span of 1738-1764,
the same as for the better defined forms.

Sales of twisted-stems built up slowly

in the six years from 1738, but thereafter

increased dramatically and for the decade

of the 1750s achieved just over half the
volume of all relevant drinking glass sales

(ie: excluding only tumblers); air-twists
predominate in the first eight years of

the decade, but opaque-twists gained

strongly in 1758 & 1759. The apparently
barren period for twist-stems from 1765

onwards is confirmed for the decade
1765-1774 by my record showing 13

bills, encompassing 722 glasses, none of

which is recorded as being a twist stem
of any description.
Probably the most surprising outcome

of this analysis is the substantial
preponderance of air-twists over

opaque-twists, and the very much longer

period for which the former group
continued to sell. The simple ratio of air

to opaque-twists is 3:1, and even if one
assigns ‘twisted-stems’ as being air-twists

from 1735 until 1755 and as opaque-
twists thereafter, the preponderance is

still over 2:1. However, if one looks at

auction house records for offerings of the
two types during the 1970s (for which

period I have catalogues available and

when sales of 18th century glass were far
more frequent than today), then sales of

opaque-twists somewhat exceeded those

of air-twists! How does one reconcile

this apparent anomaly?
There is amongst the bills one exception

to what I have said above. In 1781, 17

years after the last recorded twist-stem

sale, Jonathon Collet sold ‘6 twisted
champagnes to pattern’. This is echoed

150 years later by tales from Stourbridge
glassmakers that on such and such day

of the week the basket came down from
London of customers’ glasses to be

matched to make up sets. Some of you,

too, will be familiar with the substantial

and magnificent group of 18th century
glasses at Wombourne Woodhouse in

the Black Country, thought all to be of
contemporary purchases, not the result

of later collecting. There are several sets

of opaque-twist glasses that seem to show

minor variant groups within the set, and

although it is 15 years since I last saw

them, my notebook suggests that perhaps

this results from later reproductions to
make up the set to a useful number. The

house was renowned in the late 18th

century for its large musical parties, and

there is a published inventory of almost

100 musical instruments held for the
use of the music-makers. I have always

liked to think that perhaps the very large

surviving groups of glass were held to
assuage the thirst of musicians after all

their blowing and bowing.
So, it seems possible that the higher

proportionate ratio of opaque-twists

today in relation to air-twists, compared

with that in the mid-18th century, may
have arisen not from any fraudulent

later manufacture, but from an entirely
understandable wish by those who

used their antique glass and wished to

replace breakages or enhance the size

of their set. That this process should

be biased towards opaque-twists may

be explicable by the later perceived
popularity of opaque-twists as being the
representative glass of the 18th century,

despite the fact of its short lived fashion

around 1760. Perhaps, too, this accounts
for the apparent decline of its popularity

amongst present day collectors, who

consciously or unconsciously are aware
of uncertainty about dating amongst

these glasses.

Arhelny Townshend

Glass Circle News Issue 123 Vol. 33 No. 2

Rare decorated

vase returns
home
(.7

roadfield House Glass Museum has

I./acquired a vase by Thomas Webb

& Sons of Stourbridge, which featured

on the BBC TV Antiques Roadshow
programme on 7 March. The vase, which

dates between about

1885 and 1890,
is

by Roger

made of white glass. The bulbous form

with short straight neck is typically
Chinese and the piece is richly decorated

with enamelling and gilding in the

Oriental and Islamic style. Decorative
motifs include Chinese fretwork and

stylised clouds and Islamic style borders
enamelled in red and green, while the
main body of the vase is decorated with

stylised waves, inspired by Japanese

prints. Six exotic gilded creatures, half
fish half dragon, hover and tumble above

the waves. These may represent the leap

of the carp over the dragon gate, at which
point fish becomes dragon. In Chinese

mythology this symbolised the aspiration

of a young scholar to succeed in the civil

service exams and become an official –
the key to wealth, status and power.
This mixing together of ornamental

styles from different cultures is not

unusual in Victorian decorative art. Here

the various elements have been combined

with great skill and artistry, resulting in a
piece that not only ‘works’ aesthetically

but which is imaginative and original and

not a direct copy of any particular object

from the past.
The decoration is attributed to Jules

Barbe, a French artist who arrived in

Stourbridge in 1879 to set up a glass-

decorating workshop at the Webb
factory. Webb’s, under the inspiring

leadership of their director, Thomas
Wilkes Webb, were one of the most

progressive companies in Europe at this

time. The previous year they had won

the Grand Prix at the Paris International
Exhibition and this is presumably where

they first made contact with Barbe and

entered into an agreement with him.

Family tradition states that Barbe

brought 26 fellow French

Dodsworth
craftsmen with him

to Stourbridge, but

only one of these,
Paul Tallandier,

has so far been

identified.

Nothing

is known

about
Barbe’s

artistic
education

in France,

but if the
French

art school

system was
anything
like

the

English,

part of his
training

would have

included
the study of

historical styles

of ornament from

around the world,
including

China

and the Middle East.
Barbe may well have

continued his studies at
the Stourbridge School

of Art once he had settled
in this area, but there is no

evidence to confirm this.

Oriental and Islamic art

exerted a considerable influence
on

ACQUISITION

European decorative art and interiors in

the late 19th century, particularly after

the opening up of trade with Japan in the

1850s, and the vase should also be seen
in this wider context. Perhaps the closest

parallel in terms of its lavish decoration
is Japanese Satsuma-ware, a fine cream-

coloured earthenware that was covered

with similar elaborate enamelled and
gilt ornamentation. Satsuma-ware was
exhibited at numerous international

exhibitions and was further popularised

in the west through books such as
Keramic Art of Japan
by George A

Audsley and James L Bowes, published

in 1881, and it may have been a style of

ceramics that the decorator of this vase

was aware of.
Barbe worked exclusively, for Webb

for 21 years. He then set up his own

business as a decorator of glass and china

and started to carry out work for other

Stourbridge companies, particularly

Stuart & Sons of Wordsley. In the mid-

1920s Barbe retired to Switzerland
where he died in 1929 at the age of 79.

An article from 1905 in
The Black

Country
and its Industries
describes

Barbe’s working methods in some detail.

The gold he used for gilding, in its

dissolved state, looked like a brownish

paste. It was painted on with brushes,

which for very fine work might only be a

few hairs thick. The glass was then fired

in a specially constructed muffle kiln.

Some pieces went through three or four
firings as successive layers of gold were

added to create raised decoration. After
firing the gold had to be burnished. This

was done with brushes of spun glass, then

afterwards with agate and bloodstone.

The enamels he used for painting consist
of a composition of the nature of glass

and in the firing, which requires very
careful attention; they mix with the glass
and become part of it, giving a brilliant

translucency of a large number of varied

and most beautiful tints’.

The vase first surfaced during a re-

cording of the BBC Antiques Roadshow
from Somerleyton Hall in Suffolk in

September 2009. It was examined by
Andy McConnell, one of the regular

glass experts on the show, who instantly
recognised it as a very fine example of

late Victorian enamelled glass from the

Stourbridge area. This came as some-
thing of a surprise to the owner, who did
not have a high opinion of his vase and

had not realised it was actually made of

glass. He had been using it for flowers
and so the inside had got badly stained.

Andy first of all managed to persuade

the owner to have the vase restored. He
then suggested that if the owner did not

wish to keep the vase he might consider

donating or selling it to the Museum.
The Museum’s offer to buy the vase was

initially turned down, and at this stage

it looked as though the opportunity to

acquire the piece had been lost and that
it would end up being sold in a Bonhams

auction. However, at the last minute
the owner had a change of heart, an

agreement was reached, and the vase is
now safely installed at the Museum, back

in the area where it was made.

Acknowledgements

The Museum is greatly indebted to Andy

McConnell for the part he played in securing
the vase for the Museum. We are also grate-

ful to the previous owner who was willing to

accept an offer for the vase below its full mar-
ket value. I would also like to thank Profes-

sor Nick Pearce of Glasgow University and

Helena Coope for their help with this article.

Rodger Dodsworth is the Keeper of

Glass and Fine Art at Broadfield House.

Glass Circle News Issue 123 Vol. 33 No. 2

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT:

Pressed salt

on lemon-squeezer base; Fig. 1, gadget;

Fig.2, Original mould and plunger for

casting and impressing a lemon squeezer

foot in the New Bedford, USA, Glass
Museum; Cut salt on cast foot c.1775

MOULDED FEET

Another look at the
lemon-squeezer foot

two that stand out for me are the problem

of growing costs caused by taxation

and the increasing demand for glass
by an affluent public. While in normal

glass-working
expert

craftsmen

are required to attach a stem and foot

to the piece, the cast foot has the great

advantage that it could be made with
relatively unskilled labour and so
economise on the cost, and possibly the

shortage of skilled labour.
Not all cast feet have the lemon-

squeezer impression and the plain cast
foot seems to have emerged at about

the same time. These are mostly cut and

polished in keeping with the prevailing

popularity of cut glass. Of two examples
in my collection one has a polished base

and the other a cut star, both suggesting

that a pontil might have been used to

pick up the casting for attachment to the

bowl (Fig. 1).
The introduction of the lemon-

squeezer impression in the casting
both saved on the amount of glass

required and on the need for subsequent

cutting thus making it an even cheaper

substitute. However, Maxwell-Stewart is
clearly wrong in suggesting . that the

existence of these devices proves that a
hand-operated plunger cut from graphite

as postulated
by late Kenneth M Wilson,

from studies he made in the USA, was at

best, a
marginal practice

in that country

before press moulding was developed’.

The graphite plunger and mould was,

as stated by Wilson, a ‘replica of a real

device that I was able to photograph on

a National American Glass Club visit

to the New Bedford Glass Museum

where Wilson was curator (Fig. 2). The
plunger appears to be made of cast iron

with a well-worn wooden handle; the

accompanying original mould, also made
of metal, is embedded in modern plaster

held in a wooden frame (probably for

convenience of modern handling).
On the other hand, mass production

hristopher Maxwell-Stewart raises

interesting questions (Vol. 33

No.1 pages 6-8) that are worth further

consideration. As a device the lemon-

squeezer foot is a
by David Watts

marked departure

from the traditional way of providing

a vessel with a foot that seems to have
emerged in about 1775. There are several

possible explanations of its origin, but

I • I
Glass Circle News Issue 123 Vol. 33 No. 2

MOULDED FEET

of these feet, as suggested by Maxwell-

Stewart, would create problems of

reheating such solid lumps of glass to

a workable temperature before they
could be used. Technical problems

aside, the press-moulding machine was

not invented (or at least patented) until

1825/26 in America (coming somewhat
later to England) when the lemon-

squeezer foot (as judged by dating) was
already going out of fashion. We thus
have a period approaching fifty years

when use of the hand plunger must have
continued in use both in America and

in England. Hence the use of a hand

plunger with a simple casting was clearly
much more than a ‘marginal practice:
There is some suggestion, but no

positive evidence other than the
illustration in Apsley Pellatt’s book
Curiosities of Glassmaking
(1849), that a

simple form of pressing machine might
have been invented earlier. Also, the

combination of a press-moulded top on

a lemon-squeezer base (opposite top
left) seems to be rarer than might be

expected if a press-moulding machine

had been invented earlier.
The indentation created by the lemon-

squeezer stamp raises the question
identified by Maxwell-Stewart as to how
the hot foot was handled as a pontil now

seems out of the question. He suggests a

gadget tailored to fit each particular type

of foot. However, New Bedford curator,
Kirk Nelson has seen these feet with

pontil marks. In normal glass working,

the need for a pontil was so that once the

foot was attached to the bowl it could

then be cracked off the blowing iron and

its shape and rim finished off. In this

case the bowl of the vessel, attached to a

pontil, can be finished first and the pontil
removed with the bowl upside down on a

table. The foot, hot from the mould, can

then be picked up with tongs, or even a

gloved hand, and applied directly over
the bowl’s pontil, or perhaps onto an

intervening wafer or knop. A particular

advantage of the hand plunger system
is that the production of the foot can

be timed closely to correspond with the

item to which it would be attached.
To further investigate this idea I

contacted Gay LeClaire Taylor, recently

retired curator of Wheaton Arts Glass

Museum in America. The museum, as

well as a glasshouse (see
Glass Circle

News
120), has an impressive collection

of gadgets (which they call snaps). Gay
replied: `I do agree with you that NO

“snap” was probably necessary to attach
the lemon-squeezer foot. Especially the
simple wines could easily be attached

with tongs: Some American lamps, in
particular, were made in three parts

without the use of a gadget and Glass
Circle members on a recent visit to
Venice watched the making of an object

in several pieces; as each piece was made

it was kept hot in a kiln and subsequently

joined together — a technique called

`incalmo: So we do have a present-day
precedent for this type of practical

manipulation.
I have discovered one form of gadget

in Broadfield House Glass Museum

(opposite top right) where the sprung
top retaining plate has a much greater

than usual throat that would allow the

passage of the narrower part of a lemon-

squeezer foot so that it could be held

n
111111111111111111111.11.

Another view
against the fixed base plate. This gadget

could certainly have been used with a

casting irrespective of its overall shape.

The only problem is how such a piece
would be picked up on the gadget in
the first place although its benefit could

be that it would make it much easier to

align the foot vertically on the bowl. On
the other hand the gadget could leave a

mark round the upper part of the foot

comparable to that found on conventional
feet held in this way. So there are pros
and cons for both methods. My feeling is

that the glass worker would find using a

gadget was an unnecessary complication

of a simple operation and that, at the
present time, the idea (and expense) of a

specific gadget for each shape of lemon-
squeezer foot remains unsustainable.

reduce their costs prior to the late 18th

century.
Certainly other closely related

industries were quick to adopt means

of reducing manufacturing costs by

adopting industrial techniques. Thus

axwell
–
Stewart
Sadler and Green

i
n their Printed

Ware Manufactory supplemented

hand-painting in the 1750s by transfer
printing and greatly increased their sales

of ceramic tiles.
The most likely reason for the inertia in

adopting mechanisation in glass making
is that until the late 18th century, the

aristocracy and otherwise rich were the

dominant buyers of table glass. For them,
quality and style were more important

factors than price so glass-makers had

little incentive to cut costs. However as

the industrial revolution progressed, a
middle class emerged which was much

cost-conscious and thus mechanised

glass making became profitable.
In regard to David’s observations

on techniques associated with making

press-moulded feet subsequently welded
to another component, he seems to be

implying little reason for the gadget to
have been invented.
I can elaborate more on this and other

related matters in the paper which I am

drafting on the ‘PH Mystery:

Editor’s note:

This may be the basis of a lecture

meeting some time in the future.

avid Watts has made some valuable

comments on my article published in

the last edition of
Glass Circle News

and

our Editor has invited me to respond

briefly to them.
He raises matters which are debatable

and thus the subject
by Christopher M

for more research.

It is true that the late Kenneth M

Wilson, whilst experimenting with a

graphite plunger, used that material

solely because it was an expeditious
way of replicating the profile of a metal

mould which he found in the archives of

the Pairpoint glass factory of Sagamore

Massachusetts. Wilson himself was far

from dogmatic about whether a hand-

held plunger was the only way that
early ‘rose’ impressions were made in the
USA. He was even more cautious about

how these impressions were earlier made

in Europe.
The principal matter addressed in my

article was; ‘Why, given the evidence of
use in the Syrio-Roman era of highly in-

tricate moulds for making cast, moulded

and blown glassware, did it take so long
for these techniques to be developed to
make the lemon-squeezer foot?:

As I pointed out, press moulding

reduced the amount of glass used and

the need for skilled labour in forming

and subsequently cutting, thus making
it a cheaper substitute for traditionally
made glass. Given the increasing costs

imposed on glass-makers as excise duty,
one would have expected glass-makers
to have resorted to press moulding to

Glass Circle News Issue 123 Vol. 33 No. 2

Painted panels from the

£90
range

REPORTS

Patrick Reyntiens:

glass painter
extraordinaire
Fieldings:

3 centuries

of glass

T
he Glaziers Hall in London provided

a stately backdrop for an event on 12

April which at times resembled the Mad

Hatter’s tea party.
Arranged by John Reyntiens, the

purpose of the
evening was to raise

funds to finance a documentary film

about his father, Patrick Reyntiens, the

renowned stained glass artist.
The main events were lectures given

by Graham Jones and Danny Lane. Both
glass artists had unique and very different

approaches to working in glass, and
have known Patrick for decades. Whilst

Danny gave an hilarious account of his

early apprenticeship to Patrick, Graham
focussed

on a collaborative

commission which he and Patrick
recently completed. This was to create

stained glass windows for Cochem
church in Germany, which was bombed

during the Second World War. Patrick’s

progression from working with John
Piper on the bombed Coventry cathedral

is documented in a part of the film,
From

Coventry to Cochem,
which has already

been shot by Malachite Ltd., and which

we were lucky enough to be shown.
Few of us will forget the images of

Patrick — at the age of 84 — on his

hands and knees on the church floor,
painting the lively biblical images on the

brilliantly coloured glass which had been

created by Graham. Nor the account of
the church priest enthusiastically urging
Patrick to make one of the nude females

‘BIGGER..:
Patrick’s high spirits were a feature

throughout the evening, although he did

quieten down whilst demonstrating glass
painting when he produced an image of

Gordon Ramsay apparently creating

some sort of omelette.

The main purpose of the evening was

the sale of hundreds of small painted

panels, all signed and dated by Patrick.
This was a marvellous opportunity to

obtain a Reyntiens original, for stained

glass artists and collectors of glass alike.
There were still a number left unsold

at the end of the evening, and anyone
interested in acquiring one of these lively

and unique panels should contact John

Reyntiens at [email protected].

The author is an Ordinary Member of the
British Master Glass Painters Society. The

documentary on Reyntiens is to be made
by Libby Homer (see page 6) and Charles

Mapleston. See http://reyntiensrevels.

blogspot.com.
T

he Fieldings annual sale had another

good collection. Overall, one had the

impression that people were still holding

onto their money unless the object was

really desirable; not surprising in the

by Yvonne Wilkes

current economic climate.
The eighteenth century section

followed a predictable pattern: good

examples with sensible estimates sold;

the others didn’t. The continental section,

particularly Bohemian glass which was
virtually un-saleable a few years ago, did

quite well.
Five Steven & Williams’ hock glasses,

each 20 cm high, were the stars of
the sale. All were early 20th century.

The first, a double-cased ovoid bowl

with flared rim in blue over citron, was
cut and engraved with three birds in

diamond panels against a flowering tree

ground. This lot made £1,500 (estimate
£500-£700). The second, made £1,600
(estimate £500-£700). The third left

the rooms to a telephone bid for £1,350

(estimate £5004700). The fourth sold

for £760 (estimate £400-£600).The last

in the group of five had a radial star cut
foot with and invert-facet-cut stem and

facet shoulder knop below a double-

gourd-form bowl. The deep green over

cranberry bowl finely engraved with

stylised flowers and scrolls. This almost

doubled its estimate going for £1,050

(estimate £400-£600).
Most of the 80 pieces from the Charles

Hajdamach Collection sold, (many

illustrated in his recent book), some
doing very well indeed. A late 19th

century novelty spirit flask by Thomas
Webb & Sons, design attributed to

Christopher Dresser, made £1,650
(estimate £8004.1200). It was modelled

in the form of a mythical beast and

illustrated in an article by Charles in a

Glass Association Journal. It came with

pages of scans showing the original
design. A 1930s Stuart & Stuart cocktail

shaker 22.5 cm tall with a matching shot
glass fetched £270 (estimate £150-£180)
to a telephone bid. The ovoid form with

by Frances Clegg

16
Glass Circle News Issue 123 Vol. 33 No. 2

REPORTS

stepped chrome-plated mounts was
decorated with hand-enamelled spiders

and moths with engraved webs, acid

stamped.
Among the general 19th century

British glass was a 26 cm high Thomas
Webb & Son torpedo-form scent bottle,

Lot 592: sold for £1600

2′

u.
cased in opal over ruby with a passion

flower and leafy bough in chased relief

with a hall-marked silver domed cover
dated 1886. Even with slight damage,

it sold for £3,800 to a telephone bid

(estimate £3,000-£4,000). Another scent
bottle, possibly by Thomas Webb & Son,
of spherical form and opal over deep

cinnamon fetched £680 (estimate £600-

£800). The body and stopper were both
cut back with flowering boughs between

branded borders and stood 13.5 cm high.

A late 19th century Stevens &

Williams scent bottle cased in ruby over

citron sold for £1,650 (estimate £1,500-
£2,000). Possibly by John Orchard, it

was cut with arched panels alternatively

engraved with British birds and flowering

boughs.The last lot in this section was an
early 20th century cameo glass brooch,

cut and engraved by William Fritshe

on a Thomas Webb & Sons oval blank,
cased in opal over deep cinnamon, with

a classical female portrait in profile This

brooch had been commissioned by the

current owner’s father who had worked

with Fritshe at Thomas Webb & Sons in
the early 20th century. It sold for £1,150,

just at the mid-estimate of £1,000-

£1,150.
There were 75 lots in a group devoted

to the designs of the late Ronald

Stennett-Willson, some from his own
collection, not all of which sold. A set

of five Wedgwood, Kings Lynn Glass

Sheringham candlesticks did well. The

set, consisting of seven, five, three, and
one ring examples in blue (the tallest 26

cm) made £330 (estimate £150-£200). A

single example following on in matching

colour and patter with the rarer nine
rings at 35 cm high failed to sell at £600

(estimate £500-£700).
A pair of Sheringham wineglasses,

16 cm high, in flint glass fetched £220

(estimate £150-£200). The solid base
round-funnel bowls with internal tear,

stood on single ring stem bases.
The next 31 lots were art works, all

very recent, by seven talented artists
working at Dartington and Caithness

Crystal; 21 of these were bought in. The
Lot 591: An early 20th

Century
Stevens &

Williams hock glass sold for £1050

final 63 lots were by other contemporary

artists, again with only 19 selling. Selling

work by living artists at auction is not

easy. Collectors seem to prefer to buy
from a gallery or direct from the artist.

This catalogue, produced to a standard
of which a London auctioneer would

be proud, did however enable artists to

bring their work to the attention of a

wider public.

Lot 593: sold for £1350

Glass Circle News Issue 123 Vol. 33 No. 2

ABOVE:
Lot 50. Mount

Washington Glass Co.

magnum flower paperweight c.1870-90;

BELOW:
Lot 14. Pantin chrysanthemum

paperweight sold for £20,400

REPORTS

Paperweight sale of the

century

The auction of Fine Paperweights
I from the collection of the late

Baroness de Bellet was held on 19 May at

Bonhams and made an outstanding

£574,080 with 95% sold. Many

American collectors

and dealers braved

the dust storms to cross the Atlantic

for the best paperweight sale in London

for over 10 years. They were partially

attracted by the very conservative
estimates that the estate acquiesced to.

Many of the more expensive weights

went for more than double the estimate

and of the 186 lots 144 sold, with around

10% selling for more than £10,000 — a
lot of money for a paperweight.

This collection, put together by the

late Baroness as well as her parents and

grandparents, was started in New York
around 1900. Most of the paperweights
had never been on the market within

living memory.

The Baroness’s grandfather, Frederick

Hunting Howell, initially assembled the

exceptional collection when paperweights

were not in vogue. He was a New York
financier and favoured paperweights of

mid-19th century French and American
design, such as Boston & Sandwich

flower examples. Frederick moved to

London buying from such dealers as

Cecil Davis. He subsequently left the
collection to his son-in-law, Nello de

P
Smith

Facci Negrati. Nello

was of Venetian

origin and as the manufacture of French

paperweights was inspired by his
Italian forefathers, he became especially

interested in this subject, adding a

fine Venetian millefiori example by
Pietro Bigaglia, dated 1845 which sold

for £9,600, the only Italian weight in

this sale. He continued to add to the

collection, focusing on weights from

the French Classic Period (1845-53),

especially those from the great factories

of Baccarat and Clichy.
There were several extremely rare

weights from the Mount Washington
factory, bought when American weights

were unfashionable. The Mount
Washington firm flourished in America

in the mid-19th century, and these

weights are known for their large size –

some as big as 11cm in diameter.

French paperweights were highly

sought after. The top lot of the day was a

fine and rare Clichy double paperweight

c.1850 which sold for £27,600
against a pre-sale estimate
£6,000-8,000. Many of
these floral weights

were named by
the wife of
Tim Clarke,

to
Sotheby’s auctioneer in the 1960s, who

was a very keen gardener.

The sale followed on from the auction

of Fine British and European Glass

and Paperweights (including part 2 of

the Chris Crabtree collection) in the

morning which made £510,840, bringing

the total for glass sales to over £lmillion.
There were 64 paperweight lots of

which 58 sold and less than 4% of the
lots fetched over £10,000. The star lot

of this sale was again a Clichy weight,

a cornucopia bouquet weight on a clear

ground which fetched £19,200. There

were 5 British lots with a large ‘Bacchus’

weight going for £5,400.
The glass, and it was a good sale,

went largely to expectations with 116

lots out of 148 selling. Over-optimistic
reserves seemed to be the main reason

for failure. A portrait glass, stipple

engraved by David Woolf, fetched top

price of £21,600 and the highest priced

English glass was a tumbler enamelled by

Beilby with the arms of the Richardson/

Williamson families. An astoundingly

large number of enamelled glass were

on offer in 26 lots, including a ‘Beggar’s
Benison’ glass, made for a bawdy club

based in Anstruther, Fife. All but one
of the 14 colour twists sold. The major

casualty of the sale was a superb 26.5cm
high vase engraved in the ‘rock crystal’

style by William Fritsche with a lobster

and fish ‘amidst vibrant waves’. The pre-

sale estimate was £10,000 – £15,000.

by John

Glass Circle News Issue 123 Vol. 33 No. 2

DAN KLEIN

Dan Klein

(1938-2009):

a celebration

any attending the celebration at St

any Wood Church on 17 April

were surprised by the breadth and scope
of this great polymath’s life. Dan Klein’s
family, friends and colleagues gathered to
remember his many talents as a singer,

linguist, collector, authority on modern

glass, writer, friend and
bon viveur.

was the unpretentious Svengali of the
British glass movement and kind patron

of glass engravers.
After a brief but moving welcome

from Dan’s partner Alan Poole, Frank

Loeffler,

Dan’s

by Katherin

brother, described

their family’s early life in wartime

Bombay and subsequently in London.
Mark Loeffler described Dan’s delight

in playing the eccentric uncle. His great-
nephew, Ben Gittins, sang a Handel

aria for countertenor — tutored by his

encouraging uncle.
We heard recordings of Dan

performing in opera and lieder as a
soloist with the ENO, and learned of his

musical career from Sasha Abrams who,

with Dan and Peter Alexander, toured
as a trio performing Dan’s historical

sketches, stopping regularly on the

road to scour every available antique

shop. Some twenty years ago Richard
Rodney Bennett wrote two song cycles

for Dan, one of which he arranged for
this particular celebration, for violin,

accompanying it himself on the piano.
Dan’s charm, intelligence and charisma

enhanced his distinguished auctioneering

career (a director of both Christies and
Bonhams) just as it paved his way in
the world of international glass art. A

collector and authority on the Decorative

Arts movement, he wrote and lectured

widely on Gaffe, Christopher Dresser

and many other significant designers
before he discovered the delights of

modern Czech glass. Both a dealer

and the leading exponent on the latter,
Dan was also immensely influential in

drawing leading Czech artists to the UK
to give contemporary glass teaching
here

a much needed shot in the arm.

David Reekie spoke
of the

significant
Artists in Glass: Late Twentieth Century

Masters in Glass
Mitchell Beazley

2001 ISBN 1-84000-340-5, £25 +

p&p

21st Century British Glass
Dan

Klein Associates 2005 ISBN

0-95450582-4, £15 + p&p

Traversing — Moments Marked With
Glass/At Krydse Spor — I Glas

(Exhibition Catalogue) Glasmuseet

Ebeltoft, DK 2005, ISBN 87-

91179-10-6, £10 + p&p

Reflections: A Decade of North Lands
Creative Glass, North Lands Creative

Glass,
Lybster GB 2006, £15 + p&p

Mieke Groot,
Mieke Groot,

Amsterdam, NL 2007, £36 + p&p

Zora Palova Stepan Pala FO
Art S,R,O,

Bratislava, SL 2007, ISBN 978-80-

88973-34-8, £35 + p&p

The
Glasshouse and its Tree,

(Exhibition Catalogue)
Contemporary Applied Arts,
persuaded Pilkingtons to fund the new

glass gallery at the V&A.
Jennifer Opie described another of

Dan’s great ideas, the establishment of

a National Glass Centre in Sunderland
in which he was involved and continued

to take great interest. Professor Flavia

Swann, Dean of Sunderland University
acknowledged his key role as Professor in

the glass department there. Mieke Groot

described how she was recently beguiled
into agreeing to be Director of North

Lands Creative Glass. North Lands was

another of Dan’s original ideas, as Lord
Maclennan freely admitted, that evolved

when they first met to try and develop
more glass-working in Caithness.

From every speaker we heard how

Dan managed to sidestep convention,

move mountains, work wonders and

appeal at the same time to all ages and
backgrounds.
Musicians, glass collectors, colleagues

from his many years as dealer and an

auctioneer, curators, academics and

glass-makers were there, and all laughed,

sighed and marvelled at his multi-

facetted achievements. The afternoon

and subsequent tea party flew by. One
came away as Dan would have liked,

amused, amazed and proud to have
known him.

London GB, 2008, £10 + p&p

Klaus Moje
(Exhibition Catalogue)

Portland Art Museum, Portland

(OR), USA, 2008 £15 + p&p

In Essence: The Legacy of Stephen
Procter,
Foundation For The Visual

Arts/

Australian National University Acton
(ACT)/Sabbia Gallery, Surry Hills

(NSW), AUS, 2008, £10 + p&p

Slovak Contemporary Glass
Galeria

Nova, Bratislava, SL, 2009, ISBN

978-80-969285-4-5, £30 + p&p

Bonhams Modern & Contemporary
Glass
(Auction Catalogue),

Bonhams 1793 Ltd, London, GB,

2009, £18 + p&p

A further selection is available from

[email protected]
www.dankleinglass.com/books/

books,html

+44 (0)20 7821 6040

Dan Klein

role that Dan had played in mentoring

both his own and others’ artistic careers.
With the Venezia Aperto shows curated

with Alan Poole and his involvement

worldwide in contemporary glass,

Dan was an ambassador for British

e Coleman
contemporary glass

on a scale no others

could surpass, working away behind
the scenes as well as in public, often a

jurist for major competitions as well as

curator of many important exhibitions

of contemporary art glass. Many of
us did not know that it was Dan who

Alan J Poole has a number of publications for sale which may be of interest
Circle members. Most are by Dan Klein or have a Foreword or Essay by him.

Glass Circle News Issue
123 Vol. 33 No. 2

CONSERVATION AND CARE

OF GLASS OBJECTS

Stephen P. Koob

BOOK NEWS

Books

Conservation
Stephen P, Koob
Conservation and Care of Glass Objects

Archetype Publications 2006

$29.5

158 pages full colour
ISBN 1-904982-08-05

W
allc round any museum containing

archaeological objects and you

cannot help being impressed not just

with the objects themselves, but often
by the skill with which they have been

reconstructed and conserved from

fragments, Just how do they get those

infill bits of plastic conforming exactly

to the curve of the vessel? Stephen Koob

is a master of this art and in this book

explains the tricks of his trade in detail

explaining how he uses a diversity of

materials such as dental wax and even

a balloon along with more conventional

tapes, adhesives and plastics, Sources,

including some in the UK, are given in

an appendix.

Koob, now the conservator for The

Corning Museum of Glass, has world-

wide training and experience including
the programme of conservation at

the University of London Institute of

Archaeology, The book is aimed at other

conservators but it is much more than

that, The collector will find information
on how to present, check, clean, store

and, if necessary, package safely his
precious collection. Some sections are

highly professional in the equipment
required and its use but there is much

general information for the collector.
This is much more than just a matter

of interest as is explained in the long
chapter on crizzling, a term going back

at least to Ravenscroft’s misbehaving

lead crystal in 1676, It occurs in glass
right up to the present day and even a

newly-acquired studio glass piece could

easily fall to pieces inside a decade if not

cherished.

The important considerations are

humidity, extremes of temperature

and keeping your glass clean as dirt
can trap moisture and promote the

crizzling process, In a cabinet, unless

hermetically sealed and air-conditioned,

an air flow is important to maintain an

even temperature, The small 5/12 volt

fans used in computers are ideal for this
purpose, Beware, too, of the heating

from lighting.

Corning seems to have had no shortage

of objects requiring Koob’s attention and

the book is profusely illustrated with

clear informative illustrations, You might
even be tempted to have a go yourself,

but I would recommend starting with

something you dropped while doing the

washing up.

I greatly enjoyed reading this book, I

feel sure our members, professional and

otherwise, will do so as well.
David
C

Watts

New from Corning Museum

of Glass

David Whitehouse with contri-

butions by William Gudenrath

and Karl Hans Wedepohl
Medieval

Glass for Popes, Princes, and Peasants
This book is a selective introduction

to medieval glass vessels, made in the

course of more than 1,000 years, that

were intended for eating and drinking,
lighting, worship, science, and medicine.

$34.95

New

This year’s
New Glass Review
features

a survey of works in glass submitted by

artists around the world and selected by

a jury of Jon Clark, Rosa Barovier Men-

tasti, Zesty Meyers, and Tina Oldlcnow.
Only three British glass-makers feature:

a heavy emphasis on US conceptual glass

art. $10

David Whitehouse
Islamic Glass in

The Corning Museum of Glass, Volume

One

This beautifully illustrated book

presents 595 objects and fragments that

were made in the Islamic world from the

8th to the 11th centuries. $75

Cameo glass book offer
Christopher Woodall Perry
The Cameo Glass of Thomas & George

Woodall

Richard Dennis Publications

144pp, with 56 colour pages and over

140 black and white illustrations.
Special offer for a limited time normal

price £38, now £29

ISBN 0-903685 77-9

Documenting the work of these

gifted 19th century designers for the

manufacturer, Thomas Webb and Sons.

www.richarddennispublications.com

THE CAMEO GLASS

OF THOMAS AND GEORGE WOODALL

Editor’s note:
Respondents to the questionnaire said

they would like information on new

books as well as long reviews of key
works. Readers are invited to send

in details of books they know are

forthcoming. If any readers would
like to review books that are about to

be published, please contact the Editor
and we will try and obtain your choice

for you.

Glass Circle News Issue 123 Vol. 33 No.2

LETTERS
© Br

ian

Con
ker

Dear Editor,

I must congratulate you and
Athelny Townshend on the new

format and content of
Glass

Circle News
and for your appeal

to members interests. Some 45

years ago we started to collect

18th century sweetmeat glasses.
In those days, Sotheby’s and

Christie’s held frequent glass

sales, often with several glasses
in a lot. We retained any glasses

that we wanted: the rest went

to Arthur Negus’s sales in

Cheltenham where prices were

usually higher, so this subsidised

our London purchases. But 19th
century Bohemian glass could

often be found more cheaply
in the Cotswolds and in 1977

when we moved from London

to Suffolk, we sold about 40

of those Bohemian glasses at

Christies and they, incredibly,

raised 4 or 5 times what we had

Dear Editor,
I found
Limpid Reflections

(Vol. 33 No.1 pp10-11) very

interesting regarding survival of
more small glasses. As a result,

I measured a selection of my

18th century wine glasses and a
modern one.

•
Standard modern wine glass:

150-200 ml. It is 150m1
when roughly 2/3rds full (to

appreciate the nose!)
Letters to

paid for them. All this helped in
the building up of a collection.

Tim Udall

Formerly Hon. Treasurer of GC

Editor’s note:
Have other collectors financed

their collections in this way? And

is it still possible today?

Dear Editor,

John Smith’s review of
British

Glass
makes some interesting

observations relating to the
decline of English glasshouses

that emerges in this, Charles
Hajdamach’s second book.
I was particularly struck by

John’s choice of quirky’ in his
description of the manufacture

•
Small wine glass: 27ml

•
Large wine glass (excluding

ale flutes, etc.): 75m1

•
Largest wine glass

(sometimes called a
champagne glass): 260m1

There are a number of

reasons why more small glasses

have survived from the early
part of the century. It would

have been polite for women

to request a small glass. High
the Editor

of glasses for traffic and railway
lights by Nazeing Glass Works.

They produce some 600 differ-
ent lamp covers of which about

200 different types are kept in

stock. For railways, each signal

glass has to meet exact colour

requirements, determined

spectrophotometrically, and

be individually certified by the

National Physics Laboratory.

In the event of a crash the lack

of certifying documentation for

any signal lamp that might be
involved would land the firm in

big trouble. Nazeing, I believe,

is the biggest manufacturer of

such lamp covers outside the

USA — nothing at all quirky

about either the magnitude or

alcohol beverages would also
merit a small glass. Two scoffs

of the 75m1 glass (below) was
equal to our modern glass in

volume, so only the bravest

would risk losing decorum

in the toasting phase of the

dinner by drinking repeatedly

from a large glass. Also,

smaller glasses may have been
more robust and less likely

to be broken. After the ladies

retired, what glass the men

used would depend on what

they were drinking, i.e. ale,

wine, fortified wine or spirits.
Pictures of drinking clubs give

us an insight as to the type of

glass used by men in a more
relaxed mood. However, in

clubs the glasses would be
more likely to have a more

uniform size and shape because

of limited variety of beverages

and, perhaps, for convenience

(as after dinner when servants
retired). Also, it may have

been convenient for the artist

to paint a limited variety of

glasses.
As for bottles, since most

wine if not all was imported

in barrel and required to be

decanted for serving at table,

presumably the bottles served

as ‘decanters’. In the early part

of thel8th century only a

relatively small number of
decanters and carafes would

have been available.

Brian
Coulter

Liverpool
Test facility for coloured

traffic light lenses

the responsibility that goes with

their production.
Nor is their latest contracts

for explosion-proof window

glasses for prisons, and carafes

for the 2012 Olympics, which
are reflections of the adapt-

ability and skill of a firm that

has survived where others have

failed.
David
C
Watts

London

Dear Editor,
I’d like to congratulate F Peter

Lole, whose column in the

most recent
Glass Circle News

on Drinking Habits, showed

exemplary research in the

original source material which
describes drinking habits in

the 18th century. Paintings,

inventories and bills for

glassware are all good source

material, especially paintings

which show glass in use.

Jane Shadel Spillman

Curator
of American Glass

The Corning Museum of Glass

Dear Editor,

Michael Noble’s article in the

last issue of
Glass Circle News

p9 has awakened my interest.
I am very interested in the use

of cullet and as a lapsed glass
technologist it continues to be

clear to me that most people do
not realise or understand the

technical reasons why cullet

is and was so useful to the

glassmaker.

Jim Smedley
Director,

The Association

for the History of Glass

tts

Glass Circle News Issue 123 Vol. 33 No. 2

, I

13% vol.

EARL NdeuLai & Fde Roams. Woolf 84220 France – Peodede diFedoce

IOU
RN

OMAINE

N
I
ERRItRE

ASK THE EXPERTS

Domaine de la Verriere

Here’s a curiosity: a wine-bottle

label (right) indicative of an

industry of glass-bottle-blowers

in the Ventoux area of France.

The graphics artist is clearly

using artistic licence, rather than
knowledge of glass-blowing and

it is hard to grasp how he could

see what he was doing. What

period might it be evoking?

John Buckman

Luberon

Editor’s note: If you have

questions you would like to
ask other members, please

send your contributions

to Curiosity corner with

a high resolution picture

and permission to use it.
Replies will be printed here

if they are forthcoming: the
Editor will not put members

in touch with each other

without permission.

Local history

I
am a member of the Ruyton

XI Towns Local History Society

and we are researching some

aspects of our village history

using paperwork on the sale of

the village and surrounding areas

in 1771.

The estates belonged to Lord
Craven and the paperwork

consists of an inventory of all the
land and property for sale and

includes maps.

On two of these there is

reference to ‘Glass works’ and

memory has it that one was in

the village, where shards of glass

could still be found in more
recent times.

One map shows two plots

in Haughton, rented by a Mr

Windsor, named on the map

as glass house bank and glass
house meadow (about 12 and a

half acres together). The same

names appear in the second map

showing two plots in Ruyton

Park near Drayton Mill on the

River Perry (about 17
1
/2 acres in

total). Can any members throw

light on what glass might have

been produced here?
AL White

Shropshire

Curious cuts
Can anyone help? These little

jelly glasses (height 41/2 inches)
circa 1850(?) have matching

beakers (height 2
1
inches).

These beakers each have two cut,

unpolished indents on opposite

sides under the rim. What could

have been their purpose?
Richard Dennis

Somerset
Bohemian wineglass

I am rather puzzled by the

engraving on a Bohemian

wineglass in my possession.
It has a good-sized bucket
bowl, indicating the period of

Leopold II of Bohemia, 1790-

92. The stem is octagonal and

stands on a flat foot. It is a

good quality glass and thicker

than most Bohemian glass of

the period.
The engraving on the

bowl is a Germanic letter L

surmounted by a crown in

the style of the Holy Roman
Empire, all in a cartouche, oval

in shape; the initial and crown
being gilded.
Around the circumference

of the bowl are six prismatic
cuts; two at the top, two at the

bowl base and two creating

a belt some 20 mm wide

under the top pair. The belt

is cut all over in strawberry

diamonds. The foot engraving

on the underside has prismatic

printies. It is well-balanced and

exhibits superb craftsmanship.
But here my problem

begins. Between the bottom

cuts and the middle ones

is a belt somewhat broader

than the upper belt. This is

in three sections: a capital
Arabic letter N and two floral

sections partially separated
by the cartouche. Although

this engraving is good, it is by
no means as well executed as

the rest of the glass, it being
copper-wheel engraved.

My question is: why should

a glass with royal overtones

be engraved by two artisans?

Was it a division of labour

in a glasshouse, or post-

engraved? Why are there two
forms of lettering: Arabic

and Germanic? Are the two
hands contemporaneous or

years apart? It’s possible that
a buyer had it personalised

with the letter N. Or could it
be a political statement in the

period just before Napoleon?
I have many other

guesswork theories, but

perhaps a reader can help as
I am clutching at straws. I

even wonder whether a 19th

century jobbing journeyman

in England may have added

the copper-wheel engraving to

the brilliance of the diamond

cutting. The photographs tell

part of the story.
Audrey Bruce

Lincolnshire

Katharine Coleman (engraver)

suggests: Glasses were wheel cut
in late 18th Bohemia onwards

and sold all over Europe to spa
towns and other places where

local engravers personalised

giftware for the burgeoning

tourist trade – right up to the
1930s. The place was probably

somewhere in Germany

beginning with L and the N was
the name of the purchaser or the

recipient of his gift.

Glass Circle News Issue 123 Vol. 33 No. 2

Pedestal stem glasses

from

A Gathering of Glass

DIARY DATES/NEWS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE
24

until 4.00pm.
Originally founded along

with the respected collector

and glass expert Dr. Graham
Cooley, this fair offers the ideal

opportunity to find both antique

glass and contemporary studio
work; glass from all eras and to

suit all tastes.

International glass conference

in Scotland

1-4 October

Edinburgh College of Art,

EH3 9DF

The conference is organised

into three parallel streams of

lectures:

1.
Contemporary Art, Crafts

and Stained Glass

2.
Paperweights

3.
Historical

The conference fees includes

attendance at your choice of

lectures with tea, coffee and

biscuits served in the morning

and afternoon breaks. The
basic conference cost is £34.00.

Additional costs will levied

for catering and extra events

at £5 per day. So attendance
cost is £39, £44 or £49 for 1,

2 or 3 days respectively. The
programme, full registration

details and a booking form are

at:
www.scotlandsglass400.co.uk

Glass Circle outing to the
British Museum

8 October

10.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.
We have arranged to meet,

at different times during the

day, nearly all the glass experts
currently working at the

Museum.

Some of the Roman glass

we are familiar with following
the talk to The Circle by Paul
Roberts. We may be less familiar

with their later post Roman
(Sassanian) and Islamic glass,

partially because it is shown

in the North (back) end of the
museum.

Our member Judy Rudoe

hopes by then to have some of
her exciting new acquisitions

out on show and will explain the

reasoning behind their purchase.
The highlight of the visit will

undoubtedly be our privileged

access the Ceramic Study
Centre where much of the

museum’s glass, which cannot
be shown in the main galleries

for reasons of space, is displayed.
This includes a collection of

Venetian and Venetian style

glass, much acquired in the 19th
century which is unparalleled

anywhere.
We are still discussing with

the Museum the maximum size

of the party but numbers will
have to limited.
The cost of the trip will be

£30 which will include lunch at

a nearby restaurant. Any surplus

will not be retained by the
Circle but given to one of the
Museum’s acquisition funds.

To book please send a cheque,
made payable to The Glass

Circle to:

John P Smith
Chairman

42 Vespan Road

London W12 9QQ

A Gathering of Glass
4-15 October 10 am to 5 pm

Delomosne & Son Ltd, North

Wraxall, Chippenham,

SN14 7AD
English drinking glasses of the

18th century from the collection
of the late Dr Richard Emanuel,
including a fine collection of

Silesian and pedestal-stemmed
balusters. An illustrated

catalogue will be available from

September at £15 including UK

postage.
+44 (0)1225 891505

vvww.delomosne.co.uk

National Glass Fair

14 November
10.30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
National Motorcycle Museum,

B92 OEJ

Original specialist glass fair

with around 100 exhibitors

selling fine quality antique
and collectable glass including
contemporary artists showing

their own work.
News

Save the Kamenicky Senov

School of Glassmaking

There were three secondary

schools in the Czech Republic

specialising in teaching the art
and technology of glass. The
Glass Circle has visited all

three. Two were founded in

the 19th century, one at Novy

Bor, and the one at Kamenisky
Senov which is threatened with

closure. After the First World

War, the Czech government
opened one in Zelezncr Brod,

also threatened with closure,

which taught in the Czech
language. The standard of these
three schools is remarkable,

with 18 year-olds producing

work of which postgraduates at
the RCA would be proud.
Unfortunately, demand
for their products is waning,

and it is difficult to justify the
continuation of three schools.

The citizens of Kamenisky

Senov, understandably, think
that the closure would be a

shame.
A petition was launched

earlier in the year and we will
report back on the outcome.

Tyrone Crystal closes
Glass making in Tyrone has

a history going back as far

as 1771, though the present

factory has been in operation

for some 40 years. Like

others before it, the factory in

Dungannon, Northern Ireland

failed to find a buyer for its

famous brand of cut-glass
tableware and chandeliers and

announced its closure this

March. Thanks to Michael
Vaughan for drawing this to our

attention.

Glass Circle News Issue 123 Vol. 33 No. 2

DIARY

Diary dates

Antiques Roadshow

Members might like to know

that the 34th season of the

BBC TV’s evergreen Antiques

Roadshow will be filmed over

the coming spring, summer and

autumn. Andy McConnell will

be present at the locations below

and would welcome pieces

brought in for discussion.

In keeping with Roadshow

tradition, there is little point

bringing along items that

members already know

everything about, but Andy

would love to be able to
see

anything really unusual and/
or with interesting stories

attached.
It is possible that prior

appointments can be made via
the Roadshow office to avoid

queuing. Where possible, please

attach an image of the piece

and recount its story as known.

Owners of particularly large

or super-fragile pieces should

follow the same route.

The dates and locations are:

1 July: Hutton-In-The-Forest,

CAll 9TH.

15 July: Hatfield House,

AL9 5NQ.

22 July: Hampton Court Castle,
Hope-Under-Dinmore, HR6

OPN.

9 September: Blair Castle, Blair
Atholl, Pitlochry, Scotland,

PH18 5SR.

16 September: Charlecote Park,
Warwick, CV35 9ER.
29 September: Colchester Town

Hall, COl 1PJ.

www.antiquesroadshow@bbc.
co.uk

The Glass Delusion

2.1 May – 3 October
National Glass Centre,

Sunderland

‘The Glass Delusion’ was the

name given in the late Middle

Ages and Baroque times to

a form of depression. The

syndrome evokes a psychological

separation between reality and

imagination. Sufferers were

obsessive, compulsive, driven by

irrational fears and envisioned
themselves to be made of glass,

hence delicate and vulnerable to

scrutiny. The inspiration for this

exhibition of contemporary art,

artefacts and scientific objects

tell the story of human attempts

to reconcile the physical and

mental worlds.

www.nationalglasscentre.com/

whats-on
21st Century Engraved Glass

15 June — 15 August

Octagon Room, Fitzwilliam

Museum, Cambridge

Edmond Suciu Steuben crystal

engraved with Moses
throwing

down the tablet of stone.

The intended visit to this
exhibition by the Guild of

Glass Engravers as a group

has not been arranged: there

will be a Circle outing to the

British Museum instead
(see

8 October). This exhibition

explores the diversity of

engraving techniques – from

pre-Roman to modern methods

– used by 42 Guild members,

revealing the vast possibilities of

this versatile medium. On show

are 90 international pieces of

work, both large and small.

www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/

whatson/

Remarkable Glass

18
June — 17 July

Contemporary Applied Arts,

London

An exhibition of the

Contemporary Glass Society

showcasing the work of 30
artists (both emerging and

established) demonstrating

innovation, originality and

creative expression within

glass making techniques.
A high quality catalogue is

available with an excellent

contextual essay by
Dagmar Brendstrup (curator of

the Ebeltoft Glass Museum, in

Denmark).

www.caa.org.uk

Glass Association outing to

Sunderland

17 July

A day programme of activities

about Sunderland’s glass
heritage, including a 20 minute

glass-blowing session at the
National Glass Centre. £22 for

the day.

Contact editor@

glassassociation.org.uk

Art in Action

15-18 July
Waterperry Gardens, nr

Wheatley, OX33 1JZ
Eighteen professional artists will

be demonstrating a wide variety

of glass making techniques
including glassblowing, blown

glass jewellery, glass beads, pate-

de-verre, and neon sculpture.

www.artinaction.org.uk or +44

(0)20 7381 3192

International Festival of Glass
27-30 August

Various attractions in the Glass

Quarter of Stourbridge include:
masterclasses, invited speakers,

heritage lectures, African bead-

making and flameworking

demonstrations and a session

on ‘Confident Collecting with

Candice Elena Greer and

collecting professionals at

the Ruskin Glass Centre; an

exhibition of glass furniture

at Broadfield House Glass

Museum; an exhibition on lace

and glass at the Lace Guild; a

Craft Market on Saturday with
live music, glassblowing and

flameworking demonstrations in

Stourbridge Town centre; drop-
in public art-work and family

events at the Red House Glass

Cone; and many social and
interactive events such as the

Yard-of-Ale contest. For a full

programme, visit the website at:

www.ifg.org.uk

British Glass Biennale

27 August-11 September

Ruskin Glass Centre,

Stourbridge
Flameworked flower detail by

Rowan van der Holt

The organisers changed the

format of the selection process
this year, nominating 20 invited

artists to join 62 selected artists
out of a total of 202 entries.

Society of Glass Technology
AGM

8-10
September

Murray Edwards College,
Cambridge

Will have forums on new

research, history and heritage

of glass and developments on

science and technology.

www.societyofglasstechnology.

org.uk

Glass Circle meeting

12 October

Annual General Meeting

followed by identification of
members items.

GC trip to Liege

17-21 September

Details were circulated in the

last edition of Glass Circle
News and are on the website

at www.glasscircle.org. Places

are still available. The Grand
Curtius Museum in Liege was
renovated last year and houses

an international collection of

10,000 pieces of glass spanning
7000 years. Further information

is at www.grandcurtiusliege.

be. Other attractions include
the Groesbeeck de Croix

Museum and archeological
museum in nearby Namur;

the glass museum in Charleroi
(once the centre for European

window glass); the Limoges

enamels at Huy; the Museum
for Angewandte Kunst and
the Romishe-Germanisches in

Cologne, 100 km away — also its
very fine cathedral.

Cambridge Glass Fair
26 September

Chilford Hall, Linton CB2

1NA
The fair is open from 10.30am

CONTINUED ON PAGE 23

Glass Circle News Issue 123 Vol. 33 No. 2

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