Glass Circle News_No.126, Jul 2011

•

Pointillism

•
Fine engraving

•
Verre eglomise

•
Old glass recipes

•
Curiosities

•
News and

view

CONTENTS

Three engraved glasses

Gold and glass

Tricks of the trade

Reviews

Curiosity corner

Glass Circle News
ISSN 2043-6572

Vol. 34 No. 2 Issue 126 July 2011

published by The Glass Circle

www.glasscircle.org

Editor

Jane Dorner

[email protected]

9 Collingwood Avenue,
N10 3EH

Design and layout
Athelny Townshend

[email protected]

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

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 to clear permissions and neither the Editor nor the Glass

Circle is responsible for inadvertent infringements.

Printed by
Micropress Printers Ltd

www.micropress.co.uk

Next copy date:

15 September 2011 for November edition.

COVER ILLUSTRATION: Pointillist glass
decorated by Moritz Finsch © Paul von

Lichtenberg
Can you identify the decorative

technique?

And which is the odd one out (Answers p28.)

r”
“‘

irTr40

EDITORIAL

Editor’s letter

eg
‘his issue has decoration as its

theme music: gilding, enamelling,

engraving and commemorative objects

all feature in their glory of colour and

with some of the secrets of technique
rediscovered and unveiled. A completely

new form of decoration

on glass is also revealed

by Paul von Lichtenberg

— the glass painter Moritz Finsch who

discovered Pointillism for himself as

Seurat and Signac were formalising it in

fine art. Some people call such parallel

discovery ‘morphic resonance’. One

of his glasses is on our cover and it is

with regret that we cannot show more,

but unfortunately the museums where

most of them reside charge too much in
reproduction fees for a humble magazine

such as this.

The same applies to some of the

remarkable 16th century double-walled

gilded goblets that we would have liked
to display in the article on glass and gold
by Frances Federer. But readers will not

be disappointed: there is plenty here

for the interested collector and there

are few finer engraved glasses than the

ones pictured in these pages, owned, and
described, by Bill Davis.
Peter Lole, who for 18 years has written

his ‘Limpid Reflections’ series in every

issue, couldn’t find anything to reflect

upon this time, but he has filled the ‘My
Favourite Glass’ slot — readers who have

been following him all these years may

be surprised by what he has chosen.
The Hugh Tait lecture given by David

Watts on
8

February is fully documented,

complete with some extraordinarily
elaborate recipes. The full title as given
to the Circle was ‘From cristallo glass to

enamels and mosaics: tricks of the trade

of the Medieval & Renaissance Venetian

glass makers’. The other lectures this year
had good audiences. Andy McConnell

spoke amusingly about James Giles,
London’s leading mid-to-late 18th

century decorator of glass and crockery.

Our chairman examined the importance

of Hartshorne’s book
Old English Glass

showing slides of the pencilled additions

in Hartshorne’s own copy together with
all the letters and press
cuttings which had

been retained with his

copy. And Christopher Maxwell-Stuart

who discussed the detective work he

carried out while investigating why

some of the ‘lemon squeezer’ glasses in
his possession were marked ‘PH’ in the

moulded area (PH was almost certainly

the mark of the mould-maker).

My thanks to Derek Woolston who

sent me
48

of the missing numbers of

Glass Circle News
I asked for to make up

a complete Editor’s set, to Philip Jackson

who photocopied another io and to

Stephen Pohlmann for
5
duplicates he

had. Now it is just the early ones — nos

1-35 — that are missing.

Mary Boyden daughter very kindly

did a search of her mother’s papers, but
reports back that they must have been

donated to the National Library of

Ireland as part of the donation of books

and other papers relating to glass which

she made a couple of years ago. A couple
of correspondents ventured to inform
me that David Watts was sure to have

a complete set. Indeed he does, and of
course he wants to keep them himself –
but he did give me all the duplicates he

had right at the start.

We have a substantial quartet of books

reviewed in this issue and your Editor

has negotiated a special price to Circle

Members for most of them. Buy all

four and you’ll save £65.50 on the retail

selling price — there’s a benefit to add
to the comparative society membership

listing I did last year. Did anyone observe

what good value the Circle already offers
compared to many of the others?

by Jan e Dorner

2
Glass Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

LETTERS

Letters to the Editor

Differences of opinion
n Curiosity Corner, Mike

t..7 Wallis describes a pear-
shaped object he can’t identify

(Issue 125 page 23). I think it is a

dropper for bitters or tinctures.
Here is an image of one of two

that I have.
Andrew Rudebeck

East Sussex

t
hink MikeWallis’s pear-

t..7 shaped item is a liquid

levelling device (reservoir) as

part of a scientific apparatus.

The nipple at the top is for the

attachment of a rubber tube to
the rest of the apparatus such

nMarch I was in

c_i/ Maastricht vetting an
antiques fair. This fair has

many old master paintings,

some of which are still lives

with glasses. The illustration

shows the holy grail for
baluster collectors, a good

acorn-knopped glass. But it

was painted in Holland by
Laurens Craen, who was active

from 1649 until a little after

1664, before the development
of lead glass. My next task is to

find a Roman acorn knop.

Reading Dwight Lanmon’s

new book, reviewed on

page
24,
reminded me just

how beautiful English 18th

century English glass can
as for testing Boyle’s Law. It

would sit, the other way up, in

a holder that could be raised or
lowered in a stand to regulate
the pressure of the liquid in the

other part of the apparatus.
The so-called bell illustrated

on the same page (of which
I have one) I have always

understood to be a pie-crust

support. It would be inserted in
the centre of a pie or pudding to

stop the pastry sinking into the

filling below. It is not very old

and dates back to the days when
it was not easy to cool pastry,

particularly in the summer.
David
C
Watts

London

tyg
i

view is that the first,

which when in use

would have had a cork in the
hole at the bottom, is either a

bitters dispenser for making
pink gin, or a water sprinkler for

damping clothes before ironing,

very useful before the advent of

the steam iron. It seems a bit

large for the first suggestion and

a bit small for the second.
The lower item is, I think,

a cupping jar, used in bleeding

patients. This example looks to

be 19th century, but, surprisingly,

they are still made today.
John P Smith
London

be, particularly if skilfully
photographed, and, judging

by some of the paintings

illustrated in this book, how
much the Georgians enjoyed
Restorers

nother glass repairer you

might like to list is:

Mehmet Kuso of Nostalgic

Glass, Unit IC Vanguard

Court, 36 Peckham Road, SE5

8QT, ozo7 277 2770 or www.

nostalgicglass.co.uk/. I haven’t

used him myself, but have

sent many happy customers to
him and they all report much

satisfaction. Thanks for this very
useful listing which I have torn
out to keep in my files.
Katharine Coleman
London

e
•he list of repairers and

restorers on page 17

is progress compared to the

situation before with no link

on the Glass Circle website to
restorers. Some, but not many

on your list, are members of
ICON which I think acts as

a mark of excellence through
its quality assurance scheme.

You list Stourbridge Stained

Glass whom I do not know
(no problem in itself), but you

should have listed the ICON

stained glass conservators some
of whom conserve the glass in
UK cathedrals.

Andrew Rudebeck
East Sussex

Editor’s note:
Many thanks

drinking out of such glasses. I

also learned how much history
there is to be found in early

wine bottles.
In May I went to a meeting

of The Wine Label Society

in the Savile club to hear a
lecture by Robin Butler, who

gave us a talk last year, and I
learnt that the first paper label

on a wine bottle appeared

in England in 1861, when
the mechanisation of wine

bottle making was advanced

enough to give a product with

a constant capacity, something

that was not possible with

hand blown bottles. We also

had an opportunity to taste

three different types of hock,
all produced in 1976. They are a

very grand lot in that society.

John P Smith
for this piece of information.

The Stained Glass Group of
the Institute of Conservation

(ICON) UK is online at

www.icon.org.uk and, like the

Circle, holds meetings at the

ArtWorkers’ Guild with whom

it has alliances (as a Brother
of the ArtWorkers Guild

myself, I ought to have known

about it). It links to a useful
Conservation Register at wvvw.

conservationregister.com where

you can refine a search and find
restorers near where you live: all

are accredited by ICON.
I plan to print this list once

a year as a useful resource to

all — so please send in your own

recommendations.

The engraver’s hand
ving recently been

provided with a copy

of your latest publication
containing the report on the
paper presented by Dr Seddon

on the possible discovery of the

creator of the Amen glasses,
there would appear to be some

glaring errors in Mrs Coleman’s
interpretation of the informa-

tion being presented which I feel
have to be corrected.
I personally attended the

conference and had been
involved in discussions with

Dr Seddon and Mr McKenzie

for a prolonged period of time

during the investigation of
the hypothesis so feel amply

qualified to correct Mrs

Coleman on almost all of her

comments.

Firstly the ‘hypothesis was

not that of Dr Seddon, but

the work of Ian McKenzie,

described by Mrs Coleman as

a ‘glass merchant and polisher’.
Mr McKenzie is in fact the last

fully apprenticed and qualified

glass beveller and brillant cutter
in Australia who has put many

years of research into the paper

which, supported by Dr Seddon,

was presented at the conference.

With regard to the fact that

the Amen glasses were produced

by a single hand was not in
question, as this has already

been accepted from the lengthy
research by Dr Seddon and

several hand writing experts and

published many years ago.

Chairman’s letter

Glass Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

Pillar cutting on a bowl stand

LETTERS
© Dr

Se
ddon

Robert Strange was not line

engraving in the 172os; he was
not born until 1721!

Quote: doubt creeps in

that they were all by the same

hand’ — Doubt by whom? As
previously said this fact was

established and accepted many
years ago.

A huron does not exist, a

The Breadalbane Amen glass

‘burin’ is used for line engraving.
The Amen glasses were created

with the use of a diamond point
and used in such a way as to
represent handwriting neither

pulled nor pushed, but written

on the glass.

Quote: any hand can be

copied’ — Who would the

creator of the authentic Amen

glasses be trying to copy and

why? This comment does not
make sense.

Quote:’ What we do know is

that there was a furious demand

for such sentimental pieces after

184o. While some are known to
be genuine, others are clouded

by the market: Again Mrs

Coleman appears to be confused

as to what glasses are being
discussed. Fake Amen glasses

were exposed in the 193os and
later. The ‘furious demand’ Mrs
Coleman refers to relates to

wheel-engravedlacobites which
has no bearing on the paper

being presented.

Had I not been there to

witness the presence of Mrs

Coleman I would have believed

her report was concocted from

the views of a third party with

no knowledge at all of the

subject .
I am also at a loss to
understand how Mrs Coleman’s

appraisal of the presentation

was at such odds with the first

person to comment at the end,
the Circle’s Chairman Mr John

Smith, who said he had come

to damn the argument but was

leaving a convert.

All this supports the theory

that Sir Robert Strange, as Dr

Seddon commented at the end

of his presentation,’was by the

evidence presented probably the

creator of the diamond point

engraved Amen glasses’.

Peter Adamson
Stockport

Editor’s note:
Dr Seddon gave a

talk to the Circle on 14 June in

which he had ample opportunity
to present his evidence.

Even more on ales
cliWight
Lanmon’s letter

about Sean O’Geary’s

article on ‘Collecting ales’ strikes

me as back to front. Beer, made
by the addition of boiled hop

liquor to the malted barley fer-

ment, was created not just for

flavour, but also as a bacterio-

static that made London’s unsafe

water into a safe drink for
the masses. (Small beer was a

weaker second extraction of the
fermented mass and was con-

sumed in large quantities). The

plain barley twin-ear decoration

on tall-bowled glasses seems,
in my limited experience, to

dominate in the mid 18th cen-
tury although past experts have
not considered it to carry much

significance as to the specific use

of the vessel. I thought it was

generally known that by mid

18th century ale was recognised
as fermented barley without the

hops.
The cyder glasses mentioned

in Sean O’Geary’s article in

Issue 124 were not engraved to

indicate their use, but to oppose

the tax proposed by Lord
Bute in 1763. I have two later

so-called’short ales ,13 cm H

(5″) not included in the article,
both of which are engraved

with two barley ears and a sprig

of hops. The one illustrated
(above) dates to the last quarter

of the 18th century and has

a’resurgent folded foot and
typical tool marks to the bowl.

The other has a plainer stem, a

flat foot characteristic of the end

of the century and has cruder
engraving.

Tall bowl glasses were also

used for champagne. For

an instructive discussion of

champagne, ale and beer glasses
see
G Bernard Hughes, English,

Scottish and Irish Table Glass,

chapters 12 and 13.

Southwark was the centre of

the hop trade when I was first

at Guy’s hospital in the 197os.
In the summer the hop traders

could be seen pushing their

barrows piled high with hops

to the Hop Exchange (now

offices). For several weeks in
the summer the Southwark air

carried the acrid aroma of the

hop. Our hospital telephone

exchange code was HOP and

four digits. I recall that my

wife, who had worked for the

Brewing Foundation in Surrey,
made a vat of strong beer for

a departmental party using

local hops; several of our over-

appreciative guests spent a night
flat out on the laboratory floor

as a result. Health and safety
regulations would not let it

happen today, but the hop trade

no longer exists there anyway.

David
C
Watts

London

Dictionary
fi
le

r
ecently went round the

British Museum with a

series of expert guides, one of
whom mentioned the term pillar

glass which was a new expres-

sion to me, and not one I found

in a dictionary of glass. After
meeting a number of members

I’ve noted that there appears to

be a very wide range of technical

knowledge, from academics at

one end to those who simply
enjoy glass of various periods at
the other.

To cover a variety of
technical questions, I suggest

that members might like to

write in with terms such as
the one I encountered and the

Circle would try to find the

appropriate expert to explain
them. Several of us would be

interested in more on ‘how

things are made:
Geoffrey Laventhall
Kent

Editor’s Note:
Our Hon.

Vice-President, David Watts

explains the term pillar’ thus.

`The Romans made so called

pillar-moulded glass by a casting

process which to the casual eye

looks a bit like gadrooning only

with separate pillars round the

bowl. The same term was used
in the 19th century to describe

pillar-cut glass. It consists of
raised columns on the outside

of the glass but of curved cross-

sectional form made by cutting
very thick blanks. They usually

went only round the lower
half of the vessel, but in some

decanters of a mallet shape they

would occupy the height of the
vertical part of the body (see

diagrams by the Irish cutter,
Arthur Miller in Westropp/

Boydell, Irish Glass). Similar

sophisticated cutting is one

characteristic of the Regency

period of which I have a fine
example on a small goblet, Ht. 12

cm (5
–
) and very heavy, 362 gm,

for its size (illustrated above).

Glass Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

er Lole

by F Pet
FAVOURITE GLASS

My favourite drinking glass

tg
— t may seem ironic

that when asked

to write upon

favourite

glass’, a professed lover
of 18th century glass should
choose to write about a mid-20th

century

one.

However, when

I contemplated
my cabinet, there

were so many that vied for that
title that I gave up, and decided to

write about the one I always reach

for whenever a night-cap seems
desirable.
When I married in 1960 one

of our presents was a water set

of a jug and six tumblers from
the French firm of Daum. Hand-
made of the fine metal for which

Daum are renowned and with a

very heavy and sinuous trail round

the base of both jug and glasses,

the jug did not last long as an over-
enthusiastic washer-up rinsed

it out with very hot water; ‘ping;

away it went leaving an extremely

g embarrassed mother-in-law with

just a handle in her hand. Three
of the tumblers subsequently met

their Waterloo, but three remain.
The tumblers are not over large,

10.5 cm (4
1

/4″) high and holding

when a little over half full of

whisky and water a decent one-
man ration that does not overstep

the mark. The body is a straight

cone surrounded by concentric,
finely-spaced engraved rings

(presumably machine engraved

as they are extremely even); the
base is thick at about 2 cm (
3

/4”)

and flares slightly towards the
bottom. Encircling the junction

between base and bowl is an

applied thick sinuous and tooled
ribbon of glass, looking much like

a rock formation that has been

distorted by volcanic upheaval;
the decoration is inspired by

the encircling vermicular collars

sometimes encountered on mid-

18th century air-twist glasses, but

much larger.
These tumblers are both satis-

fying to look at and a delight to
hold. Around the base, just above

the bottom, they are signed, ap-
parently in diamond point,

Daum

France.’
Almost 20 years ago

The

Glass Association
organised a visit

to Nancy, and Daum was first of

the factories visited; lo and be-
hold, one chair of workers round

the large furnace was making
substantial vases

of similar form

but very much
larger than my

tumblers. It was a delight to find

the same applied base decora-

tion in use 30 years later than the

tumblers had been made, and the

memory persistently adds to the

enjoyment of a nightcap.
One of the pleasures of drinking

wine is playing with the stem of
the glass, and most 18th century

glasses are particularly satisfying

in this respect. The stems are thick

enough to provide a comfortable
hold, and knopping frequently

enhances the tactile enjoyment;
modern glasses are less good

in this respect, and thin stems

usually mean that one is restricted

to twirling the glass between

finger and thumb. The one group

of 18th century glasses where

holding the stem is not a pleasure

is that with Silesian stems, and
this must surely have made them

less popular and hence so scarce
today. Slightly surprisingly, cut

stems that have not been acid

polished, and thus retain their

sharp outlines, are also a delight
to hold and play with when not

actually drinking, but the softened
corners that follow acid polishing
reduce most of the fun.
Tumblers do not usually offer

such an opportunity, but these
Daum specimens do; the shape of

two cones meeting in a waist just

above the base and encompassed
by a sinuous and sensuous band

of ornament induces an easily

satisfied longing to hold and
rotate the glass whilst not actually

imbibing. So whilst my choice

is not actually 18th century, it

is very much inspired by it and

provides both visual and sensory

enjoyment on a scale that shouts of

inspired design and consummate

workmanship.

Water glass by

Daum,
1960s

66
A sinuous and

sensuous band of ornament

induces a longing to hold and
rotate the glass
,,

Glass Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

•
n
••
n
•••
nn
11

Pointillism in glass painting

Paul von

Lichtenberg

FIG. I (RIGHT):
Fishbach Castle
FIG. 2

(BELOW):

Fishbach Castle
(detail)

uring the Bieder-

meier Period an

apparently lonely

artist, about whom

we know practically nothing except

his name, invented what was later

to become known as Pointillism by

transparent-enamelling glass not

only with brush-strokes, but by

applying tiny dots as well. Moritz

Finsch was the first and
only
glass

artist to deploy this technique

and seems to have unconsciously
picked up the
Zeitgeist
of his

time. But he exists in an historical

context. In this article, I will trace

the idea of creating patterns and

images by adding dots to dots
back to prehistoric tattoos and

suggest how this idea was carried
forth by different arts through the

centuries and evolved into today’s

pixels.

Gustav Pazaurek inadvertently

left many readers of his standard
book
Glaser der Empire- and

Biedermeierzeit
with the general

impression that Samuel Mohn
(1762-1815)
in the kingdom

of Saxony rediscovered glass

enamelling at the beginning of
the 19th century. This art, in such

high esteem in the Gothic period,

had indeed slowly faded into

oblivion. A need for glass with

indelible colours seems to have

again been in the air around
1800.

But it was in fact the porcelain

painter Michael Sigismund Frank
(1770-1847)
in Nurnberg in the

duchy of Bavaria and in parallel a

penniless pewterer, Johann Georg
Biihler the Younger
(1761-1823)

in Urach, a then tiny town in the

duchy of Wurttemberg, who,
quite independently and unknown

to each other, started transparent
polychrome painting at the

beginning of the new century.
The porcelain
Hausmaler

Mohn had corresponded with
Frank but only produced his first

polychrome glass goblet in
1806,

which he then proudly sent to
Queen Louise of Prussia for her

Glass Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

PAINTING ON GLASS

FIG.
3: (LEFT)

Fiirstenstein
Castle

FIG. 4

(BELOW LEFT):

Fishbach Castle

(detail);
FIG.
5

(BELOW
RIGHT):

Fiirstenstein

Castle (detail)
birthday. It was however he and

members of his family working

in his workshops in Leipzig and
Dresden, who first became famous

for this type of glass decoration.
With the Wars of Liberation

waged against Napoleon’s armies
on Saxon soil, Samuel’s eldest

son, Gottlob Samuel Mohn
(1789-1825),
cleverly introduced

transparent enamelling on glass to

the Imperial Porcelain Factory in
Vienna when he moved house in

1811
matriculating at the Academy

of Fine Arts in Vienna — probably
to avoid conscription in Saxony.
Word had got around throughout

Europe that Emperor Francis I of

Austria had by decree exempted

all art students in Vienna from
military service in an effort to

further enhance art in his capital

city.
Gottlob Mohn must have

met Anton Kothgasser
(1769-

1851),
the best gold decorator in

Vienna, at the Imperial Porcelain

Factory.

Kothgasser’s

great

ambition was to be recognised as

a landscape or flower painter, but
management did not permit him

to work in these departments as
he was the most talented gold

designer and irreplaceable at the

Factory. However, he must have

made an arrangement with the

management, so that they turned

a blind
eye

on his activities with

glass, and he took his chance with
Gottlob Mohn,
20

years his junior.

By
1813
at the latest the two were

Glass Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

PAINTING ON GLASS

working together on windows FIG. 6:
for the summer residence of
Footed beaker

Emperor Francis in Laxenburg

south of Vienna. The economic

success of transparent enamelling,
particularly in the wake of the

Vienna Congress (5854-55), was

such that even workshops in
the world famous Bohemian

spas joined the bandwagon,
copying the works of Kothgasser

and colleagues in the capital of
the Empire as best they could,

augmenting the Viennese motifs

with local sights in Kothgasser

style.
Whether this new type of

glass decoration was carried over

the Giant Mountains dividing
Bohemia from Silesia or whether
it caught on from Saxony next

door to Silesia is unclear. At any
rate one artist in the Silesian

spa of Warmbrunn appeared
on the scene probably around

the mid-182os with transparent

enamels in a highly individual

style. Not only are the beakers
and goblets intricately cut — as
opposed to the works attributed

to any of the Mohn workshops

or to Kothgasser and colleagues
more or less moonlighting at the

Imperial Porcelain Factory — but

the delicate paintings in vivid

colours are executed in Pointillist

style. All we know about this artist

is his name, Moritz Finsch, and
that he must have set up shop in
Warmbrunn prior to participating
in the Berlin Trade Exhibition of

1844, where he showed cut and

painted glassware. This is the only
time he is known to have been

in any way officially registered to

date.

It would be easy and a pleasure

to learn more about Finsch,

his family and his work, if we

knew in which village or town

in Silesia, Saxony or Bohemia in

approximately which year in which

church register(s) to concentrate

our search for the date of his birth,
possible marriage or death.
So far, three Pointillist enamels

signed by Finsch have come to
light: a wooded landscape on a
beaker in the Kestner-Museum,
Hanover, dated 28 March 5830
1
, a

beaker with a battle scene in the

Musem Kunst Palast, DiisseldorP

and a lamp shade with a view of
the waterfalls in Tivoli, one of the

most popular sights near Rome,

previously in the trade’. Only

a disturbingly small number of
Pointillist transparent enamels,

all unsigned but obviously by
Moritz Finsch, are known. Two

such goblets were in the former
collection of Dietmar Zoedler, a

Silesian himself”, the one, a 13.7

cm (5%1 high Silesian goblet,

depicts Fishbach Castle (fig.

and
see
cover) in the Hirschberg

Valley, the castle having been

acquired in 1822 as a summer
residence by Prince William of

Prussia, brother of King Frederick

William III and, until her

untimely death in 181o, brother-

in-law of the aforementioned

Queen Louise, the other, an 18
cm (7″) high, covered goblet

showing Fiirstenstein Castle (fig.

3 page 7) near Waldenburg in
Lower Silesia is a good example

of Finsch’s Pointillist painting

style presumably — judging by
the shape of the glass — around
5835. A further goblet with
Die

Ritterburg bei Furstenstein
by

Moritz Finsch (depicting the

battlements further down the

8
Glass Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

castle hill with the double-

towered gate-house, built in the

second half of the 18th century,
and the castle bridge, which was
decorated with statues from

Greek mythology) is currently

in the Kunstgewerbemuseum,

Berlin, (inv. no.W1964,55)•
Presumably the very first castle

in Waldenburg was destroyed

in 1263 and a new one erected
between 1288 and 1292 by Bolko
I von Schweidnitz and Jauer.

The last owner from the Piasten

dynasty, Bolko II (a nephew of the
Polish king Kasimir III the Great)

died in 1368 without issue, but
his widow, Agnes von Habsburg
(c. 1315-1392) vigorously pursued

the interests of the duchy for the
rest of her life. After her death,

King Wenceslas IV of Bohemia

assumed the duchy. Wenceslas IV,
furthermore, caused the arrest,
torture and finally the drowning

of the Vicar General of Prague

and later patron saint of Bohemia,

John Nepomuk (c. 1350-1393) in

the Moldau
5

. In 1401 Janko von

Chotiemitz took over the castle
from the Bohemian king, which

the Hussites occupied in 1428/29
6

The castle was taken over by
Conrad I of Hoberg in 1509.

From 1605 Fiirstenstein became

the hereditary possession of the
Counts of Hoberg, who called

themselves Hochberg from 1714.

The German Emperor William II
raised Hans Heinrich, Sovereign

of Pless and Count of Hochberg,

to Prince of Pless in 1905.
Yet another glass in this Berlin

museum, a bulbous-footed

beaker, shows an inviting Silesian
landscape in Pointillist style by

Moritz Finsch (inv. no.W198o,I80).
Another such landscape on an

intricately cut beaker with the

Schneekoppe mountain ridge
is kept in the Kestner-Museum
(inv. no.1968.94). A further

Pointillist landscape with a

waterfall surrounded by pines

and other evergreens on a small,
11.5 cm (41/2 “) high, carefully cut

footed beaker (fig. 6, 7 and 9) is a

newly discovered, signed painting

by Moritz Finsch with ligated
(interwoven) monogram and is

published here for the first time.
Interestingly, the top of the lip rim

was also decorated by Finsch in
Pointillist style (fig. 8).

Having now broached two side

aspects of the decoration on these

glasses: first the social, historical
and economic environment of
the times which motivated artists

to work or settle elsewhere, and

second the notes on the historical
background of the landscapes and
castles depicted, perhaps a remark
… or three on a personal view of

where Pointillism came from and
the direction it is still taking is in

order.
Georges-Pierre Seurat (1859-

1891) and Paul Signac (1863-1935)
were the main representatives of
this neo-impressionistic painting

style, Signac having coined the

word Pointillism(e) around the
mid-i88os. Camille Pissarro

(1830-1903) dabbled in it briefly

around then. Outside France the
Pointillists Paul Baum (1859-

1932) in Germany and Theo van
Rysselberghe (1862-1926) in
Belgium should be mentioned.

Basically, the colours were not

FIG7. (RIGHT):

Details of the
painting of

the waterfall

(modern
printing

techniques

make it hard
for the eye

to detect the

tiny dots that

make up this
painting);

FIG.
8

(RIGHT):

Footed beaker
(Detail of the

transparently

enamelled top

of the lip rim:

the partly dark

colour here
is merely a

reflection of the
painting on the

medallion on

the beaker cup)

Glass Cirde News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

PAINTING ON GLASS

mixed on the palette or the canvas:

the vivid prime colours were

applied in homeopathic doses
in the form of small dots with

the aim of producing a greater
degree of luminosity and left to

be put together coherently at a

certain distance by the eyes of the
beholder. The point here is that

these painters started to work in

the last couple of decades of the

19th century using at that time
average to large size canvases and

applying correspondingly large
dots.
By contrast Moritz Finsch’s

extremely rare miniatures with

microscopic dots on glass, say,

in the second quarter of the 19th

century — therefore well before

the advent of photograpy or

even the daguerreotype (also
using dots as a medium) — are

unique and would surely be called

historic if only his work were

better known. With the mass-
reproduction of photographs

the idea of closely set dots the
Pointillists had experimented

with, entered the print media and
rastering equipment reduced each

photographic image to printable
dots.

The dots, as we all know, later

branched out into uniform Ben-

Day Dots (equally spaced and

of identical size), say, in comic

books, and then into pop-art as

used by Roy Lichtenstein in his

paintings and sculptures on the

one hand and as halftone images
with dots of different size, shape

and angle in CMYK printing on
the other. Frequency-modulated

rastering technology has made

these dots practically invisible on

the printed page. With the advent
of mass television, camcorders,
monitors, digital photography

and computers the lifeless dots

mutated to today’s pixels, which

can be manipulated by almost

anybody.
Looking in the other direction –

and taking a quick look at history
FIG. 9 :

Footed beaker (detail)

well before Finsch appeared on the

scene — adding dots to create an
image or pattern seems to go back

to time immemorial via tattooing

skin and hide. The same idea of

just adding small units is behind
mosaics as well: depending on

the region and availability, made
of glass, ceramics or stones. Using

tiny elements hardly discernible

to the naked eye at a distance in

a huge array of colours created

narrative pictures of impressive

dimensions. This durable craft

had been developed and refined
by North African artists already

in Greek and Roman times.

Superb examples of this art can
also be seen in the Cathedral

of Monreale, Sicily, following

the Norman invasion there,
and in the Alhambra, the last

stronghold of the Moors during

the Reconquista, in Granada,

Spain. Nor should we overlook
the ancient oriental art of carpet-
making: here the dots are knots.

Dots — and lines — were used to

produce etchings: the closer these
dots were set on the copperplate,
the darker the print, and of course

in diamond-point stippling on

glass by the great Dutch artists
Frans Greenwood (1680-1762),

Aart Schouman (1710-1792) and

David Wolff (exact dates unclear):

here the closer the dots were set,

the lighter the delicate image

appeared when backlighting the

glass vessel. Modern stipplers
such as the Whistlers use the

diamond-point in a similar way.
Clearly, Moritz Finsch did not

start any of this, but just as clearly,
he was quite alone when he first

experimented with a — till then

unknown — form of painting on

glass. Perhaps a young student of
art history will take his story to

heart one day and bring him the

attention he deserves, or write a

PhD on this elusive pioneer and

great master of the minute.

Paul von Lichtenberg, is a chartered

architect and also a collector,

lecturer and exhibitions organiser

specialising in the Biedermeier
period. A review of his book
Mohn

& Kothgasser
appears on page 23.
Endnotes:

Mosel 1979,

inv no.1977,24,

identical
to

Himmelheber

1988, no.272,
inscribed
Zur

Feier des 28.

Marz
1830. Aus

Dankbarkeit

gewidmet von

M.F. (Moritz
Finsch) (For

the celebrations

of 28 March

1830, dedicated
in gratitude by

M.F.).

z. Jantzen 1960,

no.144, identical

to Heinemeyer

1966, no.451,
mkp, Dusseldorf,

inv no.1940-186,

signed M.
Finch.

3.
Galerie Kovacek

1990, no.125

4.
Sotheby’s 21

November 2007,

lot 1105.127
and

128.

5.
P.v.Lichtenberg

zoo9,
Mohn

& Kothgasser,
P1.26oa

6.
P.v.Lichtenberg

2004,

Glasgravuren,

noa2o by August
Bohm the Elder

Glass Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

o
tos

is
ex
cep
t
w
he
re

Bill Davis
I

FIG. I (TOP):

Stipple-engraved
light baluster

wine glass.

FIG. 2(ABOVE):

Stipple engraving
of a man with an

ale flute and a

woman in a car.

FIG. 3 (RIGHT):

Stipple-engraved
wine glass by

Gillis Hendricus

Hoolaart (signed),

c1775-1800 of

a woman in a cap

and a man with
a beer glass
and
ENGRAVED GLASS

Three engraved glasses

ty
have collected 18th

century

English

drinking glasses
for over 3o years

and have established a reasonably
representative collection for that

period. However, as time goes

on, I find my collecting objectives
become increasingly specific to fill
perceived gaps in the collection.
For many years I have admired

Dutch stipple and diamond-

point, line-engraved Newcastle

balusters, and particularly those
completed by the Dutch masters,
Frans Greenwood and David

Wolfe, but I did not think that

an opportunity would ever
arise to obtain examples of such
engravings. However, in 2009

a small collection of drinking

glasses from a deceased estate
of a European gentleman was

auctioned in Melbourne. The

collection comprised European

and lead metal light balusters

of the ‘Newcastle type. It was a

surprise to find that the collection
included one stipple-engraved and

one diamond-point, line-engraved

glass, both of which I was able to
acquire. Research to identify the

engravers and the history of the

diamond-point,

line-engraved

glass then followed.

Stipple-engraved drinking glass

This glass is shown in fig. 1.

This glass is of lead metal in the
Newcastle light baluster style. It

comprises a round funnel bowl,

a Newcastle light baluster stem
with a beaded knop and a conical
foot. Its height is 187 mm (7
1
% “).

The bowl is stipple-engraved with
half-length portraits of a man

in a hat holding an ale flute and

of a woman in a cap (fig. 2). The

engraving is not signed.
In correspondence with Dr J.D.

van Dam of the Rijksmuseum, he
has noted that the engraving and
the subject matter are very similar

to that of a glass in the Museum’s

collection (Item 537, page 426 in
the Museum’s catalogue), see fig.

3. The Rijksmuseum engraving is

signed `G.H.Hoolaart P. Dr van

Dam is sure that the engraving on

my glass is also by Gillis Hoolaart

given the style and subject matter.
Gillis Hendricus Hoolaart

was born in 1731 and died in

1816. In his publication,
Uniquely

Dutch Eighteenth Century Stipple

Engravings on Glass,
F.G.A.M.

Smit notes that Hoolaart was
employed as a clerk in the office

of Notary Public Pieter van Well

in Dordrecht and lived in the

same street as Frans Greenwood.

It is likely that he learnt his craft

from Greenwood. When Smit

published his catalogue in 1993,

only seven engraved goblets signed
by him were known while another

four (now five?) can be attributed

to him. Smit also observed that

Hoolaart favoured chiaroscuro

effects in his engravings where
most of the image was left dark

but offset by strongly stippled

areas abutting the image outline.
Like Greenwood, Hoolaart made

full use of the height of the bowl.
Given Hoolaart’s age and

the dated examples of his

engravings, it is likely that he
was most active in the latter part

of the 18th century. If my glass is
contemporary with the engraving

and of similar period to the glass
in the Rijksmuseum it would be

dated to the period 1775-1800.
Is the glass English or Dutch?

Assuming that Newcastle light

baluster manufacture did not
extend much beyond 17703, I

would assume that it is either

an old Newcastle baluster or of
Netherlandish manufacture in

lead metal but in the Newcastle

style. This would lend support to
a view that many of our Newcastle
balusters might be of Dutch

manufacture.

Diamond-point,

line-engraved goblet

The second glass is diamond-

Glass Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

ENGRAVED GLASS

point, line-engraved with a coat of

arms on one side and an allegorical
representation of marriage on

the other (fig. 4). The glass is a
balustroid goblet in lead metal.

It comprises a large round funnel

slightly waisted bowl, a stem with
an annulated knop below the bowl

and a small knop above the foot,

and a replacement silver foot of

conical form. Its height is 205 mm
(8″) and the bowl diameter is 90

mm (3
1
/2″).

The silver foot has

Dutch hallmarks indicating that it

was made by van Kempen in the

second half of the 19th century.
The Central Bureau voor

Genealogie in Amsterdam has
been very helpful in identifying

the coat of arms. It is an alliance

coat of arms with the left shield

comprising a contre pale of three

charges, red and silver, and the

top of the middle pale being

charged with a star. This coat of

arms is identical to the coat of

arms of the noble family of Van
Kretschmar. The right shield

comprises a salient stag and four
trees on ground. This coat of arms

is identical to the coat of arms of
the family of Vlaardingerwout

(Fig.5). The allegorical scene on

the reverse side of the bowl shows

a woman in a flowing gown and a

man dressed as a Roman soldier

(?), armed with a sword and a

lance, standing in front of an altar,
holding hands through a wreath

held by an angel with a burning

torch (fig. 6).

This goblet celebrates the mar-

riage of Jacob van Kretschmar and

Charlotte Alida Vlaerdingerwout

in The Hague on
29

October 1748.

Jacob van Kretschmar rose to the

rank of lieutenant general and was

Governor of van Heusden.
Dr van Dam of the Rijksmuseum

has identified a signed diamond-

point, line-engraved wine glass

(No117, page 528 of the Museum’s
catalogue’) which also has a

somewhat similar allegorical
representation of marriage with

a man and woman in front of an

altar and an angel with a burning

torch. There is also a goddess with

a column and staff (fig. 7). This is
possibly by the same land: The
engraving is dated 5742 with the

indistinct initials H.S.P. The
Rijksmuseum lists this glass as
being engraved by H. Zweerts (?).

The height of my goblet is

zoo mm (just under 8″) and

the bowl diameter is 90 mm
(3
1
/2″).
The height, bowl diameter

and general geometry of my

goblet appear to be similar to
those of the Rijksmuseum

glass although the knopping is

different. The Rijksmuseum glass
is described as being of English

or of Northern Netherlands
manufacture. Assuming that

the goblet was engraved at the

time of the marriage of Jacob van

Kretschmar and Charlotte Alida

Vlaerdingerwout, this would date

it to the 1740s. Even though it is of
lead metal, its geometry leads me
to think that it is of Dutch rather

than of English manufacture.

I was interested to learn that

F.G.A.M. Smit, in his catalogue

of line-engraved glass”, analysed

Christie’s and Sotheby’s auctions

from 5974 to 5993 and found
that of 10,559 engraved items

auctioned, 96.3% were wheel

engraved, 288 or 2.7% were

diamond-point, line-engraved and

503 or
1%

were stipple-engraved.
Of the stipples, 82 were engraved

in the 18th century. His list of

dated line engravings range from

1529 to 5900. He also found that
79% of all his recorded diamond-

point engravings, (both stipple

and line), were completed in The
Netherlands, 7% in Britain and 3%

in Germany.

Wheel-engraved Silesian pokal
Some months after the acquisition
of these glasses in 2009, a further

glass came up for auction. This
was a Silesian pokal exquisitely

wheel engraved and part polished

with four allegorical scenes (fig. 8).

This pokal has a faceted bowl,

waisted at its base, a faceted

inverted baluster stem with two

collars, and a large conical foot

the edge of which is engraved

with small stylised flowers; the

underside has a ring of polished

ovals. The height of the pokal
is 190 mm (7
1
/21
and the bowl

diameter is 75 mm (3″). Originally,

the pokal probably had a lid.
The bowl is engraved with

four allegorical vignettes. In

one is a woman sitting with an

anchor at her side and a bird on

FIG. 4:

A balustroid

marriage

goblet with a

replacement

silver foot,

diamond-point,

line-engraved

with an alliance

coat of
arms

and

an allegorical

representation of

marriage.

FIG.
5:

Diamond-point,

line-engraved

alliance coat of

arms looking

from inside the

bowl.

FIG.
6:
Diamond-

point, line-

engraved
allegorical

representation of

marriage looking

from
inside the

bowl.

FIG.
7:

Diamond-point,

line-engraved
wine glass of

an allegorical

representation

of marriage.
(possibly

engraved by

H. Zweerts).

c1742
1
.

12
Glass Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

Parripp

ip
,_

61T061
.

Miggi

It, I.-1111600C

ENGRAVED GLASS

her hand. The scene is inscribed

‘hoffnung’ (hope); (fig. 9). In the

second vignette there is a seated
shepherdess with a cross and a
lamb at her feet. This scene is

inscribed ‘Gedult’ (Patience);
(fig. to). The third vignette has a

delightful engraving of Old Father
Time with his scythe holding an
hour glass. This scene is inscribed

`und Zeit (and time); (fig.

The

fourth vignette shows a man with

a pick endeavouring to move a
mountain and inscribed `Macht

moglich die Unmoglichkeit’

(makes the impossible possible);

(fig. 12).
The engravings are attributed

to Christian Gottfried Schneider

of Warmbrunn, Silesia, second
quarter of the 18th century’. I
remembered the glass in the Don

Barnfather Collection which was

sold in Melbourne by Parkside
Antiques in 1994.
I have not included European

glass in my collection except
for specific reasons such as
the acquisition of examples
of diamond-point and wheel

engravings as already discussed.
I do have a number of Dutch

wheel-engraved Newcastle balus-

ters but these fade into insignifi-

cance when compared to the wheel
engravings of this pokal. It was a

`must have’ and was acquired.
The attribution was based

on the engraving attributed to

Schneider on a covered beaker,
Plate
77,
European Glass’, showing

a pastoral scene with trees and

scrollwork identically engraved.
The attribution was also based on
Lot 193 in the sale of the The Krug

Collection Part I, by Sotheby’s in
London in July 19817. This pokal,

which is of similar geometry, has

engraving attributed to Schneider,

of the royal arms of Prussia and
allegorical scenes including a

woman with a bird on her wrist.
Unfortunately, this latter scene is
not shown in the lot photograph.

Schneider (1710-1773) lived in

Warmbrunn, Silesia, a spa town

where in 1742, there were 42

engravers working. Schneider was
the most famous engraver of that

time and worked with his brother,

Samuel, also an accomplished

wheel engraver
9
. No engravings

signed by Schneider are recorded’.
However Schneider did make

about 7o imprints on paper of his
engravings which are held at the
Karkonoskie Museum of Jelenia

Gora. I have been unable to access

these records. However, on a
recent trip to Europe, our cruise

ship stopped at Passau and by an
extraordinary coincidence I was
lucky enough to meet Dr Stefania

Zelasko of the Karkonoskie

Museum who was visiting the
Passau Glass Museum.

I also happened to have photos

of the four allegorical scenes on
the pokal with me. Dr Zelasko,

who has studied the glass of Silesia

for over 3o years, has confirmed
that the engraving of ‘Old Father

Time is included in the imprints
made by Schneider and held at the

Karkonoskie Museum and in her

opinion, the pokal was engraved

by Christian Gottfried Schneider

of Warmbrunn (Cieplice).
So, I return to collecting and

opportunities to fill those gaps in
the collection, the occurrence of

which seem to be never ending.

Bill Davis is a glass collector living in

Melbourne, Australia.

References:

1.
Pieter C. Ritsema van Eck,
Glass

in the Rijksmuseum,
Volume II,

Waanders Publishing,
1995.

z. F.G.A.M. Smit,
Uniquely Dutch

Eighteenth Century Stipple

Engravings on Glass,
Peterborough,

1993

3.
R.J. Charleston,
English Glass,

Allen andUnwin, London, 1984,
page I4

4.
F.G.A.M. Smit,
A Concise

Catalogue of European Line-

Engraved Glassware,
Peterborough,

5.
Catalogue of the Don Barnfather

Collection of Glass,
Parkside

Antiques, Melbourne,
1994.

6.
0. Drahotova, G. Urbanek and

I. Kafka,
European Glass,

Peerage

Books, London, 1983

7.
Sotheby’s Catalogue, The
Krug

Collection Part I, 7 July 1981.

8.
J.Fleming and H.Honour, The

Penguin Dictionary of Decorative

Arts,
Penguin Books,

1979

9.
Stefania Zelasko,
Catalogue of

European Glass at the
Muzeum

Karkonoskie in Jelenia Gora, Jelenia

Gora, 2006.
Fm. 8:

Wheel-engraved
Silesian pokal.

(Second quarter
18th century’.)

Fm. 9:

Allegorical scene

of a woman with

an
anchor at her

side and a bird
on her hand,

inscribed

1-1offnung:

Fm. 1o:

Allegorical

scene of a seated

shepherdess with
a cross and a

lamb at her feet.

Inscribed `Gedult:

FIG. II:

Allegorical scene
of Old Father

Time with his

scythe holding
an hourglass.

Inscribed `und
Zeit:

FIG. 124

Allegorical

scene of a man

with a pick

endeavouring to

move a mountain.
Inscribed `Macht
Moglich die

unmoglichkeit:

Glass Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

©Pee
rag
e
Boo
ks
w
it
h p
erm
iss
ion

Frances

Federer

FIG I. (RIGHT):
Canosoa bowl,
Hellenistic,
c. 270-200

BC. Found

in a tomb at

Canosa, Puglia,

southern Italy;

FIG 2 (BELOW):

Zwischengold-

glas Bohemeia,
1720-25 from

Drahotovd,
0.

1983,
European

Glass

artist Cennino Cennini, who
described 14th century techniques
in great detail. Techniques used

then and now can be summarised

as follows:

Burnish gilding:
Traditional

methods of preparing size for glue

included gum Arabic or almond

gum with added honey or sugar,

garlic juice, beer or vinegar, quince

juice (soaked pips in water) and

saliva. Most common were glair’,
made from egg white, and gelatin,

which is used today (also in

bookbinders’ gilding).
Matt
gilding:

Gilders used a

drying oil (boiled linseed oil)

or an oil-resin mixture made

from linseed oil and copal or

amber, with the addition of oil of
turpentine to make the solution
more fluid. Once the surface dries

to a tacky condition, the gold leaf

is laid. This is not suitable for

engraving. Today an acrylic metal

adhesive is also used at times.
Applying any kind of decoration

to the front, outer surface of glass is

an inherently unstable procedure:

glass is too smooth to provide a
hold. Wear and tear would soon

Gold and glass

ost of my

It…..
W
.

professional
life has been

spent working

with gold leaf. Concentrating

on reverse gilding and painting

on glass might appear to be a
narrow discipline but it has

kept me fascinated for decades.

This technique is referred to as

gold engraving, rather than the

multipurpose label,
verre eglomise.

The French term, adopted from

the 18th century dealer Jean

Baptiste Glomy, is a system of

opaque or transparent paint and

lacquer, backed with metal foil.
Verre eglomise
should not be used

as a synonym for reverse painting

on glass in general where gold is
incorporated.
Engraved gold on glass has

been known since pre-Roman

times. Circle members will

be familiar with European

examples from the late
renaissance onwards: altars,

wall paintings, borders for
looking glasses, clock faces,

drinking glasses, jewellery

and many other artifacts have

all incorporated gilding and

painting on the glass.
Gold

engraving

distinguished from other

types of glass painting by the

following:

•
Processes are cold and for

protection are carried out on the
underside of the glass.

•
Processes are in reverse to

normal: gold first, then colour,

though for
eglomise,
these

processes are reversed.

•
The finished panel is turned

around and the work viewed
through a skin of glass.

Gilding, whether on glass, metal,

wood or any base, is generally
either burnished or matt. Burnish

reflects like a mirror and tends

to be dark, whereas a matt gild

scatters the light and appears light.
Recipes have come down to us

from antiquity but the most well

known are from the Renaissance

Glass Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

4$414101101404401

44 it

remove most applied material.
For enduring glass decoration

of a functioning vessel, enamel
painting (fired), etching or cutting

into the surface is suitable, but

decorating with engraved gold — a

system known since antiquity, but
forgotten for centuries — presents

a challenge.
The Canosa Bowl
(fig. t), about

270-200 BC, is the earliest

example we have in the UK of

what is known as ‘sandwich gold

glass’. Here we have a complicated

system of sandwiching the cut-
out gold foil between two layers

of glass. Two bowls are made
to fit very closely together. The

foil is glued to the outside of the

inner bowl, which is then fitted

inside the larger vessel. The
assemblage is heated in a kiln

until the glass softens and the

surfaces are bonded. In this way,

the decoration is applied cold, but

rendered permanent with heat.
After an extremely long absence,

sandwich gold glass reappeared
in the 18th century, reaching its
peak at around 173o (see fig. 2).

This technique fascinated me, as

glasses of this kind were the only
historical instances of the use of

cold, engraved gilding on a vessel

of which I knew. I could work

out pretty well how these glasses

were decorated, but wondered
how such an object could be made

today.
Thanks to my recent researches

at the Royal College of Art I
have been able to explore these
procedures. Many years ago I

gained a degree in Graphic Design

at Camberwell School of Art,
specialising in illustration, mostly

figurative drawing in those days. I

subsequently formed a partnership
in an antique furniture restoration

workshop. I became a gilder,
learning on the job. One day, my

client brought a broken glass
panel from the frieze of a Regency

overmantel (a looking-glass in

architectural style with a panels of
painted and gilded glass); could I

replace it Many trials and errors

later, and much practice, I began
to feel I knew a little about the

methods used.
Around 167o, large plates of

glass were manufactured for the
first time, allowing stately homes

FIG

A George

III
mirror

c. 1800 91.8

cm (36″) H
X 147.9 cm

(58″)

Glass Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

to be furnished with fabulously

expensive pier glasses. To frame

them, borders of engraved gold

glass were set all around, and suites
of similarly decorated furniture

made to match. Methods, though,

were so labour-intensive that the
fashion died out around 1705. It

was not until a hundred years later

that gilded glass for furniture once

again came into style. This time

panels were mass-produced, with

some shortcuts, and production
became formulaic. Over the

centuries, though, the principles of

gold engraving have not changed:

gold leaf is applied to the back

of glass with a water-based glue,
engraved and covered with an

oil-based paint. Turning the glass

around, the image is seen clearly:

a gold design with a coloured
background.

After several years of practice,

our company was ready for

a revival of gold engraving as

decoration for contemporary

interiors (like the Regency mirror

in fig. 3).

I began to make my own framed

work and to use these beautiful
techniques as a means of self-

expression. Always interested in

historical precedent, I looked at

these questions regarding three-

dimensional glass:

1.
How can the underside of

blown glass be reached so that it

can be decorated?

2.
If the glass were to be decorated

on the outer surface, how can
I overcome the problem of

durability?

A recipe from around 1720, for

sandwich gold glass using only
cold processes, might have looked

as follows. How to make a
faux

carved agate, gilded beaker in

glass:

I. Blow two glasses, grind and
polish them to fit extremely

closely together.

2.. Inner glass:
Outside,
water gild.

Do not engrave. Cover with oil-

based paint. Leave inner surface
of glass unpainted.
FIG 4:

Singerie cup,

c. 1720 (in

the V&A)

Sandwich gold
glass.

FIG 5:

A
gilded dome

stands inside

a 2nd painted

one.

Glass
Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

Aiii

41
*,

Outer glass:
Inside,

partially

water gild. Engrave. Paint
faux

agate overall, with oil-based
paints, covering the engraved
motif. Leave outer side of this

glass unpainted.

4.
Completely seal the glasses

together with resins.

5.
Use.

As there was no access other

than from the top, the engraving

would have been carried out

upside down, as well as in reverse.
A team of highly skilled glass

blowers, engravers, grinders,

polishers, gilders, draughtsmen
and painters were necessary to

produce such objects (fig. 4).
A three-week residency at

Corning Museum enabled me

to investigate double glass. It

was obvious I could not make

sandwich gold glass in the
traditional manner, nor did I want

to, but I found ways to respond

to the genre and in the process
discovered the joys of subsidised

studio play (see fig. 5 opposite).

Back in London, a brief two

years at the Royal College of Art
(RCA) allowed me to widen my

research. What would gilded

blown glass look like today?

For the interested reader, my

thesis can be read by contacting

the glass and ceramics department

of the RCA, but to condense the

research, the gist is as follows:
I carried out many tests on

every aspect of the process. One

branch of the research was to
find a form I could work on. I

took the traditional German
Humpen
and cut them at intervals

to gain access to the interior for

gilding and painting. Once this
worked, I enlarged them. This

was still conventional reverse

gilding and painting: I wanted to

explore further layering of gilded

ornament utilising both surfaces

of the glass.
I knew of only one person who

had researched this area: Bill
Gudenrath, resident adviser at

the Corning Museum of Glass,
and many will know him as

an authority on historical hot

glassworking techniques from

ancient Egypt to the Renaissance.
I followed his re-creation of fired

gilding on glass and developed my
own work using the back
and
front

of the glass.

Liam Reeves, the technician and

skilled glassblower at the RCA,
helped me to establish a process,

which can be summarised in these

steps:
I. Gild and engrave in the usual

way, but on the outer surface.

2.
Stand the piece upside down for

a few hours in a kiln to heat up

to 5oo*C.

3.
Pick up on a punty, introduce to

the glory hole and heat through,

to slumping temperature

turning constantly. The gold and

glass will become bonded.

4.
Avoid handling the gilded

surface if possible.

5.
Anneal and cold work the base

to finish.
Engraved gilding could now

be bonded to the outer surface

of clear or coloured blown glass,
either because of the inaccessibility

of the inner surface or, in order
to build depth on clear glass, by

layering decoration with the glass

support as a spacer (fig. 6).

The Romans made
fondi d’oro

by sandwiching cut-out gold foil
between two layers of glass. It was

often the case that dark blue glass

supported the foil and a sheet of
clear glass laid over it. Once fired,
the fused sandwich safely held

the decoration, which showed

up clearly on its blue base. Borax

was used as a flux as it melted at
a lower temperature than gold,

so preventing the foil from

burning.
Nowadays gold leaf is so

thin, heating in a hot furnace

with no need of a glass skin

is all that is needed to bond
leaf to glass, but the principle

of heating the two materials to

effect
a union remains the same

at it was two thousand years ago.
From the Middle Ages, treatises

of some kind have published
instructions on gilding on glass.
They take us from beaten egg

white as glue to wetting the glass

with the tongue (enzymes in saliva
have excellent sticking properties).

Gilding principles have remained
the same for centuries, but at

every revival of interest in the art,

another generation finds itself

relearning forgotten techniques. It

is a continuing challenge to exploit

these techniques as a current

means of expression.

Frances Federer (www.gilding.net),
gained her M Phil at the
RCA

in zoso. She teaches, lectures,

still works to commission and
exhibits her work in the UK
and abroad. She is developing

a collection of jewellery using

these techniques (fig. 7) and is

completing a book:
Glass, Gold

Leaf and Paint
with
a
contribution

by Simone Bretz.

Fm. 6 (TOP)

Cracking off

the glass with

heat, (cutting

it around its
middle) in order

to gain access to

the interior to

decorate.
FIG.
7
(ABOVE

AND BELOW)

Glass brooches.

Glass Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

Ricette vetrarie

del Rinascimento

„,
:
,
d„
;In manoscritto anonim
T
o=

ow di
r,,.tr, Moretti
•
Tullio Tullio.,

David
C

Watts
FIG. I:

(RIGHT)

Moretti

Toninato cover.

FIG. 2:

(BELOW)

Painting of the

Circumcision of

Christ with a

priest wearing

spectacles. c.

15th century.

FIG. 3: (RIGHT)
Venetian goblet with cristallo

bowl on a cobalt

blue (zaffera-

coloured) foot.

The
rim
was

originally gilded

with applied

red and blue
enamel. c.
1480.

GLASS RECIPES

Tricks of the trade

n 2001 professor

tg
–

Cesare

Moretti

from a glassmaking

family, and Tullio

Toninato, a chemist, published

in Italian a modern transcript of

a previously unknown mid-16th
century glass recipe book, possibly

by a member or relative of the
Barovier family (fig. 1). It contains

105 recipes. About half their
publication was taken up with a
useful comparison of this text,

number 5 below, with earlier and

later recipe texts as listed:

1. Theophilus izth century.

z. Tuscan Trattatelli, first half
14th century (three manuscripts
spanning the Black Death of

1339-1348).

3.
Manuscript from Montpellier

(1536).

4.
Vannoccio Biringuccio,

De la

Pyrotechnica
(1540).

5.
Anonymous recipe book, mid

16th century ( 1536 – 1567).

6.
Antonio Neri,
LArs Vetraria

(1612), cited from a 198o

translation by R. Barovier

7.
Giovanni Darduin, a glass

recipe book (1644).

Texts z, 3 and 7 come from a

research of the Venetian archives

by Luigi Vecchin, posthumously

published as part of
Vetro e

Vetrarai di Murano,
3
volumes

(which I now possess), containing

much information cited by the

authors.

The importance of the influence

of Venetian glassmaking on
English practice has been evident

ever since Casselari brought

Muranese glassmakers to
London in
1549

with the approval

of Edward VI. Evidence for
understanding their glasses comes
from three sources:

1.
Style, colour and construction

of the glasses themselves.

2.
Chemical analysis of glasses.

3.
Written evidence of how they

were made.
This article mainly concerns

the written evidence based on
my English translation of the

Moretti/Toninato publication

and a comparison with the glasses
themselves. The precise dates cited

are those given by Vecchin as to

when particular information first

appeared in print in the Venetian

archives.

The first thing that emerges

from a study of these texts is that

most recipes have a long continuity

dating back to the earliest

times. They are interspersed

with individual, sometimes
incomprehensible, recipes; indeed

the author of our text sometimes

claims to be the originator of a
particular process. Cristallo, the

purest form of Venetian glass,
was certainly known well before

Angelo Barovier. Back in 1301
the Venetian Council relented
on prohibiting the glassmakers

from making lenses for the new

craze of (binocular) spectacles
(invented in Florence,
c.
128o) (fig.

z). Hitherto, the lenses had been

carved from rock crystal but the

carvers could not keep up with

demand. However, the cristallo

versions had to be marked as such

(presumably because of a price
difference) but they clearly met

the optical requirements. By about

1480 cristallo was generally in use
for the best glassware (fig.3).

The chemical difference between

cristallo and ordinary glass is
illustrated in fig. 4. Both contain

similar amounts of sodium and
potassium but the cristallo lacks

much of the calcium (lime) and

other stabilising salts, particularly

magnesium and aluminium,

found in the ordinary glass. This

is compensated for, in part, by

an increase in the silica content.
The glass, itself is prepared from
two basic components, plant ash

and a source of silica. The use of

sand from Sicily is recorded from

1346 and of crushed pebbles from

1332. The latter gave a whiter glass
because contaminating iron sticks

to the surface of the particle and

Glass Circle News Issue
126
Vol.
34
No.
2

GLASS RECIPES

pebbles have a much lower surface
to volume ratio. River pebbles,

particularly from the Ticino, were

apparently crushed on site and
sold to the glassmaker. However,

for the best work he would
chose the pebbles himself, soak
them in strong vinegar (acetic

acid) to dissolve off the iron, and
then put them through up to

seven cycles of roasting, casting
them hot into vinegar, washing,

drying and crushing before the
final pulverisation to a powder

filtered through lawn (a fine weave

cloth) resulting in a flour-like

consistency. The recipe book is

written like a student text and the
author (anticipating complaints)

at one stage remarks that this is

a tedious process, but necessary
for the best results. It should be

mentioned that some of the first

cristallo was probably made with

crushed rock crystal, the purest

form of quartz.
The alkali source was soda-rich

Syrian ash
(allume
catina)

for which

Venice had a monopoly. Used

crude, it gave a brownish-yellow

colour to the glass. Purification
involved boiling it in large copper
pans (as used by the dyers),
filtering through two layers of

thick cloth and repeatedly boiling

and sediment in fresh water until

all the soda was extracted. The
clear filtrates were then evaporated
to crystallise the soda (known as

cristal salt).
A further trick was to

improve the yield by adding to the
original extraction the ‘grommet’

(tartar lumps) that form in wine

Common
barrels, or the residues from

wine fermentation. This resulted

in
‘tartar salt;
that is cristal salt

contaminated with potash. This

salt had particular uses for the

glassmaker but is said to be ‘a
secret to hide’, perhaps because
the Venetian Council would not

approve. It does mean that what
we think of as a pure soda cristallo
may in fact be a soda-potash glass.

Similarly, the recipe for common

glass concludes ‘We know that

glass is better using tartar salt

Cristallo
rather than calcined salt because,

unlike calcined salt it does not

make the glass fragile (and this is

a rare secret):
The problem with the

purification

process

(first

mentioned in 136z) was that,

properly carried out, it removed

all
the lime required to stabilise

the glass (a process I can confirm).

So the question is where does the
calcium in cristallo shown in fig.

4
come from The texts make no

reference to the use of lime before

Neri and he only includes it in

one recipe. Along with Moretti

and Toninato one can speculate,
but the fact is that we do not
know. Even with the amount of

lime shown in fig.
4
the glass was

unstable and many fine examples
of cristallo now show crizzling

(fig. 5).
The result of these purification

procedures was that, instead of two
basic ingredients, the glassmaker

had five forms of alkali and four
forms of silica from which to make

his frit
(materia prima);
each, he

sternly instructs, must be stored in
its own properly labelled jar. And

that range of ingredients does not
include the special lead glass and

pigments used for enamels and

other purposes.
For cristallo the frit was

prepared from ioo lb of cristal

salt, iso lb of flints and
6

oz of

manganese formed into small

cakes with water. The dried cakes

were roasted for la hours as a
layer in a reverberatory furnace at

about 800°C with regular stirring
to cause fusion but not melting.

It was then cast into water and

washed, roughly crushed and
the process repeated at least four

times. The dried, finely powdered

fit was then ready for fusing

into glass. The different recipe
books have some variation in the

degree of melting of the fit. Frit

for ordinary glass was made in a

similar way but with unpurified
Syrian ash.

FIG.

Venetian

ampulla backlit

and showing
white incipient

crizzling. 16th

century.

FIG.
4:

Comparison

of the average

composition

of Venetian

ordinary glass
with that of

cristallo.

Silica

n
Calcium

Sodium

n
Potassium

n
Mg + Al

Other

Glass Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

Making the cristallo begins

with instructions on furnace
management:

‘First you must take care that

the oven is regulated with a clear

smoke-free flame unlike what
happens when using fresh green

firewood (imported alder), or when
the fire has not been stirred and the

flames are missing. Equally, it is not

necessary to inflame too much and

without discretion… a small fire
because it doesn’t require a big fire

like common glass..:

and so on.
You are told not to overheat

the cristallo which is a ‘delicate’

glass. Clearly the glassmaker
had no problem with getting his

furnace hot enough and the long

fusing times required for some

preparations were for practical

reasons rather than the limitations

of the furnace.

The finely powdered frit was

fused for
12
hours and again

cast into water to remove any

residual contaminants (sandiver)

that could cause the molten

glass to spit — what Neri calls
a very unpleasant thing: More
powdering and the product is then
fused for
4
days, manganese being

added ‘little by little to achieve the

final clarification. In conclusion,

the worker is reminded yet again

to work ‘always with a clear

flame and without smoke… in a

clean environment, without dust

because the glass easily becomes

dirty if you are not careful: Overall
it gives a quite different picture
from what one might have thought

from images of alchemists at work.

Glassmaking really was a high-tec,

well-organised operation. The

ingredients, in particular, were

either weighed out with care or

added judiciously and the molten

glass sampled after each addition.

For blowing, coloured glass

was made on a fairly large scale,
usually by adding the colour to the

batch. For an opaque white, lead

and tin oxides were added. Other
white opacifiers were also used,

particularly roasted goats’ shins.

One recipe for paternostri (made

in millions), for which white was

a favourite colour, begins ‘Take
500 lb of powdered roasted goats

shins..: The shin bone is quite
thin so how many goats did that

represent? The roasted insides of

male goats’ horns were also used

to make black glass although a
mixture of copper and iron oxides

with zaffer (mixed cobalt oxide
and flints) was the usual coloriser.

Calcedonio was made in small

quantities, probably because of the

expense of the complex colouring
mixture containing silver. Six

ounces of this mixture was stirred

into perfectly fused molten glass
made from 1z oz of frit and
6
oz

of lead glass and worked at once. It

was the similarity of this base glass
being made by senhor da Costa in

the Savoy glasshouse that made me
realise how Ravenscroft’s English

lead crystal was discovered. The

lead glass was made by fusing io

lb of lead oxide with 5 lb of flints

and has a history going back to
the izth century. It is a golden

yellow colour and probably for
this reason, as well as its different

working properties, was not
used for making cristallo glass.

Curiously, saltpetre, a key addition

to English lead crystal, was never
used in Venetian glassmaking

other than for preparing pigments.
A special lead glass frit was also
used for jewels.

A related process was used for

making opaque enamels — an

important part of glassmaking. A

pure lattimo opacified with lead

and tin oxides was first prepared

involving much washing and

decanting to achieve a fine paste

which was then added to the
cristal salt and flints to make frit

cakes. This ultimately produced a

pure white glass (compared with
the creamy yellow of ordinary

opaque white) that was used in

small quantities in a
‘crogioletto’
(a

small pan, sometimes covered), in

a small furnace called a
:foment”.

As with calcedonio the lattimo

glass was first melted and the
pigment then stirred in. The

FIG. 6:

Plaque

probably

depicting

Alexander on
a camel with

shades of blue

enamel on gold
leaf. Dated

c. 1150, this

manufacturing
process well

preceeds the
recipe given

in the book

and shows the

continuity of

workmanship.
V&A,
p

ic
ture
by
t
he
aut

hor.

Glass Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

GLASS RECIPES

FIG. 7:
Mosaic

head from St

Marks, Venice,

with gold, silver

and coloured

tesserae.
Presented

to the V&A
by Salviati

when he was

employed

to carry out

restoration
there. Dated

1100 – 1150,
again showing

the continuity

of Venetian

glassmaking

practice.
V&
A,
p
ic
tur
e

by
t
he
a
ut

hor

advantage of this process was that

the colour could be regulated in

the melt. With purified zaffera for
blue enamel we are told that as

many as
7
shades could be made

by judicious additions to the same
melt; similarly with a mixture of

copper and iron oxides for green

glass (fig. 6).
An opaque red was made by

melting roasted tin with lattimo

made with tartar frit and then

adding red copper oxide and a
lead glass to which calcined bones

were added. For transparent red
(rosechiero) a fit was first made

with tartar salt rather than cristallo

salt. After a series of operations
involving the additions of lead

oxide and raw tartar (encrustation

of wine), iron oxide, sulphur and
manganese the final glass has to

be reheated at the furnace for the

colour to strike as is done with a

gold ruby. The earliest mention of

gold ruby glass is by Neri although
it was Kunckel who made it a

practical procedure in about 1680.
Much of the enamel was used to

apply to gold leaf either on glass
or other gold surfaces. Getting

the enamel to stick was a problem
and it is recommended to have a

sheet of gold at hand on which to
test the new enamel. The Barovier

workshop had a reputation for the
quality of its enamels.
The last topic covered in the

recipe book is the manufacture

of mosaic tesserae (fig. 7). They

were a major item of production.
For example, Zecchin tells us that

in 1369 the Florentine, Donino

di Guglielmo ‘undertook to go
to Venice to make: 130 lb of gold

and silver mosaics, and more

than i5o lb of white or colour

plates in fine shades of blue,

lacquers, buff, green, vermillion,

yellow “incarnation’, verdaccio
and black for Orvieto Cathedral.

The tesserae makers were allowed

to fulfil their orders during the

closed period when the furnaces

were normally shut down.
The plates mentioned were

glass slabs about the size of a bar

of chocolate. For coloured mosaics
they were sprinkled or painted

with the appropriate enamel,
covered with finely ground

cristallo and then fused in an oven.

They might be partly divided into

individual tesserae with an iron
mould pressed onto them while

still soft. (Incidentally, because
there is only a thin layer of colour

in a tessera it is unlikely that they
were used to colour recycled glass

as has been suggested.)
For gold tesserae a thin sheet

of glass was blown by the muff
process and cut into squares
(cat-

tellina)
of a size suitable for the

gold leaves that were applied with
a traditional glue of diluted egg

white. Then either a glass slab was

placed on top and the whole fused

as before or molten common glass
with some lead added poured onto
the gold and the whole annealed in

the oven.

As mentioned above, there was

a problem getting the glass to
stick to the gold and the sections
had to be firmly pressed together

with an iron. For gold tesserae two
leaves of gold were applied but
for silver three was requires as

silver was less opaque. You
are also warned not to use

lead glass for silver as it
turns it black.
These

recipes

impress with the
care and detail
that is given

at each step
in

the

glassmak-
ing proc-

ess. They
reflect

the out-

come of

centuries

of glass-

making

experiment

and experi-

ence. The Vene-

tian records state

that the Black Death of

5348 killed off more than two

thirds of the population of Venice

and Murano including a number
of well-known glassmaking fami-

lies. It was perhaps this experience
that caused so much detail of the

more complicated recipes to be

written down rather than being

passed on by mouth or practical
experience. The meticulously tidy

workshop must have been a hive

of activity with a team of workers
caring for the large and small fur-

naces, and various crucibles being

heated over different periods of
time, as well as the preparation of

materials and pigments. Women

were involved as well as men. To

anyone reading these recipes, and
certainly to this writer, they en-

gender a new respect for all they
have achieved.

Glass Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

REPORTS

The trustees and mem-

bers of the Steering Group

of the British Glass Founda-

tion appeared to be

very happy with over

£6,500 that they

raised from items

donated by glass art-

ists and private individuals.

The Foundation was set up
to protect and save the col-

lections at Broadfield House
Glass Museum but one of

their aims is also support

and promote contemporary
glass artists.
I rather liked Sugar

Rush’ by Charlotte Hughes

Martin (she became famous

in 2008 as the ‘Milk Bottle

Banksy; featuring in the
national press removing

Reports

Five centuries of glass
Another successful sale

at Fieldings Auctioneers

in Stourbridge took place

in April. Most of the 99

lots of 18th century and

Georgian glass sold at or

above estimate. A circa 1750

Jacobite wine glass, the

round funnel bowl engraved

with a rose, two buds and

a star above a shoulder

knopped multi-series air-

twist stem and conical foot

was 16.5 cm (6″) tall. It sold
to a telephone bid of £1,400

(estimate £500 – £600).
There were four

Stourbridge cameo glass

scent bottles I would have

loved to own. The first on
offer went to a telephone

bid of i4,400 against an

estimate of i.i,2oo – £1,500.

The Thomas Webb &

Sons circa 1880 (possibly
George Woodall Studio)

was ii cm (4%1 long. The
compressed tear-form
4.-

body cased in
opal over clear

crystal with
jo
r

a ruby

interior

was acid cut

and carved with a

bee, flowering poppy and

fruiting blackberry bough
over a chevron ground. It

had a cameo carved collar

with foliate engraved silver
mounts.

A large torpedo form

bottle 25 cm (9
3
4″) long

probably Stevens & Wil-

liams cased in opal over

blue and green ground sold

for £2,400 again on the

telephone. (Estimate £i,5oo-

£2,000) It was cut with a
flowering blossom bough

below a silver hallmarked

spherical screw fit cap, dated

London 1884.
A telephone bid of i1,400

secured a 19th century, prob-

ably Thomas Webb & Sons

23 cm (9”) torpedo-shaped

bottle. It was cased in opal

over citron and cut with a
fern and butterflies below a

sterling silver screw fit cap
(estimate i1,2oo-L1,5oo).
empty milk bottles from

people’s doorsteps and re-

placing them with ones that

were beautifully engraved

with animals, often cows or
mice.) A clear blown bell jar

featuring engraved ants set
to a clear blown base with

a clear lost wax cast cup

cake and red cherry. It stood
35 cm (16W) tall and was
unsigned, selling for £450.

Two Stevens and

Williams decanters did very

well in the zoth century
British section. They were

Boot to loot
There’s nothing like a

sleeper to get the blood

racing. So, to those deal-

ers and collectors who

scour auction catalogues

on the internet for mis-

described gems, Stride &

Sons’ recent sale provided a
potential jackpot for eagle-

eyed hunters. Lot 662 in
the Chichester auctioneers’

late June sale was consid-

ered so insignificant that it

did not even merit a pho-

tograph in either the cata-

logue or on the net, had
no estimate or reserve, and

was awarded a simple text

description: ‘662. Three old
cotton twist cordial glasses,
the bowls enamelled armo-

rial crest and vine, 15 cm:
Mention of the bowls

being enamelled with

‘armorial crest and vine

would prick the atten-

tion of most Glass Cir-

cle members, who would
have recognised a poten-

tial link to the Bielbys.

At least two dealers were

sufficiently alert: one was
ready, telephone in hand,
the other drove across

Britain to be present. The
bidding opened at £300,
both after designs by Joshua

Hodgetts, pattern number
45131, pattern book No. 38,

registered 5 May 1913. They

were of footed bell form

with knopped and flared

collar. The body and hollow

blown spire form stoppers

were profusely polish

intaglio cut with a repeat

foliate scroll design between

floral borders. They both

made well over estimate.

The first to be sold fetched

£1,400, the second £1,200.
by Yvonne Wilkes

and, as our witness in the
room reports, The race to

buy them was fairly lively

until the bidding reached

£10,000 when it came

down to a dealer in the

room and his opponent

on the phone. The glasses
went down to the tap of a

pencil (Strides’ auctioners

endearingly use this tool
rather than the traditional

gavel) at £16,000:

The glasses at the centre

of the frenzy were identi-

cal to the Bishop of Ro-

chester Beilby armorial

sold last year by Bonhams

for £9,000 inclusive. In
this sale, the sleeper was

well and truly woken, and

the buyers, apparently a

consortium of local deal-
ers, must have been dis-

appointed to have had to

pay just under £19,000
to take them home. And

the vendors? They must
be delighted and are prob-

ably enjoying planning an
extravagant holiday. They
had bought the glasses at

a car boot fair for 40p. Be-
fore you think that must be

the Bargain of the Century,

they were 40p each!
Andy McConnell

ABOVE:

Cameo

glass scent

bottle

LEFT:
The

Stevens &

Williams

torpedo
bottle

BELOW:

Sugar Rush

Glass Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

OHN

KOTHGASSER

TRAMSPAIIINT ISMAITES .1EDEAMLIERCLAS

TMMSIAIUNT•EMAMILIEU ULUFRMUFA GIASS
REVIEWS

Journal of Glass Studies
Vol 52

Corning Museum of
Glass ISSN 00754250

275 page. $40

The Journal
of Glass

Studies
is often akin to

a Jamboree Bag. The
latter, as many will recall,

were sixpenny bags of
mixed sweets that always

included a’surprise toy.
In the same way, JoGS

invariably contains

studies of no interest
to individual readers

(often written in foreign

languages) but invariably
also contains at least

one gem. The new edi-

tion, Volume 52, is no
exception. For instance,

there’s an analysis of

‘Gold-Coloured Ruby
Glass Tesserae in Roman

Church Mosaics along-

side something in Italian
entitled Osservazioni

sulla produzione di paste

virtue nel XVIII secolo e
it caso di Venezia’ There

also something about

17th century glass tech-
nology, in German.
The gem, as least

to these eyes, is Olive

Jones’s ‘English Black

Glass Bottles,1725-1850:
Historical Terminology’.

Running to 66 pages, it

is a distillation of Jones’s
life of study onto the

subject, and is probably
the most worthy/inter-
esting that I’ve ever read.

After retiring from Parks

Canada, for which she

worked as an archaeolo-

gist specialising in bottles

and related glassware,
she continued amassing
further references from

a wide range of sources,
including national and

regional records offices.
The result is a glossary

of historical terms used
in the English black glass

bottle trade between the

stated dates. Between
opening with ‘Ale quarts

and closing with ‘Wine
bottles; she lists and
provides expositions of

all the bottle types she
found in contemporary
records and later studies.

As a taster, featured

listings include: Bristol
bottles, carboys, case bot-

tles, commons, Corbyns,

dumps, flatts, potholes,
rounds, Smiths, specia

mouths, etc. It lists
references to bottles for

capers, for instance, and
Cheltenham salts, cider/

cyder, claret, Dunn’s

Essence of Coffee, goose-

berries, mushrooms,

mustard, pickles, soda,

snuff, spa water and
walnuts. It also explains

terms such as reputed

quarts, Excise Duty

drawbacks, customs

duties, and examines the
progressive introduction

of the various moulds
used in historic bottle

making.
At face-value, this is a

fairly dry work, but the

listings are filled with
innumerable insights

into 18th century life. For

instance, amongst Jones’s
many references to case

bottles is this peach from

1749: An unfortunate

man hired three men to

ferry him in a boat. They
proceeded to rob him of

a ‘Silver Pint Mug, his
Watch, a Guinea and a

half of money, and two

Case Bottles of Brandy:

Jones also outlines

late-18th century bot-
tlernaking methodology:
the team consisted of

four: a boy, the gatherer,
blower and finisher, and

explains who performed
which tasks. ‘A team; she

states,`was contracted to

make a minimum of 62

dozen bottles a day, but
usually turned out many

more, often as many as

72 or 73 dozen. Bottle

factories made glass

each day, a process that
included filling four pots

with batch, firing the
furnace for mélange and

waiting for the attach to

melt (52-54 hours); work-

ers made bottles until

the pots were empty.

This meant that they
worked approximately

12 hours a day. In the

1779-80 day book at the
Hartley bottle works

(Northumberland), each
team, working Monday

to Friday, made between

69 and 75 dozen bottles a

day, producing a bottle in

less than a minute:
If, like me, these are

the sort of historical

nuggets that set your

blood coursing, the latest
Journal of Glass Studies

provides an unmissable
bedtime read.

Andy McConnell

Biedermeier
Paul von Lichtenberg
Mohn & Kothgasser

Transparent-enamelled
Biedermeier glass

Hirmer, Munich, 2009

524 pages, 760 colour
plates

ISBN

9783777439952

Such books do not
arrive on one’s table
daily: 524 pages, richly
illustrated throughout

in colour on heavy gloss

paper and weighing

almost 3 kilograms,

usefully presented in

two languages (German

and English) where the

author has not directly

translated but written
the English text. And

then come the contents!
Between the board

covers, the author has
illustrated his book

profusely with over 760

plates describing 399
enamelled glasses. He

gives the background
to the artists, their

workshops and an

introduction to the

social and economic
upheavals in the wake

of the Napoleonic Wars

and the peace treaties

following the Congress

of Vienna in 1814-15.

Careful research has
resulted in many new

insights in recognising

PRICE FOR

MEMBERS:

Available from

Bonhams

at a special

price of £100

to members

of the Glass
Circle (£140

RSP)

Review

Bottlemaking

Glass Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

C)
Dar
t
ing
ton
Cry
s
ta
l

unknown origin can be

obtained for as little as
£12.50.

Dartington’s most

expensive offer is a vase

with a complex (what

looks like an intaglio) cut

rim with an oak and rose

motif, and with initials

and crown etched on
the foot (fig. 3). With a

limited edition of ioo it

costs £640. There is also

a matching goblet at £85.
Caithness contributes

a range of bulged

glassware, in their

standard shapes,
and include several

paperweights. The most

FIG. I

(TOP):

Dartington

traditional

tankard

FIG. 2:

(ABOVE)
Royal Scot

hand-cut
Kintyre

mug with

etched

motif
FIG. 3

(BELOW):

Dartington

Royal

Wedding

royal oak

and English

rose footed
vase

Cry
sta
l

Curiosity corner

Shades of grey
Poor, grey-tinted glass

‘metal’ is the uniting

factor in two recent finds.
The objects in question

are both rustically
formed, though one has

a better excuse for this:

probably dating from the

18th century. The other,
less so as it dates over 15o

years later. The first is a
double-walled tumbler,

seemingly mid-to-late

18th century, the second,

a miserable excuse of a

vase.

The tumbler (right) is

the more curious. Meas-

uring just over
4
inches

[1o.8cms], its outer form

is entirely plain and fa-

miliar. However, instead

of the lip terminating

as would be normal,

the glass turns inwards

sharply to form a inner

cavity: in effect forming

a tumbler within a tum-
bler. The void between

the two is accessed by

removing the cork at the

centre of a crudely pol-

ished pontil scar. The

glass metal from which it
is made is lightly scarred

with striations and tool
marks and is pale grey

in the manner of 18th

century British glass.

If challenged for a

date,

somewhere

around

177o-90

would seem appro-

priate. It certainly

appears earlier than

the mirrored twin-

walled ‘mercury

glass patented by

Thomson & Hale

in 1849.
But what on

earth was it used A’a
for?

Two ideas come

to mind, both involv-

ing filling the void to

a given level with wine.

First, it was a deceptive,

intended to fool oth-

ers into believing

that whoever held

it was drinking

whereas no liquid
could pass the lip of
either the tumbler or
its owner. Second, it was

a joke glass: whoever held

it could pretend to throw
wine at a friend or guest,

though in reality this

would, of course, be im-
possible. Either way, it is

a fascinating relic.

The other curio is

one of the most poorly-

formed pieces of loth

century glass I’ve ever en-

countered: a vase, its base

sand-blasted with the
wording: HAILWARE
MADE IN ENG-

LAND. Being a name I’d

never previously encoun-
tered, it proved a com-

pelling purchase. An In-

ternet search took me
to Nigel Benson’s zoth
Century Glass site,
which revealed that

Hailwood
&
Ack-

royd was a Leeds-

based works that
specialised

industrial glass,

ranging from

road-crossing

Belisha Beacons

to petrol pump

globes,

under

various tradenames

including Hailcris,

Hailopal, Hailglass,

as well as Hailware.

The company obvi-
ously also produced
low-price domes-

tic glassware, such

as this primitive

example illustrated

left.

AndyMcConnell
Royal Wedding

Commemoratives
What can be more

curious than the

plethora of artifacts
commemorating this

April’s Royal Wedding?
I have a small

collection of

commemorative goblets,

either bought as holiday

souvenirs or offered

at irresistible prices in
charity shops. What

has become clear is

that in the last 3o or so

years wheel-engraved

dedicated creations have
been almost completely

supplanted by acid-
etched or painted

transfers applied to

standard product lines.
Further, the Britishness

of the glassware is
proving increasingly
difficult to determine.

And so it has proved for
the wedding of Prince

William and Kate. In

fact, the choice online is
extremely limited.

I began with

Dartington, only to find

that the firm’s website

also promotes Royal Scot

Crystal and Caithness
Glass (both now
divisions of Dartington).

Its own range included a
traditional tankard with

moulded (?) intertwined

initials below a crown

on a raised disc (fig. I).

This was priced at £50
compared with
£39.50

for the one-pint Royal

Scot version in the

hand-cut Kintyre range

with etched motif (fig.
a): this model sold out
before the wedding. It is

unclear if they blow their

own glass, but they do
claim that the cutting is

English and one outlet

indicated that this was

done in Stourbridge.

One website did mention

that a wheel-engraved
royal motif would form

part of the Royal Scot

Crystal Kintyre suite

but no details were

given. Nor could I find

measurements of any of

the glassware illustrated.
A plain etched press-

moulded mug of

ll/
Glass
Etc.

Glass Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

REVIEWS

FIG.
5:

Laser-

etched glass
block.

expensive at £595 (a

limited edition of 55o)

is a fairly successful

attempt at a royal pattern
in white millefiori on a

blue ground (fig. 4). On
one site, not Caithness,
I found a weight with an

etched

background
of St. Paul’s rather than

Westminster Abbey

apparently purporting
to be by Caithness (the

official site illustrates

one with the Abbey on
a blue ground) and also,

what looks like a cast
dome with attractive

gold lettering on a red

ground stuck to the base.
There are others, but it

is not always clear that
they specifically relate to

the wedding. Caithness
cannot be accused of not

having tried, just that

their prices seem on the

high side.
Most curious is a glass

block laser-etched with a
picture of the happy pair
(fig.5) costing £67.19 (one

of five in different sizes).

They are made in Dubai
(by a company that

supplies to airlines and
hotels) and I found it

somewhat discouraging

that the box in which it

comes is described with
more enthusiasm than

the piece itself.

I asked Nazeing

Glass if it had produced

anything only to learn

that it had, probably
wisely, opted out.

However, if you fancy

designing your own

piece, it does offer a

badging service and
that could bring you

personal satisfaction at a
reasonable price. Dawn

Crystal in Stourbridge

will be happy to oblige in
the same way.
I drew a blank

at Langham Glass
in Norfolk, but it

marked the occasion
by offering Es off the

price of watching their

demonstrations on 29
April.
In search of something

with class, I looked
up eBay and found

an elaborately wheel-

engraved manifestly
Bohemian style blue

vase
offered for is000.

In spite of the price it

looked reasonable value

but the ‘auction by’ date

had already passed.
Finally, I learn from
The Mirror

website that

the people of Wales are
presenting the happy

pair with a large hand-
cut bowl made by Welsh

Royal Crystal, based in

Rhayader, mid-Wales. It

should prove an excellent

vessel in which to make
a decent trifle in the best

celebratory tradition of
Mrs Beeton.

David
C
Watts

FIG. 4:

Caithness

paperweight
(.2

News

Glass games

The Contemporary
Glass Society is co-

ordinating a set of
events to coincide with

the 2012 Olympics.

Suggestions for sports/

glass crossovers include
regional marble games

and a marble champion-

ship, but others focus
on the idea of playing

with glass, perhaps in
the making process or

as an exhibition theme.
Perhaps Circle members

could riffle through
their own collections

and send in pictures or

descriptions of any glass
they own, engraved or

otherwise, that depict or

commemorate sportive
events. If there is enough

interest, we might see if
we can take part. At the
very least, a display in

these pages.

craft&design
glass

awards

Jessamy Kelly, who wrote

about the background to
her work in Glass Circle
Detail

from

`Wedge’
by

Jessamy
Kelly
News no. 125 pages 7-9,

has won the Gold Award

for Glass for the second

time in three years.

Silver awards went to

Zoe Garner and Sabine

Little. A public online

vote selects the shortlist

in six craft categories and

then a specialist judge

makes the final deci-

sion — for glass it was
long-time Circle member

Peter Layton. The award

is run by
craft&design

magazine.

Whither glass
education in the UK:’

The courses at Westmin-

ster Adult Education

Services (WAES) have

long enjoyed a reputation

in the glass and ceramics

departments. Many

young (and not-so-

young) glass makers have

gained qualifications
from which they have

gone on to Central St
Martins and other pres-
tigious establishments.

Central St Martins

has its final show this

summer (wittily titled

Fiennale) and then he

College will be closing
the Glass Department

when it moves to Kings
Cross in the Autumn,

and the tradition of glass
taught at Central for

over 100 years, will sadly
come to an end.

Likewise WAES at

Amberley Road is under

threat — the building is

to become one of the

new free schools. Unless

alternative premises are

found (which is unlikely)
the glass department will

close next Easter.

Bonhams sale
A
Gottlob Samuel Mohn

transparent enamelled

Viennese beaker, dated

1812, sold at the Bon-
hams sale on 15 June for

£15,000 (est. £7,000-
9,000) (see the article on
page 6). The straight-

sided cylindrical form is
amusingly painted with

a rectangular panel with

black dentilated border

enclosing an interior

scene in a library with a

case being heard before

a lawyer accepting a
bribe behind his back

and trampling over the

Corpus Juris
at his feet.
4

Behind him is the head-

less statue of Justice, the

reverse with a fly and

inscribed
Gerechtigheit,

the amber-stained rim

decorated with laurel in-

cluding a broken sword,
legal scroll, pen and ink

and
Corpus Juris, 9.8cm

high,
signed in black

under the panel
G.Mohn

fa. Wien 1812.

Glass Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

DIARY

Diary dates

Circle meetings
Glass Circle outing

9 October

A visit to Bristol Museum to see

its excellent collections of glass,

and also a visit to Delomosne

and Son Ltd less than 20 miles

away at North Wraxall to see –
their new exhibition (see below).

Details will be circulated nearer

the time.

Meetings held at the
Art Workers’ Guild. 6 Queen

Square, VVC1N 3AT. 7.15.

Sandwiches from 630 p.m.

Looking at glass

11 October

Robert Charleston Memorial

Lecture

Dedo von Kerssenbrock-

Krosigk, formerly at the

Corning Museum, is head of
the Glastnuseum Hentrich in

Dusseldorf. He writes:’Glass

is a fairly homogenous material,
which, unless decorated,

shows little individual optical
characteristics. Clemens Weiss,

an artist who chose to use sheet

glass for that very reason, puts
it this way: An old man who

has looked
put-

of his window

for twenty years will fail to

recognise the glass pane only

minutes after it has been taken

out of the frame.
Looking at glass, rather

than through it, is-a peculiar

activity, but it is shared with

acuity by the members of the

An archaeologically complete

fragment from several thousand

pieces that the Glasmuseum
Hentrich recently acquired from

Erwin Baumgartner. The beaker

is reputedly
from
Dordrecht, The

Netherlands, 1st half c 17.
Glass Circle and many other

glass historians, collectors and

artists. The ways of looking at

glass’can be quite varied: the
decoration; the ‘metal; the shape

and its function, the cultural
background and countless

other aspects might be at the

focus of the scrutinising eye.

Looking at glass is fascinating, it

can be encouraged, but also be

inhibited in certain ways.
While looking at the looking

of glass, a variety of themes

within the history of glass will
be touched upon: Roman,

medieval, Venetian and facon

de Venise glass, contemporary

studio glass and perhaps even

British glass come to mind.

8 November
To be announced

13 December
To be announced

Antiques for Everyone

21-24 July

NEC Birmingham

www.antiquesforeveryone.co.uk

Touching the Past

3-4 September

International weekend

conference

North Lands Creative Glass

Lybster, Caithness

www.northlandsglass.com

Association for the History of

Glass

4-8 September

International Conference on the
Chemistry of Glasses and Glass-
Forming Melts in celebration

of the 300th anniversary of the
birth of Mikhail Vasilievich

Lomonosov

Lady Margaret Hall; University

of Oxford

wwvv.lomonosov2011.sgthome.

eta.uk

Scandinavian glass

10
September

Andy McConnell is one of

the speakers at the Glass

Association’s national meeting

in Rye. Any Circle members

interested in this should contact

[email protected] or

0121 354 4100.

Cambridge Glass Fair
25 September
Chilford Hall Vineyard

Cambs 0321 4LE

www.cambridgefair.com

The
Tim Udall Coll
e

ction

8-15
October

The Tim Udall Collection of

18th Century Dessert Glasses: a
selling exhibition

Delomosne
&
Son Ltd

Court Close, North Wraxall,

Chippenham,Wiltshire SN14

7AD

+44 (0)1225 891505 or www.

delomosne.co.uk

Living with Glass

15’16
October (conference)

15 September to 30 October
(exhibition)

The conference at the De La
Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, East

Sussex will coincide with the
partner exhibition ‘Living with
Glass in collaboration with

Vessel Gallery, 114 Kensington
Park Road, London W11 2PW.

Both focus on the interiors of

public and private spaces. Your
Editor will be one of about

a dozen exhibitors at Vessel
Gallery. She is showing a ceiling

light.

www.cgs.org.uk

vesselgallerycorn

De La Warr Pavilion Staircase
Glass & Ceramic Fair

23 October
Dulwich College
London SE21 7LD

www. specialistglassfairs.com

National Glass Fair

13 November

National Motorcycle Museum

Solihull B92 OEJ

www glassfairs.co.uk

British Contemporary Glass

25-27 November

Chiswick Town Hall,

Heathfield Terrace, London W4

3QJ. Friday 3-7pm; Saturday

11-6pm; and Sunday 11-5pm.
[email protected]

AC Hubbard Collection

30 November

Bonhams will be selling the

famous collection of 17th and

18th Century English and

Dutch Glass belonging to AC

Hubbard. This important

American collection was

published by Ward Lloyd in

A
Wine-lover’s Glasses

(2000).

Further detail in the next issue.

GC trip to Amsterdam

April 2012

Amsterdam has a lot of
building works underway as it is

constructing a new underground
railway, and the Rijksmuseum

continues to be partially closed.

So the proposed outing this
autumn has been cancelled

and will be replaced next April

by a trip to The Netherlands
probably based in Rotterdam

and will include a visit to the

bulb fields which will be at their

best at that time.

•

Glass. Circle News Issue 126 Vol. 34 No. 2

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