Bristol Museum & Art Gallery has recently opened a newly-displayed glass gallery housing more than five hundred examples from its collection.
The museum is mainly known for the comprehensive range of English 18th century drinking glasses from the Peter Lazarus Collection, which can now be seen to great advantage. The variety of stem and bowl forms is truly amazing. There is much else, including glass made in the ancient world from the Bomford Collection, glass made in Bristol, selected contemporary acquisitions and outstanding examples of 18th to 20th century glass.
Visitors can learn about Bristol’s remarkable history as a centre for glassmaking from the late 17th to the 20th century.
Highlights of the redisplay include a Saxon blue glass jar found on Pagans Hill, North Somerset; a drinking glass engraved by Dutch engraver Jacob Sang (b.about 1720-d.1786); Bristol blue glass with the signature of Isaac Jacobs (b.1757-d.1835), and new works by contemporary glass artist Chris Day.
This project was supported by Bristol Museums Development Trust, the Friends of Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives, Giles Woodward as executor of Jean Allan, the Bequest of Sylvia Coppen-Gardner through the Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, and Linda Wilson and Graham Mullan.