111•wwwwwwe
STOP PRESS
We have just heard that our member,
Katherine Worsley last Saturday
received the British Empire Medal
for her services tc the League of
Friends to Brompton Hospital
GLASS CIRCLE
NEWS
David Watts
27 Raydean Road
BARNET, Herts. EN51A:
John Towse
25-27 Curtain Road
London, EC2A 3R1{.
No. 46
June 1990
T H E
CRYSTAL
PALACE
by
Paul Hollister
This was Paul Hollister’s extremely erudite account of the architectural use ox
glass (“easily the largest glass order ever filled up to that time”) in
immense building, covering 16 acres and enclosing mature elm trees.
Since it
was designed to be removed and re-erected, it represented an amazing venture ie
recycling, as well as conservation.
Paul Hollister described how he first
came-under the spell of the Crystal
Palace as a child of eleven, taken on
a visit to its second site, at
Sydenham.
He had come back to a
deeper consideration of its history
when writing a book on glass
paperweights, some of which had been
included in the Great Exhibition of
1851, for which the building was
designed and erected at its first site
in Hyde park.
Joseph Paxton, whose design was used,
was a member of the committee planning
the exhibition.
His ambitious but
wholly practical experiments on large
glass buildings had been carried out
in the gardens of the wealthy Duke of
Devonshire, at Chitsworth. For
these, he had persuaded Chance and
Hartley, of the Crown Glass Company at
Spon Lane, Smethwick, to produce
cylinder glass.
,
in sheets 48 by 30
inches, each furnishing three panes 10
inches wide, suitable for innovative
glazing patterns quite impossible
using small crown glass panes.
His
use of ridge-and-furrow roofs, grooved
glazing bars and drainage inside
hollow iron pillars was equally
innovative.
Hartley and Chance had studied the
process of cylinder glass making at
the works of Georges Bontemps at
Choisy-le-Roi (who subsequently moved
to England himself) and established
the process at Smethwick with the
reluctant help of some of the French
craftsmen. By the time of the
Crystal Palace, Hartley had patented
sheets 62 by 21 inches, but these were
rejected by Paxton because they had to
be thicker and hence weighed half as
much again, and because he found that
the smaller, thinner panes were more
resistent to hail-storms.
Paul Hollister showed a large range of
facinationg slides of Paxton’s
buildings, the rejected alternative
designs for the exhibition building
and the construction of the Crystal
Palace itself and the glass that went
into it.
Paxton believed in testing
everything
(not
just
against
hailstones!) and in re-utilisation of
material, to the extent that the
•
floorboards
were
first
used
to
construct the fence round the site
He also used ingenious machines to aid
the 1 200 workmen erect, glaze and
Paint the building.
In his experimental days, Paxton had
found that wooden glazing bars were
cheaper and more durable than iron ian-1
in the Crystal Palace there was a
total length of 205 miles of them.
Until consumed by fire. (which older
glass circle members will just
remember) this remarkable building
endured for over 80 years.
This meeting of the Glass Circle was
held at the Museum of London on
Thursday, April 19th 1990.
The hosts
were Mr,. Cranch, Mrs. Cremieu-Javal,
Miss Evans and Mr Trickey.
RW
FAKE
2
recent NEWSLETTERS of other GLASS CLUBS
THE GLASS CLUB BULLETIN
looks in detail at one particular suite
of the National Early American Glass Club of brilliant cut glass ordered for the
White House in 1891. The book is
We have received No. 160 of this
Bulletin, dated last winter.
All the
articles and book reviews here are
compounded of a nice blend of glass and
history.
For example, the cover
picture is of a sugar bowl incorporating
two silver coins; an 1810 Napoleon one
franc in the knop of the stem and a
George III sixpence in the finial!
The
article discusses not only the evidence
for where in New England (or maybe
Boston) it was made, but for whom and
for what event in a well-researched
extended family connected with the New
England Glass Company.
A similar piece of research of even
broader scope is reported on two pieces
of Irish glass in the Myrtieville
historic house museum of the Heritage
Canada Foundation.
Here there is a
very full investigation of the family
tree of the young Cork couple, Allen and
Eliza Good, who brought the pieces among
their “household effects” when they
emigrated in 1836.
As in the first
story, there was a family connection
with the Cork Glass Company, at least in
its later stages. For example, William
Allen, probably the groom’s grandfather
and the bride’s great grandfather was a
partner by 1793.
The ladies of the family were great
keepers of inventories, in which much
information has been found. To add to
this, from Eliza’s letter to her sister
in Ireland comes the information that
only one large glass dish was broken
during their terrifying sleigh-ride
north to Montreal in January…
The style and the dating of the two
remaining pieces, a jug and a butter
cooler, both flat-cut, are discussed in
relation to their manufacture and date.
Both are illustrated, and so are Allen
and Eliza, and Myrtleville House, the
farm they built in 1838.
The rest of the bulletin is taken up
with an article and a book review about
glass at the White House. The article
subtitled “Two centuries of Presidential
Entertaining”,
Taken together the two
are a quite an eye-opener!
The Bulletin is edited by Arlene Palmer
17,East Main Street,Yarrnouth ME 04096 USA
NEWSLETTER of the
Ceramics and Glass Circle of Australia
The April 1990 issue contains an
analysis of the very detailed engraving
of a church on a lead glass tumbler,
found in Tasmania.
Using pictures and
descriptions, the church has been
identified as St James’s, Louth in
Lincolnshire.
Comments and information
will be welcomed by Don Barnfather
c/o The Secretary, P.O.Box 14002
Melbourne 3001 Australia
Y S A R T N E W S
An “Ysartnews” speciail issue has reached
us, dealing entirely with a paperweight-
faking scandal, first suspected in 1988,
Paperweights “signed” with PY canes
(Paul Ysart) and J canes (John Deacons)
had been appearing on the market in such
numbers as to arouse suspicion.
The
signature canes have turned out not to
be authentic, and there are also some
stylistic indicators.
GENUINE
The clubs running the newsletter wish
this to be widely known among glass
collectors, hoping that, given more
information, it may bd possible to trace
the source of the fakes. To tell them,
or to be told more about it, write to:
The Secretary
Cambridge Paperweight Circle,
1,Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 20.
or
The Secretary
Monart and Vasart Collectors Club
10 Vincent Road London N22 6NA
GLASS FOR
RICH VICTORIANS.
A talk
given to
the
Glass Circle
By John Smith
When the speaker first joined the Glass Circle in the
late 1960’s only 18th century and earlier glass
was
judged Worthy of consideration, now later glass is
alsO respectable. This talk is cOncemed with glass
purchased predominantly by the Nouveau Riche,
particularly Carnmand ‘Rock-Crystal.
What do the rich want? They want craftsmanship
and perceived value, not necessarily ‘good taste’ and
‘good design’. Ruskin may have thought “cut glass
is barbarous” but not the rich’: What was wanted
was the Pate sur pate of Minton, Worcester
porcelain decorated by the Stinson family, K.M.P.
plaques and Chevy ChaSe sideboards, all items with
obvious welt, no Mark Rothko style minimalism?
By the midalle of the 19th century there was a
steady stream of immigrant craftsmen from
Bohemia.
This, together with
.
an excellent art
school at Stourbridge and the possibility of earn-
ing a good wage,
gave
a ‘boost to the already
taccessful and king-established
;
glass industry.
By the time of the Crystal Palace exhibition of 1851
glass was becoming more decorative and colourful,
thanks mainly to the efforts of Victorian chemists,
and the public started to want ‘omements’, that s
cheap ‘objets’. Also, this i the time of the first
‘designer’ glass, of the type designed by Richard
Redgave for the t ‘Felix Sumrricaly’s Art
Manufactures, and the glass manufactured by
Bacchus and RiChardson.
At last We have names and we can assign work to
factories, whether it be Webb cameo, glass furniture
made
–
by Oster of Bitrniithan for the Malutrajah.s
of India or the luxury glass of Baccarat and
Saint Louis.
The speaker then gave a brief history of the
development .
English cameo glass from
Northwood to Carder and showed slides of a
number of cameo examples,
may
made for the
American
–
market soine rriounted ;by American
silversmiths, in particular Gorham of New York.
Cameo glass was particularly popular with
wealthy Americans and until Tiffany started glass
manufacture in :1893 virtually no Art glass was
made’ in ‘the USA. Many of the cameo objects
were decorated with . patterns of extremely
naturalistic flowers derived from the gardens and
hot houses of Victorian England, .unlike the
French cameo of Galle and others who used much
more free-form decoration
The Bohemian tradition of intaglio engraving
was
brought to England and became increasingly
popular in this country. Later the technique of
‘rock-crystal’ engraving was introduced; tradition
gives this innovation to William Fritsche. Rock
crystal engraving on glass is the technique of
deep, bright-polished engraving on thick glass
which emulates the 16th century engraving of true
rock crystal or quartz in Bohemia. This technique
is extremely time-consuming, and hence
expensive, so the level of production was always
small. Probably the most famous example is the
Fritsche ewer, now in the Corning. Museum of
Glass. It Was exported to the USA when new and
shortly afterwards entered the St. •Louis Museum,
which deacqisitioryad it ill the 1930’s, much to the
chagrin of the present curator.
Rock-crystal
engraving started in England tattle bite 1870’s and
was largely abandoned by 1910; .however, a slide
was shown of a fine vase engraved by Augustus
Boam in 1928, Examples, were also shown by
Fritsche
;
Mine and Lion
” al Pierce. An
absorbing presentation concluded with further
slides illustrating outstanding Victorian glass.
J. S.
The intxrtirig was held at the Ariworker’s
Guild on 16th
,
November, 1989, by. kind
invitation of, Mrs, J. Marshall, Mrs Jean, Martin,
Dr M. Wenzel -.and Mr D.G.U. de B. Wilmot.
STAINED GLASS AT THE
PILKINGTON GLASS MUSEUM
ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MINERAL by
Paul San Casciani AMGP, on the theme of
Pattern in nature as revealed by powerful
– optical microscopes (in. keeping with
•
Pilkington’s role in developing lenses) was
commissioned in 1988 by Pilkington Glass
•
Museum. St Helen’s, Merseyside,where it is
now on view, for their permanent display.
The artist has used his wide command of
traditional and modern methods to represent
an amphibian ovary (circular shapes). fungus
(irregular wavey shapes) and Epsom salts
(pomted shapes in the borders) Which are the
three substances of the title. Glasspainting.
staining, fusing. acid-etching and
•
copperfoiling have been combined to delight
the senses with rich Colours and a highly
tactile surface.
The panel, 1060 nun high by 710 mm wide, is
Casciani’s second on the theme of
microscopy: his first, INNER SPACE (1979)
is an imaginative interpretation of Hydra
tissue seen through an electron microscope.
This work. on loan to Ely Stained Glass
Museum (situated in the cathedral), is
.
featured on the front cover of his textbook
“The Technique of Decorative stained Glass”,
Batsford, now reprinted.
Paul Casciani, a lifelong glass artist, executes
commissions in traditional and contempory
techniquea. He has also run teaching courses
since 1968. including popular Easter and
Summer Schools in Oxford, as well as at the
Pilkington museum, in order to promOte the
understanding and appreciate stained glass.
Also on display at St Helens, on a biological
theme and in tune with current concern about
the destruction of forests and their medicinal
plants, are stained glass panels by Ervin
Bossanyi representing some of his best work.
These are duplicates of panels made for a
Hamburg physician, Dr Julius. The originals
were destroyed in the war and the duplicates
are on loan for 5 years from the artist’s son.
Mr Jo Bossanyi, now living in Dewitt,. Among
the themes illustrated are a wise man
restraining a vandal front chopping down
vegetation, a woman holding plants with an
angelic figure whispering in her ear, and the
same woman sOlicitously offering a sick •
person the flower of healing while the artist’s
wife, portrayed in blue, looks down on the
scene.
Bossanyi. born in South Hungary in 1891,
won a First Class Diploma at the Academy of
Art. Budapest, and, after studying under Jean-
Paul Laurens at the Ecole Julien in Paria,
moved to Lubeck in Germany. in 1919, where
he began experimenting in stained glass at the
workshop of Carl Berkentien. Bossanyi came
to England in 1934. His work here ineltides a
window for the Tate Gallery, four windows
for Canterbury Cathedral and seven windOws
for Washington Cathedral as well as windows
for various churches in South Africa.
Bossanyi died in 1975 at the age of 84.
THE LIGHT TOUCH
An exhibition of work by the
Guild of Glass Engravers.
The Guild, which modestly but correctly
describes itself as “the leading body in the
field” presents an exhibition of current
developments in the work by assessed Craft
members, Associate Fellows and Fellows of
the Guild. It reflects the growing interest in
engraving coloured and cased glass by a wide
variety of techniques. anas Well as encompass-
ing a great breadth of ideas from a delicately
turned leaf to the dramatic:realization of an
abstract theme. The exhibition will be on
show at the Derby
,
City Museum and Art
Gallery, The Strand, Derby, until 30th June,
and at the Pilkington Glass Museum (address
above) from July •14th – Aug 19th 1990.
For further information Tel. 719794 0644
between 2 and 5 ptn.
,,
I
CORNING CORNER
1989 RAK.OW COMMISSION AWARD
FOR DIANA 1108:50N
–
Diana Hobson, Glass Circle member and
recognised leader in the revival of the pate de
verre technique which was refined in 19th
century France; was awarded the 1989 Rakow
Commission for anew work Of glass at to be
added to the collection of the Corning Museum
of Glass.
The work was unveiled last October during the
Museum’s annual Glass Seminar. It is a mixed-
media composition entitled “Copper th’e Colour
of Magic” and consists of-two pate de verve
elements and a naturally split egg-shaped stone
that was discovered by the artist during
a
teaching session at the Pilch.uck Glass School in
Stanwood. Washington. Though, abstract.. the
glass forms suggest bird and pod shapes. For
the artist, their emergence from the boulder is “a
very personal evocation of Male and female
spirituality unified into an independent energy”.
With this award-winning sculpture, Diana has
moved into a new area of creativity whilst
retaining her original objective of
–
using pate-de
verre for sculptural forms. Diana says she is
delighted that the Rakow Commission provided
the opportunity for her to concentate her
energies on a single piece. Past recipients of
the award include Doug Anderson, Howard Ben
Tire’
.
and Mary Ann Toots Zynsky.
RUSSIAN GLASS OF THE •
17TH – 20TH CENTURIES
This comprehensive exhibition of more than 170
Russian glass objects, shown in the West for. the –
f’ir’st time, runs at the Corning Museum until
October 14th, 1990.
The programthe notes tell us that, in many ways,
the story of glassmaking in Russia paralleled the
development of th0 Russian .state. When Peter
the Great began to modernize his country.
glassmakers from all over Europe moved to
Russia. By the early 19th century, some of the
world’s most elaborate and refined
–
glass was •
being made in Russian factories, Following the
1917 Revolution, production began mirrering
the political and social developments that
transformed Russian society. Today, Soviet
glassmakers are Creating serious works- of art, as
your editor can` testifyfirst hand, but they are
largely unknown outside the U.S.S.R.
.
The Corning exhibition features glassware
made for the tables of nearly every Russian
emperor. Other items include a 19th century
decanter in Russian peasant style, .a cut glass
pitcher with silver mounting by. Faberg. and
elegant 20th century Art Nouveau pieces.
Softcover copies .of the catalogue (sorry. no
details). cost $401-phatagel$2..25 domestic:
$3.25 foreign): Slides (5.75)‘ postcards (5.25)
and notecards ($1.0) are also available’ (all
p&p) while groups of 25 or more may indulge
in a dinner-theatre programme called “Feast of
the Czars”.
CATALOGUE OF TOLEDO
MUSEUMS ANCIENT GLASS
COLLECTION
This 450 page opus,.written by. David
F.
Grose. Professor of Classics and Archaeology
at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst,
and former curator of glass at the Toledo
museum, details one. of the world’s foremost
collections in this area, and documents the
artistic, historical and technological changes in
glassmaking over 3500 years up’to
The collection is particularly strong in material
from the Greek and Roman worlds, presented
to the Museum in 1919 by Edward DruMmond
Libbey. The topics covered include all. that
you would expect to find and much more with
essays on the history and technology of each
period of glassmaking. Fakes and
reproductions up to the modern day. of which
there are plenty, are considered in the final
chapter.
At $100 a copy the volume is not likely to sell
out overnight and the average collector is left
to wonder why such errudition is destined (if
not ordained) to gather dust on the shelves of a
small select number of the world’s libraries
and museums. Some time ago the British
Museum published a similar volume on its
0‘411
collection at £45.00. This is not a
popular field. Perhaps it is misguidedly
thought that only those who can afford and
desire to collect wish to read about it. One
thing is sadly certain and that is that few will
ever take the opportunity to explore. and learn
from
these
hard wrought definitive texts the
true and excitingiacts of this great and
formative period of glassmaking.
GEORGE RAVENSCROFT
– – UPDATE
Brian Matady’s original article, “The Life of
George RaVenseroft” in which he brings
together.the family background, George’s
experience as a merchant and his pioneer
enterprise into glassmaking, taking up plate
glass manufacture at Vauxhall as well as
inventing lead, crystal at the Savoy glass-
house, was published in
GLASS
TECHNOLOGY,
Vol.29, pp.198-210; 1988.
An addendum to this paper, presented in the
same journal (Vol.30, 191-192, 1989),
reports subsequent findings and omissions
from the original paper on this entrepreneur.
These include Charleston’s exanunation of
Raveuscroft’s glasses (J. GLASS STUDIES,
10, l5&-167, 1968) and McL.etad’s quote’
from Robert Hooke’s diary. on 29 July 1673,
“Went with Dr (Sir Christopher) Wren to the
new glass house at the Savoy. Saw calcined
flints as white as flower, borax, nitre and
tartar, with which he made his glass. He
denied to use arsenic. He showed pretty
representations of agates by glass etc.” The
significance of this quotation in relation to
the composition and purity of Ravenscroffs
metal is disctissed, iii particular, how
Rav
–
enscroft came to use lead oxide in his
batch, a problem that was not resolved.
Other new pieces of information relate to
Ravenscroft’s support for promoting a Bill in
Parliament against hawkers selling glass, and
to the discovery that a servant of a Mr
Ravenscraft was executed for alleged murder
in 1678 during the Titus Oates conspiracy.
The latter indicates the very real persecution
that terrorised the Catholics at that time.
Relating to the problems of lead crystal
manufacture is the:question of when covered
pots were first used in a glass furnace. This
problem is tackled in an interesting —
conununication by Roy Newton
(GLASS
TECHNOLOGY ,
Vol.29, 49-50, 1988). In
support of the contention that this was an
English invention is the earliest known
reference of May 1756 at the Nostetangen
factory., in Norway, where “16 English
covered pots” were prepared. This,
however, is more than a century later than
W.E.S. Turner’s claim in a ceramic plaque
installed in the entrance hail of “Elrnfieid”
(home of English glass technology) that the
“Invention and use of the covered GLASS
MELTING
por
was by ‘THOMAS
PERCIVAL” who invented the coal-fired
furnace in 1613’ Newton ends with the
suggestion that the Venetians may yet have
the last say as being the innovators of this
essential development.
D.C.W.
FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY GLASS „ At OPUS i
25a Maddox. Street, London WIA 91.E. Tel. • . .071 495 2570
Mayfair’s newest craft gallery is promoting what promises to be the largest exhibition of
contemporary glass in Britain this year. Fourty Artists, many of therh, such as Ray
Revell, Peter – Layton, Pau!ine Solven, Tessa Clegg and ‘Charles Bray being •very
familiar names
–
. They offer a wide range of artistic expression.frorn kiln-forming and
tree blown creation’s to !unwed and cold decorated pieces reflecting the state of British
–
/kit The Festival, which opened on 22nd May, closes on Saturday, 23rd June.
Opus 1, part-owned by the Charity London Baroque Opera, was set up to sponsor
productions of London’Baroque Opera. in addition to glass the gallery has extensive
ceramics, wood textiie.s, )ewellery, prints and photographs etc. The gallery, 5 min
‘ie’orn Oxford Circus and Bond Street undergrounds is open until 7.00 on Thursdays,
GLASSBLOWING WITH A PUNCH
An Open Vileek
,
,erA
end
Summer Sale
at
the
London
Glassblowing
Workshop. Elope
(Sufferance) Wharf, 109, Rotherhithe Street, SE16 4NF.
On June 23r4/24th, 11,00a , – 5.00pm both days.
Its never too early to
think of Christmas – what a trying
time that can be – and now is the time
to start stocking up. A continuous glassblowing demonstration with seconds
for sale in
the
workshop plus top quality work at reduced prices in the gallery. Quaff a free glass of their
famous
Summer Punch
while you browse (Tel 071
237 0394),