After thirteen years of collecting, researching and writing, Glass Society member Neil Harris has just published an excellent book on Manchester Glass. The next issue of Glass Matters will feature a review of the book, but in the meantime here is a short preview.
The subject of the book, Percival Vickers, was a manufacturing company once central to Manchester’s Victorian glass industry. Over a seventy year run, the firm produced fine cut glass tableware, pressed glass and speciality glass for industry and transportation.
This book examines the history of the firm, illustrated with hundreds of photographs of registered and unregistered pieces, from the collection of the author and other enthusiasts, including rare examples of uranium, flint and colour designs.
Central to the book is the previously unpublished 1893 Supplementary Catalogue, digitally enhanced and restored. Running to 83 pages, just over a quarter of the book length, it favours cut and moulded glass over pressed. Further chapters cover other surviving ephemera, results from an excavation of the works, research on pressed glass goblets, and the offshoot company of Whittingham & Percival.
It can be purchased on Amazon UK here.