The Glass Cone_No.88 Autumn 2009

The

Glass Cone
Issue No: 88 — Autumn 2009

The Magazine of

The Glass Association
Registered as a Charity No. 326602

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Dr. Brian Clarke: [email protected]

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Alison Hopkins (secretary(a,glassassociation.org.uk)

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Bob Wilcock (The Glass Cone), Mark Hill (The Journal),

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Pauline Wimpory, Membership Secretary,
150 Braemar Road, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands,
B73 6LZ

([email protected])

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Mark Hill (Vice-Chairman); Paul Bishop; Roger Dodsworth; Jackie

Fairbum; Christina Glover, Francis Grew; Valerie Humphries;
Gaby Marcon; Janet Sergison; Julie Stanyer; Maurice Wimpory (Treasurer

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© The Glass Association
2009

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The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009
CONTENTS

The FieldCup

Dan Klein—an appreciation

Research Opportunity

V & A Acquisition

Modem & Contemporary Glass Sale

Spirits in Glass

Paperweight Corner

Fairy Lamps

Daum Explained—Part
II

Broadfield House Glass Museum and its Collections

The Brierley Hill Glass Collection & the formation of the

Broadfield House Glass Museum

`A More Than European Reputation’—Broadfield House
Glass Museum and the British Glass Industry

Glassmaker’s Corner:
Allister Malcolm and the Wednesbury Cone

Broadfield House Glass Museum

A Personal View

Recent Glass Association Events

The Prescot Street Roman Mosaic Bowl

Friends of Broadfield House

GLASS ASSOCIATION EVENTS

Saturday 17 October
THE PRESSED GLASS of GREENER & JOBLING
Presentation by
Jackie Fairburn

At the Church Hall, Worsley

For full details see flyer or contact Pauline Wimpory-

0121 354 4100
membershipglassassociation.org.uk

Saturday 24 October
***ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING***

The Bonded Warehouse, Stourbridge &
Broadfield House, Kingswinford, Dudley
Talks on 20
th
Century Glass:

Charles Hajdamach
“British 20
th
Century Designers

—
a Success Story”

(the subject of his new book)

Richard Giles
“Paperweights of the 20
th
Century”

Stephen Pollock-Hill
“…And then there was one!”

The decline of the British Crystal Industry—and how

one small company manages still to battle on.
(The story of Nazeing Glass, with notes on Dartington,
Caithness and Tudor)

•
Exhibition of 20

th
Century Glass

at
Broadfield House

Glass
Museum—Charles Hajdamach & museum

curator Roger Dodsworth in attendance

Cost £20 including lunch.

For full details contact Gaby Marcon-07711 262649
[email protected]

After AGMs at the NGC in Sunderland, Manchester, and the
Wallace Collection in London, we return to Stourbridge for a

full and interesting day

** Please note the corrected date & book now**

The print quality of recent issues of the Glass Cone has not always

been to the normal standard, and certain members received

incomplete copies of Cone 87. Our apologies for this. If any other

member has an incomplete copy please contact our Membership

Secretary, Pauline Wimpory, and a replacement will be sent.

This special issue includes major articles on Broadfield House and

its collections: an overview by Kari Moodie, and more detailed

background from Jack Haden and Charles Hajdamach. We hope

they
inspire you to make a visit—or a

repeat visit!

THE FIELD CUP

The most important lot in Bonhams auction of 3 June was a

Venetian enamelled and gilt blue-tinted standing bowl from the late

15
th

Century, known as
The Field Cup.

Of rounded form with folded rim, it is painted with pairs of

winged sphinxes opposing a cherub’s head emerging from a vase,

alternating with pairs of cherubs seated on gilt urns, on a grassy
sward and reserved on a ground of gilt scrolling foliage, below a gilt

band inscribed TEMPORE FELICI MVLTI NOMINANTVR

AMICI,
(“In times of abundance one has lots of friends”)

over a high trumpet foot with
folded rim brushed with

gilding. It is 16.5cm high

by 20.8cm diameter.
Its provenance

begins with George Field

and it was then owned by
various members of the

Rothschild family until it was

sold at Christies in 2000.
George W. Field was a well-

known Victorian collector of

Renaissance and Mediaeval art, and lent

the Cup to the exhibition of the
Art

Treasures of the United Kingdom
held in

Manchester in 1857. Also selected was ‘A very fine
crystal cup formerly part of the Crown Jewels of

France, lately the property of Louis Philippe’.
The sphinx motif appears on a green beaker

attributed to Venice, circa 1500, formerly in the

Kunstgewerbe Museum, Berlin. Although
the beaker was probably destroyed
during the Second World War, it was

described as decorated with sphinxes,
cherubs heads and putti. The putti on the Field Cup bear a close

resemblance to those on a blue-tinted standing bowl in the

Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio.
No other blue-tinted Venetian standing bowl with a gilt band

etched with an inscription is recorded in the literature. A part-

coloured shallow bowl, however, held by the Museo Civico Ala

Ponzone, Cremona since at least 1840, with a partial gilt amethyst-

tinted trumpet-shaped foot, is also inscribed within a gilt border
below the rim. Similar inscriptions also appear on five clear glass

bowls from the late 15
th
Century. One example is exhibited in the

Musee Ariana, Geneva, one in the Victoria and Albert Museum,
another in the British Museum, a fourth in the Wiirttembergisches

Landes-museum, Stuttgart, and another in the Louvre in Paris. Four
of the bowls mentioned have their Latin inscriptions engraved in
capital letters in the ‘antique’ on a gilt band applied to the exterior.
Blue-tinted glasses and especially footed bowls of this type are

well known in the corpus of Venetian production of the 15
th

and

early 16
th
Centuries. Indeed, Henry VIII is known to have had ‘iii

standing Cuppes of blewe glasses wt covers to theym paynted and

guilte’. In shape and form, one of the closest related examples to the
Field Cup is the famous blue glass marriage bowl, commonly
known as ‘The Angelo Barovier Cup’ in the Museo Vetrario,

Murano. Angelo Barovier was until recently credited with the fine

enamel decoration. The Barovier Cup is however now thought to
date from 1470-1480, some ten years after Angelo’s death in 1460.

Otherwise, almost nothing is known about the Venetians who
decorated these chefs d’oeuvres of the Renaissance and not one

An&

3
The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009

single glass can be identified as the work of a particular artist.

In recent years the dating of Venetian enamelled and gilt blue-

tinted glass has been assisted by excavations of burial mounds in

the Russian Caucasus. The archaeological evidence indicates that
such glass was produced in Venice and traded via Italian colonies

established along the Silk Road in the 14
th
and 15

th
Centuries. They

include complete examples of purple, green and blue glass

decorated with scale and dot and lozenge and flower ornament.
There are several coloured Venetian glasses from the
excavations in the Hermitage
Museum, including a blue
glass tankard decorated
with enamels and gilding
with flowers in diamond-

shaped frames, found in

Digoria (Northern Ossetia).

This tankard is very similar to

an example formerly in the

Rothschild Collection attributed to

the 19
th
Century
(Christie’s,

14 December 2000, lot 34).

For similar figurative decoration, The

Weoley Cup, a late 15
th
Century Venetian

clear glass goblet, has a provenance as early as

1547. Presented to The Worshipful Company of
Founders in London by its Master, Richard Weoley, in
1642-43, this goblet is crucial in the early dating of
such glass. According to Weoley, he had purchased
the cup from a family whose ancestors had
brought it back from Boulogne at the time it
surrendered to Henry VIII in 1546. This
story is given credibility through the

London hallmarks on the silver-gilt foot,

which can be dated to 1547 and thus provide the glass with an

exceptionally early provenance.
The enamels on the Field Cup were tested scientifically in

2002 in Berlin, and their composition did not show evidence for a

19
th
Century production date as was previously considered. Further

research has revealed a Venetian enamelled and gilt blue glass

goblet, attributed to the late 15
th
Century, in the J. Paul Getty

Museum, which bears an incised gilt band inscribed with Roman
characters and scroll identical to those on the Field Cup. The form

and other decorative enamel features on this goblet have been
favourably compared to other important vessels with a 15
th

Century

attribution in the British Museum and the Kunstgewerbemuseum,

Berlin. The decoration is similar to that found on an important set of
blue-ground maiolica tiles forming a pavement in the palace of

Pandolfo Petrucci, Siena, of which the largest assemblage is now on
view in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and dating to 1509.

Amongst the many Romanesque designs on the tiles are pairs of
opposing winged sphinxes, their tails and wings creating cartouches

with cherubs’ heads on stylised vases and pedestals together with

pairs of putti, scroll and other vase forms.
Although bidding reached £170,000 the cup failed to reach its

reserve, and was not sold.

Simon Cottle

This is an abridged version of the description of the Cup in

Bonhams’ catalogue, and is reproduced with permission. The

catalogue is available from Bonhams (£20 + postage) via

glassgbonhams.com,
or 020 7 4477447.

DAN KLEIN 1938-2009

Dan Klein, the most influential person in British glass,

died of complications resulting from cancer at the Royal Marsden

Hospital, London, on Sunday,

28 June 2009.

Dan, who began his

career as a solo singer with

Benjamin Britten’s English Opera
Group, became the world’s
leading academic/dealer/

auctioneer/author specialising in

20
th

Century Decorative Arts.

Several of the world record prices

he achieved as an auctioneer

during the 1990s remain

unbeaten. Yet glass remained his

major passion, and Dan did more

than any other to embrace the
emerging British studio glass

movement, encouraging its artists
and promoting them to a wider

audience.

Son of mid-European

parents, Dan Klein was born in
Bombay, India, on November 4,
1938. The family moved to
London around 1946 and he was

educated at Westminster School,

1951-1957. He studied at Wadham College, Oxford, 1957-1961,

and gained a BA[Hons] in Greats. A gifted linguist, Dan spoke
fluent French, German and Italian.

After Oxford, he studied singing and was an opera singer

for twelve years from 1966. He became a soloist at Sadler’s Wells,
London, and was a member of Benjamin Britten’s English Opera

Group between 1968-1973. He also worked as a guest soloist with

several opera companies and later formed his own ensemble,

performing programmes written and devised by himself, several of
which were televised and recorded. He was a Lieder Singer and

gave recitals in Britain, Australia, Austria and Germany. He
frequently sang contemporary music, and several pieces were

composed specially for him, including two song cycles by Richard

Rodney Bennett and a role in Elizabeth Lutyens’ opera
‘Time Off:

Not a Ghost of a Chance’.

Dan maintained a growing interest in the decorative arts,

picking up pieces that caught his eye wherever he found himself, in

London or when touring. Finding others sympathetic to his taste, he
began selling pieces to dealers and at flea markets. Appreciating

that he lacked the brilliance to make the top grade as a singer, Dan

chose a major career change in 1978 by opening a gallery in

Cannonbury, London, specialising in 20
th

Century Decorative Arts

and Contemporary Glass. Always an academic dealer, he staged

numerous exhibitions at the gallery, each accompanied by
illustrated catalogues. The focus of these shows included the

designs of
‘Dr. Christopher Dresser’, ‘The Aesthetic Movement’,

and
‘Masters Of Czech Glass’.
The latter, staged in 1983,

introduced the wider world to the creations of Czech glass artists,
many of who have since emerged as world leaders, most

particularly Stanislav Libensk* and Jaroslava Brychtova. Ninety

percent of the objects in the exhibition were purchased by

museums, including the Victoria
&
Albert, Manchester City Art

The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009
Gallery and the Corning Museum of Glass in the USA. Between

1980 and 1983, Dan also staged several one-man-shows dedicated
to the works of distinguished

British artists John Piper, Ivor

Abrams and Quentin Bell.

In 1984, Dan was invited to join

Christie’s at its King Street
headquarters, as director in charge

of 20
th

Century Decorative Arts,

responsible for sales in London,

Monaco, Amsterdam and Geneva.
Three years later he was promoted

to become Vice-President of

Christie’s Switzerland whilst

continuing his role as director in

charge of 20
th

Century Decorative

Arts throughout Europe. During
this time as an auctioneer, Dan
helped to establish numerous
landmark prices, including a

world record for Rene Lalique,
another for Emile Galle, and again
in 1994 for Charles Rennie

Mackintosh. The records for

Lalique and Mackintosh remain

unbeaten to this day. Klein

persuaded Christie’s to begin

specialist Swiss sales in Zurich, a regular annual event for many

years, and he also launched
‘Les Voyages Christie’s’
in 1992. In

1994, he devised a successful charity event that involved famous

artists converting twin first-class seats in Swissair aircraft into

works of art.

Dan’s interests in art, music and literature were expansive,

but he specialised in Decorative Arts from 1850 to the present.

However, his particular passion was for art glass post-dating the
mid-1970s, and was one of the first people in Britain to collect and

write about it. In 1984, just before joining Christie’s, his private
collection of 1950s glass was sold at Sotheby’s. The first auction of
its kind, its subject matter and record prices made auction history

and provided the market with a benchmark for the future.

Dan was also a prolific author. Following articles for most

of the leading British, European, American and Australasian arts

magazines, his first book was
‘The All-Colour Book Of Art

Deco”
[Octopus, 1974]. This was followed several others, including

`The History Of Glass’
[Black Cat, 1985], of which he was co-

editor and co-author and which won the Libraries Association Prize
for the best reference book of the year. Dan was also co-author of

`Decorative Arts From 1880 To The Present Day’,
[Phaidon 1986],

and
‘In the Deco Style’,
[Thames & Hudson, 1986]. His seminal

book on modern glass,
‘Glass: A Contemporary Art’
[Collins,

1989] remains a standard reference work. In 1994 he contributed a

chapter on
‘Art Deco and Functionalism’
to Volume BI of
“L’Art

Decoratzf En Europe”
[Citadelles & Mazenod].

His
‘Artists In Glass: Late Twentieth Century Masters In

Glass’
[Mitchell Beazley, 2001] illustrated and discussed the work

of eighty of the world’s leading glass artists. He also wrote a chapter

for
‘Dale Chihuly’ ,

[Victoria & Albert Museum, 2001], the

publication that accompanied Chihuly’s major one-man show at the
V&A in June 2001.

Prof. Peter H. Plesch and Mrs T. Plesch, the former owners

of the Mycenaen Diadem (c.1400-1100 BC), lot 93 in Christie’s

antique sale of 28 April 2009, wish to donate for the purposes of
research five irregularly shaped fragments, c. 8x5mm, which

originated from some plaquettes of that diadem which had been

broken before it was acquired by the vendors.
Applications, on I

not more than 2 sheets of A4,
should give adequate details

of the researchers and their
project, including the source of
funding, and be sent via the Editor

by 31 October 2009.

See www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot details aspx?

pos=2&intObjectlD=5192983&sid=

Dan served as external examiner to the Royal College of

Art’s Department of Glass & Ceramics, and was on the board of
Pilchuck, the world’s foremost glass school, near Seattle, Oregon.

In these capacities, he encouraged their students towards excellence,

so combining his private passion with public service.

He was also an experienced lecturer and spoke regularly

at the V&A, as well as numerous other museums and institutions in
Britain, Australia, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland and the US. He

was involved in both the Christie’s and Sotheby’s educational
courses, and the glass programmes of numerous colleges and

universities.

After leaving Christie’s in early 1995, Dan held numerous

and varied appointments. For several years he was amongst a panel
of five jurors who advised Rosenthal, the German glass and

ceramics manufacturer. His specific responsibility was to find and

select emerging Czech designers to contribute to Rosenthal’s new
ranges. Around the same time he became Art Consultant to Byrne-
Sutton & Bonnard, a newly established firm of lawyers in Geneva,

specialising in art law. In January 1996, he was confirmed as

Professor In Glass at the University Of Sunderland, now based at

the National Glass Centre on the banks of the River Wear. Later the
same year he became a Founding Director of North Lands Creative
Glass, an annual international summer school for contemporary

glass in north-eastern Scotland at Lybster. He was a great teacher:
encouraging his students to find a voice through their work.

In 1996 Dan founded a new venture, Dan Klein

Associates, with his partner Alan J. Poole, with the objective of

promoting British and Irish contemporary glass. The business was

soon invited to organise and curate the inaugural exhibition,

`Venezia Aperto Vetro’,
an invitational biennial of international

contemporary glass to be staged in several museums throughout

Venice and on the neighbouring island of Murano throughout

September, 1996. Dan was joint-editor and contributing author to

`International New Glass: Venezia Aperto Vetro’,
the extensive and

full colour catalogues of the exhibitions published by Arsenale

Editrice in 1996 and by Electa in 1998.

Dan rejoined the auction world in 1997 when he was

appointed as a consultant to Phillips, based in Bond Street. He was
elevated in the following year to become Phillips International
Executive Director with numerous and various worldwide
responsibilities. Later that year he returned to Venice, after the

Museums of the City of Venice again invited him and Poole to
organise and curate the second
‘Venezia Aperto Vetro –

International Biennale’.

In May 2000 Dan made news headlines when, as a

Phillips auctioneer, he sold a Kasimir Malevich Suprematist

painting for $17million He continued promoting contemporary

glass exhibitions and towards the end of 2000, helped stage several
charity auctions in the United States. One of these, staged in New

York behalf of the American Friends Of The National Museums Of
Scotland, raised proceeds far in excess of expectations.

After leaving the auction world in 2001, Dan worked as a

freelance writer, lecturer, exhibition curator, guest auctioneer and

specialist on contemporary glass matters through a business set up
from home. He was Patron of the Guild of Glass Engravers, a

Lifetime Honorary member of the Contemporary Glass Society and
President of the Scottish Glass Society.

Even in fading health, he, with Alan Poole staged an

auction of Contemporary and Modern Glass at Bonhams, Bond
Street, just six weeks before his death, to coincide with the Craft

5
Council’s annual Collect fair. With approaching seventy percent of

lots sold and accompanied by an illustrated catalogue, the sale is

predicted to mark another landmark in the appreciation of modern

glass.

Dan’s legacy includes his jointly-owned extensive

collection of British and Irish contemporary glass that will be
donated to a British museum. Dan Klein was widely liked. He

possessed a subtle but wicked sense of humour, enjoyed a warm

personal charm and, for his all achievements, a touching humility,

treating everyone as an equal.
Andy McConnell

A condensed version of this obituary originally appeared

in The Times, Saturday 4 July 2009.

RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY

On display at Collect in May at the Saatchi Gallery was
Free

Essence 6 by Nyoko Ikuta,
purchased for the V & A through the

Art Fund Collect Initiative. Nyoko Ikuta is one of the leading

figures in Japanese glass art, and her works are made using cross-
sections of sheet glass glued together using ultra-violet light.
1

Glass Fairs

The Art Glass Fair at Dulwich has been taken over by the organisers of

the Cambridge and National Glass Fairs. The October fair will not now
be held;• the next fair is expected to be in March/April 2010.

The next Cambridge Glass Fair is on 27 September, and the next National

Fair at the National Motor Cycle Museum is on 15 November.

The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009

MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY GLASS

Bonhams 19 May 2009

The studio glass movement is

only 50 years young, and in that time

the technical achievements and artistry

of glassmakers have taken glass firmly

into the fine art world, but the Bonhams
Modem and Contemporary Glass

auction on 19 May was the first of its
kind in Britain. Arranged in
conjunction with Dan Klein, it was a

brave experiment in these recessionary

times, and it had mixed success: overall

some two-thirds of the 164 lots sold.
There was interest in most of the other

lots, but the top bids failed to match the

reserves. On the other hand, a select

few items sold for spectacular prices.
Chronologically, the auction

started in the relatively safe territory of
Venice in the 1950s. Four mid-priced
pieces from Barovier and Toso attracted
keen bidding, each closing at around

£1000 (estimates £6-800), but the top

piece, a tall red and clear glass vase
from about 1965 failed to reach its
£4,000 reserve. An attractive but faulty

trial piece by Fulvio Bianconi for
Venini reached £4,200 (hammer price,

£5,040 with buyer’s premium).
Lot 98,

a beautifully elegant cased glass vase
by
Flavio Poll
for
Seguso

went for well above estimate at £850

(£1,020 with premium). The top Italian

Lot 98

piece was however more modern, an ornate

and somewhat over-the-top wing goblet with

intricate lamp-worked decoration and
ivory-coloured figures.

By
Lucio

Bubacco
and made about 1995, it

went to The National Galleries of
Scotland for £6,000 (£7,200 with

premium).

Amongst cast-glass

pieces, those from Britain’s Tessa

Clegg just made their lower
estimates, and
‘Rotation’
from

Galia Amsel
(British but living in

New Zealand), sold for the benefit

of North Lands Creative Glass,

Caithness, made £3,000 (£3,600

with premium). Other cast glass
pieces failed to sell: two David

Reekie’s each stopped £1,000

short of their estimates,
an

archetypal Stepan Pala reached

The Glass Cone
—
Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009
Lot

/9:
Luc•io Bubac•c•o
only £3,400 (estimate £6,000), a Bruno

IIing Goblet (1995)

Romanelli torso reached only £1,600,

and a Colin Reid glass and slate

sculpture, perhaps not one of his best,

also stopped short at £1,600. The top

sculpture,
lot 72,
‘Queen’
by the most

important Czech artists,
Libensky and

Brychtova
sold for £9,000 plus

premium, well short of the £10-15,000

estimate

It was not the original

sculpture, but a copy made from a
mould under Brychtova’s supervision,
after Libensky’s death. According to the

Financial Times it had previously sold

privately for a reputed £40,000.

One cast sculpture was fought over, the
supremely elegant female head in ruby-
red optical glass by Slovakian
Pavel

Tomecko:
estimated at £1,200 it

quickly reached £2,400 (some faults in

the casting clearly did not detract).

There were 3 pieces by
Sam Herman,

one of the founding fathers of British

studio glass, but only two sold, one just
making £1,000. Three Isle of Wight

vases from the 1990s, two by Timothy

in
Harris, and one by Jonathan, failed to

reach their reserves. Is it because they

are both producing much better
pieces today, or was the
Bonhams auction not the

right market-place for

them?

Expectations

were high for a pair of
engraved wine-glasses by

Peter Dreiser,
and they were

realised: at £1,600 the glasses
Lot 53: Sam Herman blown

went for double the estimate.

glass bowl (c. 1975)

There was a roughness about the two

engraved blocks by
Kristian Klepsch
–

they were in crystal rather than optical

glass — and it gave them an intriguing

quality, and they attracted bidding up to
estimate (£850 and £900).

To me, the most startling realisation was
the £3,000 for lot 43, a small 7 cm square

mould-blown box and cover in blue glass

with silver and gold-leaf applications by
Koyhei Fujita,
in its original wooden

Lot 2: ‘Rotation’ by Galia Amsel (2001)
6

The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009
,

soict
v”
–
‘

Lot 22:

`Soft Cylinder

by Dale Chthaly

(c. 1992)

Ex lot 32: engraved

wine glass by Peter

Dreiser (1972)
box. This was three

times the estimate of
£1,000. It is apparent

that he is a most
important Japanese

glass artist, but an
equivalent piece by a
`standard’

British

artist would be lucky

to sell at anything
over £100.
(Would a

more knowledgeable

member like to submit

an article for the
Cone on
Koyhei

Fujita to
enlighten us

all?)

High prices are
expected

for

American artists, and
they were realised:

two
Dale Chihuly

`Sea-Form’
pieces went for

£2,600 and £3,000, both well

above estimate, while his large

and impressive
‘Soft Cylinder’

reached estimate at £7,000

(£8,400 with buyer’s premium
— the £840 quoted in the
Financial Times was wishful
thinking!). The highest price
in the sale, £11,500 (£13,800),

was achieved by
William

Morris’s
highly complex and

Lot 66: Stairway to
[leaven’ by Kristian
Klepsch (c. 1985)
Lot 81:

`Stonehenge

by William
Morris (19

powerful
blown glass

sculptural

vase

`Stonehenge’ .
Finishing off

the first part of the sale was
an archetypal
Toots Zynsky

vessel
‘More Tropical

Chaos’;
strong bidding took

it to £9,000, £1,000 above the
lower estimate.
Lot 115

Lot 137:
`More Tropic

Chaos’

by
(1999)

Lot 142:

‘Volt’ by Sabrina Cant

(2009)

Lot 149:
Fast Fading Violets’

by Peter Furlonger
(2009)

artists
and couples, British
took it way past the estimate of £5,500. With more than a gentle

nudge from her uncle, Dan Klein’s niece took it in the end for

£7,200 (£8640 with premium).
One final note: the superbly produced catalogue, fully

illustrated and with biographical notes on every artist, is an

invaluable guide to contemporary glass, better than many books on

the subject. It is available from Bonhams (www.bonhams.com) or

Alan Poole (www.danldeinglass.com) for £18
plus postage;

I strongly recommend it.

The second part of the sale consisted of 27 lots from 15
or working in Britain, invited to
participate by Dan Klein. 11 of the
artists sold at least one piece.

Sabrina Cant
realised £6,000 for a

two-way colour changing cube
.

‘
Volt’,
well above estimate (yet her

other piece was unsold).
Fiaz

Elson’s
work fared likewise, her

`Tranquil Trajectory’
sculpture

soaring to £4,800. Both
Karen

Akester
figures sold, for around

estimate, while
Peter Furlonger’s

exquisite calligraphy attracted

serious bidding:
‘Fast Fading

Violets’
on a charger blown by

Carl Nordbruch reached £850
and
‘Flames in the Forehead

of the Morning Sky’
on an

Andy Potter bowl was bid
up to £1,050. Gillies

Jones most recent

Aesculus’
failed to

sell, and
Alison

Kinnaird
will be

disappointed that
neither of her

coloured panels reached reserve, and that

`Stream’ ,
engraved at North Lands on a flask

blown by
Dante Marioni,
only raised £650

for North Lands (lot 159).

The climax of the auction came

with the final lot,
Anthony Scala’s

three-part glass sculpture
‘Coriolis’:

his year of ‘blood, sweat and

tears’ (his words) was amply

rewarded when three keen bidders ‘

The Glass Cone
—
Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009
Bob

Wilcock

Lot 164:

`Coriolis’ by

Anthony Scala
(2009)

Lot
146: Tranquil

Trajectory’ by Fiaz
Elson (2008)

Lot 139: Rocket
Boy’ by Karen

Akester (2009)

Fig. 3:

Fig. 4: A Scottish
I
A gill Measure

The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009

Fig. 2: Richardson’s metal plug

SPIRITS IN GLASS

If we want some whisky to drink at home we go to an off-

licence or supermarket for a bottle. In the Victorian era glass bottles

were expensive and the distilleries supplied and delivered whisky to
grocers and other spirit dealers in earthenware flagons. These were

protected from damage by encasing them in wicker baskets.

Customers, who often purchased whisky for medicinal purposes,

would take a jug or other vessel to the grocer or spirit dealer to be

filled with the quantity they required. Glass Measures were used to

dispense the correct quantity. They were ideal, being hygienic and
enabling the customer to see that they had been filled. These
Measures were manufactured in large numbers to cater for the huge

rise in the consumption of whisky particularly in Scotland in the

1860s and 1870s. One of the reasons for the increase in sales of

whisky was the unavailability of brandy due to a disease called

phylloxera which destroyed the vines in the brandy producing

region of France.
Glass Measures were made in four sizes namely ‘A, ‘A, 1

and 2 gills. Until the Weights and Measures Act of 1878 Scotland
had its own gill measure of 106.5cc, compared with the English or
Imperial gill measure of 142cc. Sets of Measures of the same design

were made having English and Scottish capacities. Until small glass
vessels could be made having identical capacities, the level to

which they should be filled was determined after manufacture and
the Measure marked accordingly. Various methods of marking
were
used, the most common being a ground line on the neck of the

Measure to indicate the fill level or notches cut on the rim to
indicate it should be filled to the top. Other methods were notches

on a feature of the body of the Measure or a V cut on the rim. The

number of different styles exceeded thirty and James Couper &
Sons of Glasgow registered three designs at the Public Records

Office in 1869. Prior to the Weights and Measures Act Measures
did not have any indication of their capacity on them, but as they

were of a different size it was easy to know each one’s capacity
(see

fig. 1).

Fig. 1: A full set of Measures (Scottish)
r

It was difficult to alter the capacity of a glass Measure,

unlike metal ones where the top could be cut off or a dent put in the
base or side to reduce the capacity. In 1869

Mr William Haden Richardson had an idea,
he took out a patent to make altering the fill
level on glass Measures impossible. His

patent was to drill a hole on or near the fill
line and insert a metal plug. Such Measures
are
known as
Richardsons
and have the

words Richardson’s Patent on the body

followed by a letter and three numbers. No

two measures have been seen with the same
letter and numbers so it must have been a

form of registration
(see fig. 2).

9
The Weights and Measures Act of 1878, passed at a time

when whisky was being exported from Scotland to England,
stipulated that all spirit Measures were to be marked with their
English /Imperial capacity of
1
4,
1
/2, 1 or 2 gills(1/2 pint). In addition

they must have the initials of the Monarch who was on the throne at

the time the capacity of the measure was verified by an inspector
e.g. VR (Queen Victoria), 1879-1901; ER (Edward V11) 1901-
1910, and a number indicating

the place where it was verified

and thus most probably
manufactured e.g. 3 =
Edinburgh; 66 = London; 34 =

Glasgow. Generally the

verification mark was
sandblasted onto the glass

using a stencil
(see fig.
3).

Following the

coming into force of the Act

the Scottish in particular did
not like discarding their old

Measures so etched a price on
them and sold whisky by price
e.g. 3d (three old pence). The

Customs and Excise objected

to this and brought a case
before the Procurator Fiscal in

Glasgow in 1883. The case went to appeal and it was held that

whisky could be sold by price instead of capacity
(see fig. 4).

Measures used in hotels, clubs and on board ship nearly

always have a logo on them. Glass Measures started to go out of use

around 1910 when distilleries bottled their whisky. To check

whether a small glass vessel, which has not been verified and
stamped, is a true measure it is necessary to find a fill level indicator

and using a measuring jar see that it conforms to a recognised

English or Scottish capacity.
Until 1880 Public Houses were undesirable places to visit,

but this began to change and they were made more
attractive
with

large bar counters and mahogany shelves at the back of the bar with

minors behind to

enhance poor lighting.
They became

frequented by a better

class of people and the

drinking of spirits was

a common occurrence
in a Pub. Distillers and

whisky blenders were
anxious to promote

Fig. 5: A barrel

r 14″ high
adveilising

John Walker whisky

Fig. 6: An urn dispenser—Dewars, 30″ high;
design regi. tered 1888

R MILIEST
GOLD & PPLI

1l 8: Ail elalwrate.dispenser
to pronuitiTtaipbus,

a blended whisky

their own brand. e.g. Dewars, Curries, Uam Var, Old Dad and John

Walker, and publicans needed a vessel to hold and dispense each

brand. Glass Dispensers were therefore manufactured to fulfil these

needs. They are made in various shapes: Urns, Large Bottles, and

the most common type, glass Barrels
(see figs. 5-8).
They hold from

1
1

/4 to 2 or more gallons, have a removable top to allow them to be

filled and to let air in, and a brass or silver-plated tap at the base.
Distilleries often loaned the Dispensers to the publican,

and had them etched and lettered in gold with their brand name,

medals awarded at exhibitions, and other words to persuade
customers to buy the brand. When the barrels were put on the

shelves the light reflected back by the mirrors through the whisky

would have been a wonderful sight for a whisky drinker. Barrels
often had a scale on the side for stocktaking purposes. Catalogues
show barrels with a capacity of four gallons but I have never seen

one. In 1911 Mr. Chambers invented the Optic (Regd. trade mark).
This device could be attached to a bottle held in a stand and it had a

handle which when turned delivered a measured quantity of spirit
into a glass. The modem type of Optic used today is made of

plastic. This and the supplying of spirit in bottles with brand labels

on them meant glass Dispensers slowly fell out of use and by 1920
most would have been smashed when Pubs were modernised.
Brian Brooks

For anyone who wishes to know more about the subject, a

small book
is
available from the author, for £5 including postage.

Please contact Brian at [email protected]

1g.
7: Bottle type dispenser 2
v

‘ galhms

The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009
10

PAPERWEIGHT CORNER

GENERAL NEWS UPDATE
At the end of my last article on commemorative weights I

said that there would be other weights out there, and sure

Perthshire Paperweights factory unit on the Muthill Road into Crieff

enough two more have come to light, but before I give you details

of them I will devote a bit of space to some general

paperweight chatter.

Some spare time on a recent trip up to the Isle of Skye

allowed us to take a longer route via the Borders and Perthshire and
fit in a visit to John and Craig Deacons at their studio, plus the new

Caithness Glass showroom and workshop in the Crieff visitor
centre. The new Caithness complex is situated next-door to the old

and it brought back many memories of various visits to the factory
over the past 30 years. The first was in 1976 when the factory

wasn’t open to the public and the

arrangement to visit had been

made by letter with Stuart

Drysdale. He was the man, who
after reading an article on antique

glass paperweights in the
American magazine
`Woman’s

Day’,
dreamt of not just recreating

those antique weights, but taking

the techniques and complexity

to a higher level. At the time he

was general manager at Strathearn
Glass, and when he showed the

article to the glassmakers at the
factory, they confirmed to him

that they could achieve what he

wanted. The dream
eventually became reality in 1968
when he and several of the bes

glass craftsmen and paperweight

makers left Strathearn Glass and
crossed the road to the new

Perthshire facto

I mention
ry.

this little bit of
Fig. 1: John Deacons’ carpet ground weight (the new quatrefoil

type cane is seen in the centre at the bottom of the weight)

paperweight history because all the various accounts of the history

of Perthshire Paperweights mention the
Woman’s Day
article, but in

35 years of paperweight collecting I had never actually seen a
copy. This situation was put right when we visited John and Craig
Deacons, as John had recently been given the pages from the

magazine by a lady who was not known to him but presumably
knew of John and his background. The colour illustrations were of
excellent quality for a magazine produced in the late 1960s, and I

am informed that copies of the article do occasionally turn up on
eBay. As usual, John and Craig made us very welcome, giving us

their time to talk paperweights in general, as well as showing us
examples of their current production weights. These include

weights for the PCA convention in Toledo, Ohio later in
May, which featured a new-design complex cane
(Fig. 1).
Despite

the current economic climate, they are managing to keep busy with
orders for UK and American dealers.

Having the studio attached to the side of the house means

that other than the cost of gas and other materials, John’s overheads
are pretty minimal, so their prices are always very reasonable, plus

they continue to experiment and expand their techniques. Willie

Manson has now set up again on his own, so no longer works with
or provides lampwork for John’s weights, and, sadly, we heard that

Franco Tuffollo, the ex-Caithness master glassmaker who used the

facilities at John’s studio, is now unable to continue making glass.

By a strange co-incidence, on our travels to visit a friend

in West Cumbria recently, we spotted some interesting glass in a

shop window in Cartmel just north of Grange-over-Sands. We

thought that it looked familiar and on enquiring it was confirmed

that the items were made by Franco a few years ago. The lady in

the shop turned out to be Franco’s daughter-in-law, and she was
able to confirm that he would not be making any more glass. We
have a lovely vase made by him whilst at John’s studio, and full of
goldstone colouring. In addition, some years ago we were in the

right place at the right time to purchase a large, almost door-stop

size, one-off abstract weight made whilst he was still at Caithness
Glass, for one of the Scottish

Glassmakers exhibitions.

With regard to the new Caithness

Glass showroom and production
unit at the Crieff visitor centre, it is

obviously considerably smaller
than the original complex at Perth
but was bigger and better presented

than I had imagined from what I
had been told or gleaned from the
information issued by Dartington

Glass, the current owners of the
name. As you would expect there
is a viewing area where you can

watch the various glassmakers at

work, plus a sizeable showroom

displaying a good selection of both
current and past weights, ranging
in price from some £20 to

around £400, plus a selection of
other glassware. With the adjacent
café and garden-centre, it remains

a place that is on the coach tour
itinerary, but on our visit there

were only a few people

browsing. I wish them well, but following the demise of all other
large scale paperweight production in recent years, and with the

current economic restraints, the long term future still seems

uncertain.

For anyone with a sizeable sum of money to invest, the

news that Larry Selman has put his company L.H. Selman up for

sale may be of interest. As well as the paperweight gallery with

paperweights and paperweight books for sale, plus the intemet side

of the business (with several established paperweight auctions each

year), there is the paperweight museum, and the International

Paperweight Society. I joined the Society some years ago as there

were regular issues of beautifully printed and presented

paperweight catalogues, covering the weights from makers with
whom they had a distribution agreement. However with the
increasing availability and use of the intemet, details of all the

weights are now available on the website, so the brochures have
ceased. I met Larry Selman on two occasions, firstly at a Christie’s

paperweight auction in 1982, where I managed to outbid him for a
miniature Baccarat pansy weight, and then again in 1993 at Scone

Palace near Perth, where the exhibition entitled
‘ The Art of the

The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009

Paperweight-Challenging Tradition’

made

its only UK appearance.

The

exhibition, originally organised by the Art

Museum of Santa Cruz County with

sponsorship from L.H.Selman and others,
was a wonderful mix of some of the finest
antique weights from various collections

plus a selection of top-quality modem
American-made weights, with just a

few weights from other makers such as
Perthshire.

Randall Grubb, the very

talented American paperweight maker,
was also present, and we had the

opportunity to talk to him about his work,

and about paperweights in general.
As mentioned earlier, Willie

Manson is back making weights in his own
Fig. 2: Willie Manson flower

The Murano-made Everest weight turned

up on eBay, and cost me more than most

Murano weights are worth, but I had never

seen or heard of a weight commemorating

this special event, which was to a certain
degree overshadowed by the celebrations
for Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. News of

the successful expedition travelled much

more slowly in those distant days, and
further, it was deliberately held back for 24

hours so it could be announced on the

actual day of the coronation. The weight,

as you will see from the illustration
(Fig. 4)

consists of a white disc with a ring of

complex millefiori canes around the

outside and in the centre the words

&fruit weight
‘ASCENT. OF. MT. EVEREST MAY 29.

studio, and interestingly using crystal glass blanks that he re-melts

for use in making his weights. This gives him top quality glass

without the use of a traditional furnace, and at a much reduced cost,

enabling him to keep the price of his weights at a very competitive
level. Anyone who visited the last Broadfield House Glass Museum

paperweight day at the beginning of June would have seen him at
work in the studio. The following Saturday we were able to meet

and listen to Cathy Richardson, one of the newer paperweight

makers to come out of America, at the South West area meeting of

the Paperweight Collectors Circle. With a background in geology

and then glass marbles, plus being a very talented ice-skater, she
gave a fascinating insight into her life and ideas and thoughts on
paperweight making.

Her weights generally feature flowers,

insects or fish, but recently she has been producing weights
featuring trees against various backgrounds using torch-work

techniques instead of lamp-work
(Fig. 3).
On display at the

meeting were a large selection of her own weights, plus some from
her son Coln who has recently followed in her paperweight-

making footsteps. From the weights we saw, he is obviously very

talented and a name to follow in the future. From a personal point of

view, I thought that in some weights he was including too many
frogs, lizards or bugs amongst the flowers, but maybe that

is because it wouldn’t happen in real life in the UK.

FURTHER COMMEMORATIVE WEIGHTS
The two additional commemorative weights that I

mentioned at the start mark the ascent of Mount Everest in 1953,
and the death of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965.

The Glass Cone
—
Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009
1953’ all encased in a pink and white double overlay with window

cutting to the top and sides. The weight was advertised by a dealer

along with other Everest memorabilia, including books and signed
photographs, so I

wonder if the

weight was made
specifically for

someone associated

with the expedition
or maybe for all
expedition

members.

anyone is aware of
other examples of

this weight, or has

any further

information I would

be interested to hear
from you.

The Churchill commemorative weight
(Fig. 5)
comprises

one of the crown coins (five shillings or 25 pence) that were issued

by the Royal Mint in 1965 to mark his passing, set into the top of a
plain, round, clear weight made by Wedgwood Glass. The coin
features a portrait and the word ‘CHURCHILL’ on the upper side,

with the portrait of the Queen on the reverse; around the edge of the

weight are engraved his famous words ‘Give Us The Tools And We
Will Finish The Job’ and the name ‘Sir Winston Churchill’.

Richard Giles

FAIRY LAMPS OR NIGHT LIGHTS an obsession in collecting

Having attended the National Glass Collectors Fair for

some 8 years, we were both surprised and happy to be asked to
exhibit some of our fairy lamps at the 3rd May 2009 fair, which had

returned to the Birmingham Motorcycle museum.

With some 500 lamps to choose from it should have been

an easy task, or so we thought. Once you start thinking about filling

2 x 5 shelf cabinets that’s around 100 lamps, and then how do you
pick a representative selection of the different sorts of glass, styles
etc. as both Helen and I have our favourites? Then there is the

packing, unpacking etc. We have never had to face this challenge:
each time the dining table groaned under the weight of new lamps

we bought a new cabinet. Anyway, we hope those of you who

attended the glass fair enjoyed our selection.

Our fairy lamp collecting obsession started back in 1993,

when Helen, whilst visiting a neighbour’s house, saw a few of her
lamps. Over the next four years we went to the occasional antique

fair where, if lucky, we would buy the odd one or two lamps. It was

not until 1997 when we purchased a book called
“Fairy Lamps with

values”
by Bob & Pat Ruf (published by Schiffer) that we were

astounded by their variety and styles. It was then that we really

started to get the bug and our collection started to expand. Since
then we have bought lamps from around the world from private
sales and at auctions. We have been fortunate to have seen several
large collections in the USA and have met some wonderful like-

minded (or is it insane?) people.

Fairy sized white over blue

cameo dome on a clear cup
sitting on matching down-
turned skirted base.

(H 5.75in W 5.5in)

Generally speaking, fairy lamps are candle-burning lights

and their popularity peaked during the Victorian era between about
1880-1900 but still continues today among avid collectors. They
come in a seemingly endless array of designs and are made from a

broad range of art glass and bisque porcelain, including Burmese,

satin glass, Peach blow, Verre moire (Nailsea-type), cut crystal,

Lithophanes and cameo designs.

Best known in the period were those fairy lamps marketed

by Samuel Clarke of Clarkes Pyramid & Fairy Light Company Ltd.

He never actually made fairy lamps; instead he assigned the rights
and granted licenses to others to manufacture them, not only in the
UK, but in Europe & the USA. He was more than happy to promote
their products as long as his name was on the piece and his
company sold more candles!! He patented the holders for his

candles, and the designs for domes, lamp cups, bases, hangers,

stands and brackets

His lamps came in three sizes, Wee (approx 2.5 to 3in

high), Pyramid (approx 3 to 3.5 in high) and Fairy (approx 4.5 to

5.25 in high); each had a dome and a clear pressed glass or

matching lamp cup. The clear pressed glass cups were always

embossed with Clarke’s trademark and logo – a fairy holding a
wand. Other pieces are sometimes impressed or have been acid

etched with his name. Samuel Clarke was a marketing genius and

protected his patents fiercely.

His earliest form of fairy lamp

came as part of a Pannikin or food warmer

and was of a simple design. This
concentrated the heat from a candle which
heated the water reservoir and kept the
food (soup) warm without burning. This

much improved food warmer came in 4

sizes:

No. 1 held ‘A pint

No. 2 held
3
/4 pint

No. 3 held 1 pint

No. 4 held 1.5 pints

Later, pressed-glass ones were used as Christmas

decorations and lighting for outside exhibitions. There were also

night lights for the nursery, most of which were made of porcelain.

Pressed blue

hanging fairy
light with

impressed head
of Queen

Victoria
(H 3in)

Painted porcelain figural nursery lamp
(H 4.75in x W 3.5in)

Fairy lamps also came on

elaborate stands, pottery bases, wall

plaques with mirrors, chandeliers and
epergnes.

Wall mounted oval mirror with

ormolu ring holding an orange satin
glass base with a clear Clarke cup

holding a Diamond Quilted Mother
of Pearl dome

(H 13in x W 6in)

13
The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009

In 1889, Clarke

patented the “Cricklite” style of
candle lamp (clear glass bell-

shaped dome) with a clear
pressed glass cup to go with the
changing tastes and to compete

with the now more modem types
of lighting (gas and electricity)

Silk shades were often

added to the domes to enhance

the decorative effect. Cricklites
were often used in formal dinner

settings and provided ample
candle lighting to enhance a

formal or festive occasion. Clarke’s Pyramid & Fairy

Company Ltd was eventually sold around 1910 to Price’s Patent

Candle Company Ltd., who still trade today. Price’s originally
had a Thames-side factory near Wandsworth, London, which was

still open up to about 5 years ago but has since been redeveloped
into a high rise housing complex.
Light

Cut glass: richly cut crystal standard supporting a 7-arm
candelabra with ormolu rings and Cricklite domes.

(H 29in, Dome spread 20 in)

Pressed and cut glass standard with ormolu fitting for 2 cut glass
posy vases. The column supports a single Cricklite dome with

original silk and beaded shade (H 19in)
We are fortunate that Samuel Clarke believed that

advertising was the key to his success. Many of his fairy lamps

were illustrated in his catalogues, and also were advertised in well-
known British publications such as the Illustrated London News,

Pottery Gazette, the Graphic, the Queen, Pears Soap Christmas

annual and many others. Many of these advertisements were in
colour – an expensive endeavour in the late 1880s but Clarke knew

the value and importance of advertising and spared no expense.

So, here we are today still marvelling at our ancestors’

ingenuity and expertise in creating such wonderful pieces of glass

and each year we strive to acquire a little more knowledge from

what is our not-so-distant past.

If you would like to see more of our collection then please

go to
vvwvv.fairylamps.co.uk

Graham & Helen
Pullen

Royal Worcester “Grecian water
carrier” in 3 sizes (4 sizes made)

(Single dome H 10ins, 3 arm

H 16in and 7 arm H 22in) each
holding differing ormolu

candelabra rings supporting
“Cricklite domes” with

reproduction silk shades. The

ormolu is stamped Clarke’s

Trade mark Cricklite and the

Worcester bases are also marked

with Clarke’s Patent and
Worcester marks

The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009
14

Cameo and Enamel c1900
DAUM EXPLAINED-PART

Daum’s Art Glass Techniques
Daum produced a wide variety of techniques and finishes over the last 130 years, using a variety of hot and cold methods (i.e.

decoration added while the glass was still hot, and decoration applied once the item had cooled down). Here are some of the more

innovative and important
techniques they mastered over the period 1885-1925:

Acid Cutback c1885

Their first foray into the art glass market was with coloured vessels deeply

acid cut and gilded, a look that was originally frowned on by the likes of Emile Gale, but that

proved popular in the market place. In the earlier ‘arts and crafts’ years they bore traditional

nationalistic images, Lorraine thistles and crosses, Joan of Arc images etc. Later on images in

the art nouveau style were used, depicting flowers, butterflies and dragonflies.

Vitrified Cameo c1900

This was the one mass-producible technique that even out-classed Emile

Galle. Daum realised that a vitrified vase could then be acid cutback like a cameo.
This meant, with only two layers of glass, a wide variety of colours could be shown on

a vessel. Complex images could be produced and, as the thickness and colour of the

added layer could be varied, much better definition and depth could be achieved than
in any ordinary cameo. After the acid cutting the images could be further refined with

wheel cutting.

All words and pictures © Mike Moir

For more information on Daum glass and more superb illustrations visit Mike’s

web
–
site
www.renelalique2lass.com

The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009

The main weakness of the simple acid cutback

technique was that it was largely monochromatic. Cameos,
by having multiple colour layers could produce better, but
limited colour mixes. Enamelling onto acid cuthacks and

cameos gave the best possible effect. These were created at

the high art nouveau period and often depicted the seasons,
landscapes and seascapes.

Ordinary Vitrified c1900

Daum’s own extensive research and

development finally paid off, when they discovered and
patented a ‘vitrification’ process. They found that you

could apply different coloured powders onto a hot body

and
the finished result was multicoloured. This was one

of
the first true multicolour techniques and at the same

time vastly cheaper than any other. The only problem

was that the result was purely abstract.

Jades c1914

As the cameo market was beginning to die out and tastes were changing toward

`art deco’ style, the Daums realised that the simple vitrified technique could be taken a

step further. After the multicoloured powders had been added hot, the vessel could then
be dipped once more in glass and a smooth polished finish achieved. In the best examples

a picture could be captured between the layers, but for the mass market, abstract
multicoloured vessels, often with gold or silver inclusions, were produced.

Modified Jades c1920

These jades were for a brief time very popular and massively

copied (especially by Schneider Bros). The Daums however, ever
inventive and keen to use old expertise, improved on their new jades

with acid cutbacks and even gilding, producing a modem (art deco)
style with more than a hint of the art and crafts techniques of 25 years
earlier.

Avoiding fake and damaged Daum.
Good fakes of seriously collectable Daum are rare, but quite difficult to spot. There are less impressive fakes which are much

easier to identify. Important things to look for are:

1.
Unobtrusive signatures

–
the poorer fakes make them very obvious, like a designer label.

2.
Classic shapes, patterns and colourways
–

Daum mostly stuck to a fixed range of shapes and designs; imitators seem to

avoid such stereotypes.

3.
High quality
—

although some Daum is not the highest quality, if you stick to high quality Daum then you are likely to

avoid the fakes.

4.
Alterations
—

you need to make sure, with the more serious pieces, that any applications such as bugs are original and

have not been damaged and then modified.

5.
As jades were made by many companies, it is important to be sure a signed Daum jade is not just an anonymous piece

with an added Daum signature —the best Daum jade signatures are signed while the glass is still hot and are very hard to
fake convincingly.

6.
It’s worth remembering that throughout the art nouveau and art deco periods, Daum always included a Cross of Lorraine

(a vertical with two crossbars) within the signature. If this is missing, then the piece is later.

7.
If in doubt always buy from a known expert.

Things that transform an ordinary Daum vase into a great Daum Vase:

1.
Colour

The main colour palate of Daum is very autumnal with lots of browns and oranges, (distinctly different from Emile GOO. They

often depict seasonal motifs and the autumn and winter scenes are considered the best. Good colour combination is important, but

sometimes an unusually successful colour combination can become very desirable.

2.
Detail and Depth

The level of detail and, as they were the only glass house really to achieve three dimensional looking images, the level of depth

achieved is important.

3.
Quality and Size

The overall quality and feel of the vase is also important, with the very smallest and largest usually the most prized. There is a very
keen market in Daum miniatures which can be amazingly delightful.

4.
Imagery

High art nouveau and art deco images always make a piece more desirable. In the nouveau period bugs such as butterflies and

dragonflies are much sought after, as are the classic flowers, irises, orchids etc. In the deco period tastes lean more toward gazelles,
machine age images and other such classic designs.

5.
Application and Technique

Finally, more advanced and complex techniques, especially applications are most desirable, added bugs and insects again are a
particular plus.

The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009

Fig. 4: Two-handled vase by

Stevens & Williams, c.1900,

Michael & Peggy Parkington Bequest

History of Broadfield House Glass Museum

Broadfield House Glass Museum is the only museum in

the country solely dedicated to glassware
(Fig. 1).

The collection

focuses on British glass from the 17
th

Century to the present day,

and the Museum sees its role as being a guardian of our glass
heritage past, present and future.

The idea of establishing

a glass museum to celebrate the

achievements of the local industry

took almost 100 years to come to

Tuition.

In 1885 Sir Philip

Cunliffe Owen, Director of the

South Kensington Museum,

attended a prize-giving ceremony

at the Stourbridge School of Art

and recommended the
establishment of a local museum.
In 1892 an article in The Pottery Gazette supported the cause, but it

took several more decades before the idea became a reality.

Two rival collections, in the neighbouring towns of

Brierley Hill and Stourbridge, were founded in the 1930s and 1951
respectively. When local government boundaries were altered in

1974, the newly formed Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council

found itself the custodian of these two collections. Although there

was widespread support for establishing a glass museum, finding
the right location proved to be a controversial issue. Eventually a
compromise was reached in housing the collections at Broadfield
House in Kingswinford, a historic building owned by the Council
that was lying vacant and vulnerable.

Broadfield House was originally a modest farm house, but

received a grand make-over in the Regency style. Many of the

original features of this beautiful house have been lost, but there are
still remnants of the old grandeur such as the pillared portico, the
fine plaster friezes and the central staircase, which add to the

visitors’ enjoyment as they look round
(Fig. 2)

Broadfield House Glass Museum was officially opened

by Princess Michael of Kent on 2 April 1980. The following year it

won the Best Small Museum Award and used the prize money to
convert the old threshing

barn into a studio space.
The studio was
completely refurbished in
1994 when Hulberts of

Dudley purchased a

furnace and other

equipment that allowed
the Museum to offer the

studio to new graduates

as a starter unit.

1994 saw other major

changes at the Museum

with the construction of
the modem all-glass
pavilion, opened by the
Duke of Gloucester. At
the time, this was the
largest all-glass structure

in the world and received

17
various awards and nominations for the architects and structural

engineers, Design Antenna and Dewhurst Macfarlane. The

pavilion offers a welcoming space as the reception and gift shop

area, and provides an interesting contrast to the old house
(Fig. 3).

The former windows were turned into works of art with a
commission called
The Glass

Dance
by David Prytherch.

The 1994 alterations also saw the
creation of a new temporary
exhibitions gallery, named the

Tyzack Gallery after the earliest
recorded glassmaking family in the

area — John Tyzack, the son of
Paul, a glassmaker, and Bridgit
Tyzack, was baptised on 26 April
1612 in Kingswinford parish
church.

The Glass Collections
The Museum’s collection focuses on British glass,

particularly from the world-famous Stourbridge glass industry.
Although the industry has now declined almost beyond recognition

with only a couple of tenacious manufacturers left in the area,
Stourbridge is still synonymous with glass. People travel from all

over the world to view the collections and undertake research, using

the reference library and the glass archives.

During the past thirty years the collections have grown

substantially, from less than 2000 objects to over 8000, almost a
quarter of which are on long-term loan. The Museum has no

annual purchasing budget so has to rely upon grants and donations
to develop and add to the collection. The original Brierley Hill and
Stourbridge collections have been enhanced by significant

donations and bequests, such

as the Michael Parkington
bequest of 500 items of top-

quality British glass from the

18
th
to 20
th
Centuries
(Fig. 4)

Since its formation

fifteen years ago, The Friends

of Broadfield House Glass
Museum has been a great

support to the Museum and

has contributed over £50,000

towards acquisitions for the
collection, including

The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009

commissions from all of the previous studio scholarship holders.

The Museum has also made important purchases, such as
The

Sappho Plaque (illustrated on the front cover)
and
The Race Vase,

both by George and Thomas Woodall, supported by funding bodies
like the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Art Fund and the V&A
Purchase Grant Fund as well as The Friends.

The collection dates from

the 17
th

Century

onwards, although the

mid to late 19
th
and early

20
th
Centuries are the

most comprehensive, this

being the era when the
Stourbridge glass

industry was at its peak.
The major factories

including Thomas Webb,

Richardson, Stevens &

Williams, Webb Corbett

and Stuarts are well-

Fig 6: Ivory bowl with acorn feet, by

Mills, Walker & Co,
registered 23/12/1884.

represented, as well as many

smaller factories and workshops.
Some of the more obscure

companies are represented by

single documentary pieces, such
as Mills, Walker & Co
(Fig.
6)

and Harbridge Crystal Glass
Company.

The Stourbridge glass

industry has had a long and

illustrious history of engraving,

with particular achievements in

cameo glass, rock crystal and

copper-wheel engraving, by

masters such as John

Northwood, the Woodall
brothers, William Fritsche and
other engravers, many of

Bohemian origin
(Fig.
7)

The collection also

focuses on studio glass, from the

1960s up to the present day.
The Museum

Visitors to Broadfield House Glass Museum will find

eight galleries of glass displays as well as the Hot Glass Studio and

gift shop in which to browse and buy. Six of the galleries are
devoted to the Museum’s collection and two are used for temporary
exhibitions.

One of the most popular galleries is the Cameo Gallery

(Fig. 10).
As well as explaining the processes involved in creating

a piece of cameo and the special role that the Stourbridge industry
played in reviving this most challenging technique, the gallery
features a diverse range of cameo glass from the Victorian period to

the modem day. There are several impressive works by the
Woodall brothers, including the aforementioned
Sappho
plaque and

the
Race

vase, and other masterpieces such as
Raising an Altar to

Bacchus
by Alphonse Lechevrel, as well as modem variations on

the cameo technique such as
Drowning of the Innocents
by Peter

Dreiser
(illustrated on p. 22).

Fig.
7:
Fish vase by Thomas

Webb & Sons, engraved by

William Fristche
in the rock

crystal style,
c. 1889, purchased

with the aid of a grant from the

National Heritage Memorial Fund

Many of the Museum’s most

recent acquisitions have been

works by contemporary makers,
including Bob Crooks, Gillies

Jones and Simon Moore, as well

as contemporary engravers such

as Christopher Ainsley
(Fig. 8),

Peter Furlonger and Nancy

Sutcliffe. The newest addition to

the collection is Fertile
Landscape 2, a piece of kiln-
formed glass by Max Jacquard,

acquired in 2009 with grant aid
from The Art Fund (with the

assistance of the Esmee Fairbaim
Foundation), and sponsorship
from Ashwood Nurseries,

Kingswinford
(Fig. 9).
Other highlights to be seen are displays of tableware from

the Georgian, Victorian and Art Deco periods, an atmospheric black
and white film of Royal Brierley Crystal from the 1950s, and a
large and fascinating mystery object quiz to challenge and surprise

visitors—we defy any visitor to identify every one! There is a
gallery entirely devoted to studio glass, following the movement
from its origins in the 1960s up to the present day. Anther gallery
highlights three of the leading Stourbridge factories — Richardson,

Stevens & Williams, and Thomas Webb — and also looks at the

principal decorating techniques used in Stourbridge, such as cutting,
engraving, etching and enamelling.

Fig 8: Tango by Christopher

Ainslie, 2008

The Glass Cone
—
Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009

Fig 9: Fertile Landscape 2 by Max Jacquard, 2008

12: Allister Malcolm,
2007

Library & Archives

The Glass Reference Library is one of the most

comprehensive in the country, containing everything from rare 17
th

Century treatises to new publications on contemporary studio glass.

It includes the library and research files of the late Robert

Charleston, former Keeper of Glass at the Victoria & Albert

Museum. The library is stored at Himley Hall and is available to
researchers by appointment with the Glass Museum.

The archives relate mainly to the local Stourbridge glass

industry, particularly from the 19
th

and 20
th
Centuries. The material

ranges from pattern books, designs, catalogues, correspondence,

and legal and financial documents to photographs, slides and
microfiche. The archive collection is particularly strong in material
relating to Richardson, Thomas Webb and Stevens & Williams.

Most of the archives are kept at Dudley Council’s Archives & Local History Centre in Coseley, and are available to view by

contacting the Archives centre. A small amount of archival

material is kept at Himley Hall and the Glass Museum — this can be
viewed by making an appointment with the Glass Museum.

With the growing interest in genealogy, one of the most

frequently used parts of the archive collection is the Brian

Hardyman card index of glassmakers’ names, which was donated in

2004. This contains thousands of cards filed in alphabetical order
by sumame and was compiled by Brian over a period of thirty

years, from visits to record offices and archive centres all over the
country.

The archive collection was strengthened in 2007 with the

purchase of the Jack Haden Collection which was sold at auction.
This contained a vast body of material relating mainly, but not

exclusively, to the Stourbridge glass industry, and ranging from 18
th

Century correspondence and legal documents to modem printed
papers on subjects such as the Glassmakers’ Union. One of the

highlights of this collection is the
‘Register of Students from

Stourbridge Government School of Art 1864 — 1874’ .

Other noteworthy items from the archives collection

include two design books and some loose patterns for cut and

engraved glass by Joseph Keller
(Fig 11),

scrap and sketch-books

by Frederick Kny and Daniel Pearce, a pattern book by
J & J Northwood, original photographs of George Woodall’s cameo

work and the Keith Murray Description Book.

Fig. 11: Title
page & pattern for
A Collection of Patterns for the

use of Glass Engravers by Joseph Keller, c.1880,
purchased with

the aid ofa
grant from the V&A/MGC Purchase Grant Fund
Having a studio on site also allows the Museum to invite

guest glassmakers to demonstrate during special event days, such as

the annual Paperweight Days and Bead Days, as well as the
biennial International Festival of Glass.

Exhibitions
The Museum runs a

programme of temporary exhibitions that
complement the permanent displays and

show the diversity of glass, exploring

subjects beyond the scope of the collection, such as the current

display of glass petrol globes in
Petrol Heads

(Fig 13).
About half

of the temporary exhibitions focus on studio glass as a means of

supporting and promoting contemporary artists as well as giving
visitors a glimpse of glassmaking today.
Hi
Sklo Lo Sklo,
a

fascinating exhibition of Czech glass, runs until 11 October, and is

followed by
Migrate,
the 30
th
anniversary exhibition of the Scottish

Glass Society. This opens on 14 November and features the diverse

work of thirty artists with Scottish connections
(Fig 14)

Past exhibitions have varied from solo shows, such as

Helen Millard’s contemporary cameo in
The Secret Garden,

mixed-media shows such as Gill Hobson’s glass

displayed alongside the work of textile group

4plus2 in
Glass Threads.
The

headline exhibition for

2008 was
The Danger of

the Image
featuring

fourteen life-size glass

dresses by Diana
Dias-Lego.

The Hot Glass Studio

Since 1981 the Glass Museum has had a glassmaking

studio on site. The reasons for having a hot glass studio are three-
fold — to provide studio facilities for new and established artists, to

keep glassmaking skills alive in the area, and to provide visitors

with the opportunity to see real glassmakers at work.

The first studio occupants, Okra Glass (Richard Golding),

are now an established name in the glass world, specialising in
coloured, art glass. Okra were followed by Osiris Glass, now better

known as Blowzone, based in Shropshire. In 1994 the running of

the studio changed to a scholarship scheme, whereby recent
graduates were awarded the studio for one or two years, rent-free as

a stepping stone to establishing their businesses. Many have
continued to follow their careers in glass including LoCo Glass,

Susan Nixon, Stephen Foster, Sam Sweet and Lynn Baker. In 2007

Allister Malcolm, a former scholarship holder, returned to become
the Museum’s permanent artist in residence
(Fig 12)

Fi
b
II: feather
Carrie Fertig

roin the Ilr
,
rate exhibition

The Glass Cone—Issue
No: 88
Autumn 2009

proved to be one of the most popular exhibitions ever staged by the

Museum and won ‘Best Exhibition on a Small Budget’ at the Best

of the West museum awards in March this year
(seep. 24 Ed)

The Tyzack Gallery is used mainly for historic

exhibitions, although it is sometimes necessary to spill over into an

additional room to provide sufficient space. The exhibitions have
included
Ale & Hearty
featuring beer glasses through the ages and

traditional pub games, and
A Glass Menagerie: Pcite de Verre by

Amalric Walter
with its ground-breaking catalogue written by Keith

Cummings. At least one exhibition each year features exhibits from

the Museum’s own collection. More than three-quarters of the
collection is in store and this provides an opportunity for objects to

come out of storage and for staff to spend some quality time on

cataloguing and condition checking.

The next exhibition to feature many items from the

Museum collection is
2(t Century British Glass.
This will open on

17 October and marks the launch of Charles Hajdamach’s much

anticipated book of the same name, which follows the remarkable
changes in the glass industry throughout the 20
th
Century.

Events
The Museum stages events that appeal to a wide audience;

some, such as the annual Paperweight Days and Bead Days, are
aimed at collectors, others, such as the Valuation Days with
Bonhams and Fielding’s, are aimed at local residents.

The Glass Museum also has a large family audience,

thanks to the JAM (Juniors At Museums) Club which it runs in

partnership with the other venues in Dudley Museums Service.
Every school holiday the Museum is inundated with young visitors
eager to take part in the crafty activities and complete the latest trail.

Once a week there are story-telling sessions for pre-school children

and one Saturday a month there are free craft activities. There are

also additional workshops such as hand-casting sessions in the hot

glass studio. One of the most popular events is the annual

Christmas Festival when Father Christmas visits the Museum and
children

can

decorate glass

baubles
(Fig. 15).

These activities

encourage the

budding artists,
collectors, history
enthusiasts and

museum-goers of

the future.

Outreach
The Glass Outreach Service was set up by the Museum

two years ago. Trained members of staff, on casual contracts, visit

groups and schools to give talks and interactive sessions on glass
and local history. This year the Outreach Service has introduced a

series of canal walks, which will hopefully expand into additional
guided walks in following years. Sessions are now being developed

that will be taken out to residential care homes. In this way the
Museum can reach a public that is not able to visit in person.

For groups that can visit, the Museum offers guided tours

in conjunction with the Red House Glass Cone. Many groups take

the opportunity to visit the former factory site and learn about the

working conditions before seeing the range of finished products on
display at Broadfield House Glass Museum. The Museum has also

been a partner in several schools projects, most recently ‘Black
Country Treasures’
(Fig. 16),

a project between four Black Country
museums that enabled school children to discover more about four

local industries, including glassmaking, and to curate a special
touring exhibition of selected exhibits.

The Glass Museum is also making use of technology to

improve access to the Museum collection. A DVD has just been

launched which features a guided tour of the Museum, courtesy of

tour guide Kate Round and Keeper of Glass Roger Dodsworth. The
DVD is available to buy from the gift shop (£6.99 plus postage) and

also plays continuously in the ground-floor rest-room so that
visitors unable to attempt the flights of stairs can sit back and enjoy

a virtual tour.

Work is also underway, behind the scenes, to make parts

of the collection available on-line via the website

www.blackcountryhistory org, which already feature some of the
glass archives. It is hoped the first glass records will be available to

view by the end of this year.

The Future
The Glass Museum strives to keep glass and its heritage

alive, by encouraging understanding and enthusiasm for all aspects

of glass. It does this through its exhibitions, events, and the services

it provides; by working with glassmakers, artists, collectors,

societies and other partners; and by ensuring the collection

represents the makers of the past and the present, and is available
for everyone to enjoy and appreciate for generations to come.

Dudley Council has appointed heritage consultants L&R

to conduct a feasibility study into the proposed move of the glass
collections to the Red House Glass Cone. The outcome of Phase I

of the study will be announced in September 2009.

April 2010 will see the 30
th
anniversary of Broadfield

House Glass Museum. It is hoped that the Glass Museum will be

able to celebrate this landmark anniversary with all of its friends and

supporters. To keep up-to-date with events and exhibitions taking

place at Broadfield House Glass Museum visit the website,
www.glassmuseum.org.uk or call 01384 812745 and ask to join the
Museum’s mailing list.

Kari Moodie

Information
Broadfield House Glass Museum is at Compton Drive,

Kingswinford, West Midlands, DY6 9NS, tel: 01384 812745;
open Tuesday to Sunday, from 12noon to 4pm. Admission is free.

The Museum is located just off the A491

Wolverhampton-Stourbridge main road. Kingswinford is

approximately 10 miles from M5 J4 (Stourbridge) and 8 miles from

M5 J2 (Dudley). The nearest train station is Stourbridge Town and
the buses that run regularly between Wolverhampton and

Stourbridge bus stations pass the entrance to Compton Drive.

All images are copyright of Broadfield House Glass Museum,

Kingswinforcl except where stated otherwise, when permission has been

granted by the copyright holder.
Fig 16:

Black Country

Treasures

project, 2008

(Allister

Malcolm in the
studio in the

background)

The Glass Cone
—

Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009

The Woodall Team 1889

Back: Tom Fanner,
Harry Davies, Tom Woodall

Front: William hill, J.T. Fereday, George Woodall
Bromfield House Glass Museum image

The Brierley Hill Glass Collection and

H.W. “Bill” Woodward (1913 — 1999)

Brierley Hill’s Central Library, one of the many built

through the munificence of Andrew Carnegie, occupied part of the
building at the corner of Moor Lane and Bell Street that also housed

the Art and Technical School and the Council Chamber. When

Herbert William (Bill) Woodward took over, the library was not an
inviting place. On the first floor the Reference Room was only

opened by request and kept locked when not in use. In it were
some showcases containing a motley collection of glass, started in

1924 when Stevens and Williams, of Moor Lane, presented 29 fine

specimens of their own manufacture. About the same time
W.W. Skidmore-Westwood, of Stourbridge, the wealthy principal
of Westwood & Wright, Ltd presented 21 handsome pieces of glass

from his large collection of
objets d’art.
This important gift was

supplemented from time to time, and in all 241 items were received
from him. This was the collection for which Bill Woodward was

responsible and eager to expand. But soon the country was at war

and eventually its curator was called up for service in the RAF.

The Second World War and the Post War Legacy
The Brierley Hill and Stourbridge district suffered little

material damage from enemy action during the war. However, with

peace came the realisation that much of the industrial plant was
worn out and had to be replaced so that industry could supply the

peacetime needs of a tired but euphoric populace eager to enjoy the
fruits of victory, as well as supply the export market. During the

war the local glassmakers had to employ their skills producing vast
quantities of plain domestic ware: electric light bulbs, chemical

ware and cathode ray tubes. Suddenly it became essential to switch
the depleted skilled labour

force back to production of

the high quality cut crystal

ware for which the district

was famed. All first class

products were for export; the
home market had to make do

with seconds, of which in
future years the number

increased disproportionally,

severely damaging the

industry’s reputation and

contributing considerably to

its decline.

Concomitantly there

was in certain circles aJ
movement for the

preservation and safeguarding
of the nation’s historic culture

and art. Not only had so

many of the nation’s treasures
been destroyed or lost during the war but economic circumstances

were forcing the dispersal and sale abroad of much that had
survived. It was the heyday of the auctioneer and antiques dealer.
The ‘knocker’ was a familiar figure in the Stourbridge area, calling

and asking austerity-ridden housewives if they had hidden away in

their cupboards any old glass ornaments, especially unfashionable

21
coloured items they no longer wanted.

Notwithstanding the hard time when Brierley Hill Council

had to concentrate on repairing the wear and tear of the district’s
infrastructure, Bill Woodward, with the support of a few like-

minded councillors, set about reviving the library service and
stimulating public interest in local history.

The Brierley Hill Glass Collection that had been kept

safely in store during the war was formally re-opened to public
view in the Reference Room by Thomas Williams, the oldest

member of the Libraries Committee, on 23 July 1947, and John

Northwood II, former manager of Stevens and Williams Ltd., gave
a talk on the history of glassmaking. Subsequently Mr. Northwood
gave a fine collection of cameo glass to the Stourbridge Collection,

much of which was stolen and never recovered.

With a few exceptions the glassmaking fraternity had

been aloof from their industrial history but they began to realise it
could be employed for publicising their businesses which were
expected to make a significant contribution to the county’s export
drive. In 1949 the Libraries and Arts Committee of the Council

published two booklets.
‘The Collections of Glass at the Brierley

Hill Public Library’
was a hand-list of the glass displayed in the

Reference Room, compiled by W.A. Thorpe of the Victoria &

Albert Museum. The second, my
‘Notes on the Stourbridge

Glass Trade,
sparked off a somewhat acrimonious controversy:

leading Brierley Hill councillors took exception to the name
Stourbridge’
being recorded as the centre of the glass trade, and

also to a comment that it was a source of regret that examples of the

work of great craftsmen and artists should not be housed in a place
of honour somewhere in the Stourbridge district.

The Stourbridge versus

Brierley Hill controversy
continued for years and was

one of the issues that
eventually led to Stourbridge

Council forming a municipal

glass collection in 1952, when

the Mayor in that year,
Councillor E.R.R. Tooby,
following on from the success

of the 1951 Festival of Britain
glass exhibition, provided a

showcase in which a
collection of glass could be

displayed in The Council

House, Mary Stevens Park,

Stourbridge.
(Seep. 23 Ed)

The Stourbridge and Brierley

Hill glass collections became

the source of considerable
publicity for the local glass

industry. But neither collection was adequately housed and they

tended to compete for attention. This situation was remedied when
local government reorganisation resulted in the creation of the
Metropolitan Borough of Dudley within a new West Midlands

county. One result of the reorganisation was that in 1972 Bill

Woodward was appointed Keeper of Dudley’s Glass and Fine Art,

The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009

“The Cocktail Party”- a

fa
it

: display of tableware from

the Art Deco period

an office from which he

retired in 1974.

It was

appropriate that his redundant
library rooms in Brierley Hill

were developed as a Glass
Centre for training
glassmakers and decorators.

Attached to Dudley College
of Technology and, having
earned a fine reputation for
producing craftsmen, it was

given the title the
International Glass Centre in 1989.
(From the current academic

year the centre has been scaled down dramatically, and the rump
moved to the Mons Hill campus in Dudley, so that there is no

longer a distinct centre of excellence. Ed)

One of the subjects that exercised the minds of the

enlarged Dudley Council was the future of the municipal glass

collections, and where to house them. The problem was solved by

a circuitous route, which led to the solving of another of the

Council’s problems

Broadfield House, Kingswinford, an

attractive early 19
th
Century house with a large coach-house which,

if left vacant, was likely to become the prey of vandals. Opposition

was voiced from Stourbridge, and it was proposed that either the
old Council Chamber in Mary Stevens Park, or a purpose-built

building in Amblecote would be better suited. The £250,000 sum

needed made this latter proposal unsuitable. Bill Woodward was
consulted and suggested that in the circumstances since the

dignified Broadfield House already belonged to Dudley

Corporation and was conveniently sited it would be an ideal venue.
Local glass manufacturers concurred.

The History of Broadfield House
The branch of the Dudley family that had occupied the

house for over 150 years was also connected by marriage with the

Briscoe family who occupied the adjacent Summerhill estate. The

Dudleys claimed descent from the 13th century family of Somery,
Lords of Dudley Castle, and also Dud Dudley, the famous
ironmaster near whose dwelling called Green’s Lodge
“the Glass

Invention with pit coal was first effected’.
Descendants of this

branch of the Dudley family formed connections with prosperous
families in North Worcestershire and South Staffordshire. Robert

Dudley married Eliza Briscoe of Summerhill, and set up as a nail
manufacturer in Bamett Lane, a short distance from Broadfield

House which became the family home until the Second World War.

When the residing Mrs. Dudley found so large a house

unmanageable in wartime conditions, the estate was sold to

Kenneth MacMaster, a businessman who had moved to
Kingswinford. He operated

his firm, Associated Settings

and Chimneys Ltd, engineers

and chimney builders, from
his home, the old St Mary’s

Vicarage in High Street. For

several years Broadfield
House was used as a home for
unmarried mothers. When it

was decided that it was

inconvenient for use as an old

peoples’ home, New Bradley

Hall was erected in the grounds.

Much work had to be done to adapt Broadfield House as a

secure home for the display and studying of glass. Advice was

sought from museums and staff with experience in displaying glass
collections, and in 1979 an Advisory Committee was set-up,

composed of representatives of Dudley Council and local glass
manufacturers, and a few others, including Bill Woodward and

myself.

A vital step in the creation of the museum and its future

development was the appointments of Charles Hajdamach and
Roger Dodsworth as Keepers. There was some controversy as to

the name of the museum but there was an air of general satisfaction

when Princess Michael of Kent formally opened the Broadfield
House Glass Museum 2 April 1980. It excited much interest

among glass enthusiasts and collectors and became an important
tourist attraction. The flow of books, newspaper and magazine

articles about glass increased significantly, and it contributed in no

small way to the founding of the Glass Association at a meeting at
Stourbridge College of Art in November 1983, with Roger

Dodsworth as its first Secretary and Charles Hajdamach as
Editor of its magazine “The Glass Cone”.

H. Jack Haden
June 2000

This is an edited version
of a paper written by

Jack Hayden and
published in

`Cameo, the then

quarterly

publication of the
Friends of

Broadfield House

in the Summer and

Autumn editions,

2000.
The illustrations show

more of the Glass Museum and
its collections, and the story

continues in Charles Hajdamach ‘s

article which follows.

HYACINTH VASES

Member Julie Berk has started a web site about antique glass
hyacinth vases at
www.hvacinthvases.org.uk.
She hopes to

organise a get-together in September for like-minded collectors

in London. Please contact her if you are interested:

iulie(&hvacinthvases.org.uk.

There will be an article by Julie in the next Cone.

Displays in the

Contemporary

Gallery

Drowning of

the Innocents
by Peter Dreiser

(a cameo protest against the

indiscriminate netting of

dolphins)

•

The Glass Cone
—

Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009

Nineteenth Century Origins

“It is a matter of much regret that, unlike Birmingham,

Stourbridge should still be without an art gallery or Museum, in

which might be shown specimens of the beautiful glass made in the
town, and which have given the district a more than European

reputation. Some of the showrooms at the manufactories are in

themselves art museums; but in too many cases the treasures they
contain are only seen by customers of the firms. What is sadly

wanted is a public museum, in which may be exhibited to the public
at large samples of the best qualities of glass which are from time to

time produced at the works of the neighbourhood. Such a collection
could not fail to be of advantage in many ways. It would tend to

foster a love of the beautiful on the part of the residents, and would

give strangers a better idea of the class of work made in the town,
examples of which are too frequently only seen in the leading shops
in London and other cities”.

When that comment appeared in 1892, in the Pottery

Gazette, the idea for a glass museum in the Stourbridge district was

already well established. Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen, the director of

the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert

Museum), strongly advocated the setting up of a local museum

when he attended the prize-giving at Stourbridge School of Art in
1885. Other commentators echoed the idea and suggested that the
museum should be closely allied to the School of Art. But it was

only some 50 years later, in the 1930s, that the first public collection

was formed at Brierley Hill.
(Seep. 21 Ed)

The Stourbridge Glass Collection
Almost in opposition to the Brierley Hill Collection, the

Borough of Stourbridge decided to establish its own glass collection
following an exhibition of local glass as part of the Festival of

Britain celebrations in 1951. The collection was based on two

exceptional collections, from Benjamin Richardson III and John

Northwood II, which had been lent for the Festival exhibition and
left as a gift after the exhibition ended. Further donations continued

to emphasise the local aspect which complemented the more
international flavour of the neighbouring collection. Both

collections contained extremely important glasses but were housed
on the first floor of the Brierley Hill library and in the corridor of the

Council House in Stourbridge in Mary Stevens Park, making both
difficult to find and access. The displays were basic with few or no
explanatory labels or panels giving a wider contextual history of

glassmaking in the area. Neither collection had a dedicated museum
curator, the Stourbridge holdings being placed in the hands of the

building’s caretaker Cliff Share. Some monies were available at
Brierley Hill to buy new pieces but Stourbridge relied totally on

gifts from local residents. Security at both venues was equally poor.
The security on the corridor cases at Stourbridge consisted of fine

wires stretched vertically at intervals and any attempted break-in

would only be detected by passing Council staff, as there were no
attendant staff As a result, a group of important items were stolen
including one cameo piece made by John Northwood I. A burglary

at Brierley Hill was only foiled and the stolen items recovered when

the thieves ran out of petrol in their getaway vehicle and were

accidentally apprehended by the police.

23
1974: Local Government Amalgamation

In 1974, following local government re-organisation

throughout the country, things were about to change for the two

collections. After my appointment in September 1974 to take over
after the retirement of Herbert Woodward, there was a period of

taking stock of the collections and by 1976 plans were being
discussed about the possibilities of amalgamating the two

collections. While discussions were on-going, a policy was
implemented to organise regular major exhibitions on glass topics.

A small exhibition of work by the glassmakers at The Glasshouse in
London was held in 1975 at Brierley Hill but the lack of suitable
space for any large exhibitions meant that subsequent exhibitions

were held at Dudley Art Gallery, also part of the Dudley Museums
Service. In 1976 the first glass exhibition held at Dudley was

`English Rock Crystal Glass 1878
–

1925’.
Curated by Ian

Wolfenden, it was the first gathering together of this type of glass

and featured as a special loan, the famous William Fritsche Ewer
from the Coming Museum of Glass. The catalogue for the show

still stands as the main text on the subject. Dudley was also the
venue for the Cinzano Glass Collection before it returned to its

home in Italy. In 1979, the exhibition
‘Glasshouses’

was a

topographical look at the British glass industry through paintings,
watercolours, drawings and photographs borrowed from galleries

and libraries throughout England and Scotland.

By 1979 negotiations to merge the two glass collections

had reached agreement, due mainly to the indefatigable work of the
Conservative Councillor George Griffiths. When a new home was

proposed it seemed ideal, as it stood on neutral territory as it were,
neither in Brierley Hill nor in Stourbridge, thus saving face for both

political factions. At the final Council meeting to decide the issue,
the decision to go-ahead went through by one vote.

The Opening of Broadfield House Glass Museum

Councillor Bill Webb, L Col. Reg Williams Thomas, Charles Hajdamach
and the Duchess of Kent at the Official Opening

With the narrowest of margins to proceed and with

limited funds, the beginnings of the new museum were less than

propitious, but with the news that a member of the Royal family
was to attend the opening ceremony, the restrictions on spending

were dropped and the attitude of most politicians changed to one of

The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009

Cloisonne vase by John Moncreiff

Ltd. (Monad), c.1930,
purchased with

the aid of a grant from the V&4/MGC
Purchase Grant Fund

support. When Princess Michael of Kent opened Broadfield House

Glass Museum on 2n
d
April 1980, a hundred year dream was

realised. In 1981 the Museum won the award for Best Small

Museum in the country, a fine accolade for a fitting memorial to the
achievements of the generations of glassmakers of the district. The

prize money from the award was used to renovate the barn at the

rear of the main building and open it as a glassmaking studio. Over

the ensuing two decades Broadfield House quickly became an
internationally recognised centre for the study and enjoyment of
local glass, with a vigorous collecting policy, a wide-ranging

exhibition programme and strong links with the wider British glass

industry.

Collections and Collecting Policy
The collecting policy

adopted a tiered approach

with local Stourbridge
and West Midlands glass

as first priority, then
other British and Irish
glass, followed by

Continental

and

European glass to

provide a wider context

to the local glass. As well
as glass, acquisitions
included pattern books

and paper records from

the companies, and
glassmaking equipment.

With regular cuts in

Council finances the

Museum’s purchase fund

was eventually lost, but

with the support of the Friend’s group and private benefactors the

Museum was able to continue to buy major examples and often

save them from export. Graham Knowles and his firm Hulbert of
Dudley for example, donated £10,000 in 1986 to allow Broadfield
to acquire special items from the auction of the Cyril Manley

Collection. Hulbert’s also funded the purchase of thirteen pieces of
glass by Clyne Farquharson from his wife’s collection which

otherwise would have been dispersed and lost as the last link with

the Birmingham designer. In the 1990s, the then leader of the
Council, Fred Hunt, and the Chief Executive, Viv Astling, awarded

Broadfield a one-off sum of £120,000 which allowed the museum

to match large grants from the National Lottery, the Heritage Fund,

the National Art Collections Fund and the Victoria and Albert

Museum, and to buy superb pieces including the very best cameo

pieces by George Woodall. Purchases were made from a variety of

sources including Sotheby’s and Christies, a host of glass dealers
including Jeanette Hayhurst, Nigel Benson, and John Smith at

Mallet and Aspreys, and in the case of studio glass from the artists
themselves or the galleries representing them. The Museum also

saved collections when no one else saw the benefit of doing so.

Following the death of the great industrial glass designer Alexander

Hardie Williamson, his doctor and neighbour Patrick Reade,
contacted the Victoria and Albert Museum to see if they would save

his entire collection. When they refused he contacted Broadfield

who organised three trips to Williamson’s house in Sussex and
saved every piece of glass and all the paperwork which went back

to the 1930s and the Royal College of Art where Williamson had

studied and worked. In the 1990s the Museum was also responsible

The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009
for rescuing the remaining structure and foundations of a late 17

Century glass furnace from the estate of Sir Charles Wolsely near

Rugeley in Staffordshire. The operation was a first for glass

archaeology as the furnace was lifted intact on a raft of iron girders

and enclosed in a protective cocoon.

Alongside the purchased items the Museum has benefited

over the years from incredibly generous loans and donations from

many, many private individuals, ranging from single items to
collections into the hundreds of pieces. In monetary terms alone

these gifts have boosted the value of the Museum’s holdings
enormously, but few in Dudley appreciate this hidden aspect of the

public’s support for this institution. Worthy of special mention as

major benefactors to the Museum are Graham Knowles and Hulbert

of Dudley for their on-going purchase of major pieces, John

Keatley and The Keatley Trust for 20
t

h Century examples, Jack and

Penny Pacifico who have lent examples of engraved and rock

crystal glass since the late 1970s, Ray Notley and Michel Lerpiniere

with their Carnival glass collection, and Michael and Peggy

Parkington, two of the greatest benefactors the Museum has had the

privilege to know. Michael Parkington’s collecting policy consisted
quite simply of two criteria, the glass had to be rare or unique and in

pristine condition. With a cheque book to match those expensive

requirements, he went on to build up what was almost certainly the
finest private collection of British glass ever put together, from the

earliest lead glass of the 1680s to late 20
t
h Century pieces from the

major producers. At the time of Michael’s death the Museum had

500 of his pieces on display on the first floor, with the tongue-in-
cheek title
‘A Few Nice Pieces of Glass’.

Following Peggy’s death a

few years later she bequeathed those items to Broadfield, an

incredibly generous gift which even the great Coming Museum of

Glass in America would have envied.

The Museum also pursued an active policy of

commissioning artists to create unique pieces for the collection,

often supported financially by the Friends of Broadfield House.
International names who were chosen included Keith Cummings,

David Prytherch, David Peace, Doug Burgess, Max Jacquard, and
the twelve artists involved in the Dudley Millennium Glass
Commissions.

Outstanding Exhibitions
Throughout its 29 year history Broadfield House has

always presented a varied and impressive selection of temporary
exhibitions. Memorable ones include
‘Legends in Glass’,
the cameo

glass of George and

Thomas Woodall;
‘British

Glass Between The Wars’,
a

ground-breaking exhibition

of ’20s and ’30s glass;

`Cameo Glass’
by David

and Chris Smith;
‘American

Brilliant Cut Glass’
from

the collections of the Lone
Star Chapter of the

American Cut Glass

Association in Texas;

`Victorian Engraved

Glass’; `Majesty and

Rebellion’,
Jacobite Glass

from the Drambuie

collection;
‘Innovation and

Diversity’,
75 years of

Swedish Art Glass; and

most recently

‘Danger of the Image’,
the fabulous glass dresses by

Diana Dias-Lean. Many other shows featured solo exhibitions of
British studio glass artists, including the occupants of the

Scholarship Studio, the glassmaking studio transformed by a huge

donation from Hulbert of Dudley, to act as a buffer one or two year

facility for graduating glassblowers before they moved on to set up

their own businesses. All of the teams of glassblowers who have

held the Scholarship Studio are now acknowledged glass artists

throughout Britain, while one was headhunted and is now

established in Holland.

By 1988 Broadfield House organised the first of the

Dudley Glass Festivals which became a focal point in the year for a

celebration of glassmaking not only in Stourbridge but also

throughout Britain. Master glassmakers were invited to demonstrate

their skills throughout the week while an intense programme spread
around all the major glass factories in the area, offered lectures,
walks and tours of historic glass sites and factories, and even an

auction of the studio glass made during the week’s festivities.
Funded on a mere £2000 each year, the Festival was the model for

the more recent and highly successful International Festival of

Glass held every two years since 2004, and unique in the UK.

When Dudley Council purchased Himley Hall and its

parkland in the late 1980s, the search for a use for the Hall led to the
idea of transferring the glass collections from Broadfield to Himley.

At that time other national developments were taking place which
led to the creation of the National Glass Centre in Sunderland and

the World of Glass at St. Helens. The proposed development at
Himley was seen as the third element in this nation-wide promotion
of glass and the staff at Broadfield held regular quarterly meetings

with the other venues to
discuss future working
relationships. A multi-

million pound scheme

was designed by the
British architects Design
Antenna (DADA) of
London, with Brent
Richards as the lead

Director, which would have transformed Himley into a major

international glass attraction. A key element in the strategy for

Himley was the revitalisation of the displays at Broadfield House so

that the existing museum could be used as an advert for Himley and

would show in microcosm what could be achieved there. The most

high profile element in the Broadfield House refurbishment was the

construction of the Glass Pavilion. Opened in August 1994, the
Pavilion not only extended the available space by forming a
dramatic new entrance, reception area and museum shop but it was
at the cutting edge of architectural glass innovation and for a

number of years was the largest glass-only structure of its kind in

the world. When it transpired that the aspirations and targets of the
major national funding agencies had changed, and that less would

be available for the Himley scheme, the Dudley executive suddenly

lost faith in the project, and the vision of developing a new national

glass museum sadly fizzled out.

Links with Red House Cone
The final part of the history of Broadfield House at the

end of the 20
th
Century was its link with the Red House Glass Cone

which was to become part of Dudley Museums Service. Built about
1790, it is one of only four surviving glass cones which were a

common feature of the 18
th
Century British landscape. Since the

end of the 19
th
Century it was the focal point of Stuart and Sons

who leased it to Dudley Council in 1999. Time and weather had
caused severe deterioration to the Cone which now needed
immediate attention. A partnership of Waterford Wedgwood (the

owners of Stuart Crystal who closed the firm in 2001), Dudley

Council, English Heritage, the Heritage Lottery Fund, and
Advantage West Midlands eventually raised £1.7 million to restore

the Cone and the adjacent buildings. After two years of restoration

work the Cone was opened in July 2002 with its unique features of
the reconstructed central furnace, the annealing tunnel and lehr

table, on view for the first time in 70 years. The two sites,

Broadfield as an artistic experience and Red House as the social

working element, became complementary and exciting elements in
the interpretation of the glassmaking history of the entire Dudley

and Stourbridge area.

In the publicity hand-out for the official opening of the

Cone, the final paragraph stated that the Red House Glass Cone

“with nearby Broadfield House Glass Museum, the Glasshouse
Project at Ruskin Mill Further Education Centre, the International

Glass Centre, the Glass Department at the University of

Wolverhampton as well as the various studio makers, free-lance
cutters and engravers, and firms such as Royal Brierley Crystal and
Plowden and Thompson, the area continues

to be a major force in international glass

circles”.

With the proposal to dismantle Broadfield

House in 2010, and the drastic down-sizing
of the International Glass Centre, one

wonders whether the current officers and
executive of Dudley Council are hell-bent

on undoing 120 years of history and

achievement, and return to the days of 1892

when we, like the writer then, will be
clamouring yet again for a worthy museum

to show off those incredible creations which
have “a more than European reputation”.

Charles it Hajdamach

(Charles Hajdamach was Keeper of Glass and

Fine Art from 1974, becoming Principal

Museums Officer with responsibility for the whole of the Dudley Museums

Service until his early retirement in 2003. In 1993 he and two others

founded The Glass Association, the society now numbering about five
hundred members world-wide. In 1991 he published ‘British Glass 1800-
1914′ and his new book 2(1
th

Century British Glass, also extensively

publicising the collections at Broadfield House, will be published in

November 2009. He now concentrates on his work as a lecturer and author,

and plans to write a definitive work on 18
th
Century glass to complete his

trilogy on the British glass industry.)

The Pavilion, opened by the Duke

of Gloucester in 1994, and now the
attractive entrance to the museum

The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009

Allister Malcolm, who is the current glass maker in the

Broadfield House hot shop, describes the pleasures

and the perils of a major public commission.

When I was based at Himley Hall I was

approached by my neighbour, Steve Field

RBSA, Dudley’s borough artist. Apparently he
had admired the more sculptural work that I

had produced for a number for

years. He had been waiting for
the right project to come along on

which we could collaborate. As
the borough artist Steve is the
first port of call for clients who

wish to conduct amazingly large-
scale projects. Examples of his

commissions may be seen all over Dudley.

A brief outline of the situation was simply that
a

supermarket was being built in Wednesbury town centre. The
client , S R Davis architects, were in association with Morrisons and
Sandwell MBC. Their vision was to transform the Town Square.

Artwork would enhance the site and would be funded through the

`percentage for arts’ scheme. These opportunities don’t come along

very often, and it was a real chance for me to work in a totally
different realm, with the support of Steve’s experience to ensure the

success of the project.

Steve had researched the fact that excavations on site had

uncovered the remains of a medieval ceramic furnace. It was

suggested that a replica model built entirely from glass would have

a great impact on the Town Square. Advising Steve on the

technicalities of glass making I helped to develop a design that

could be manufactured. The dome-shaped kiln would have walls of

about 100mm thick bricks. Inside, vessel forms would represent

products that would have been produced, whilst outside, set into the
floor, disks of glass would represent the fire pits surrounding the

kiln

The arch on a bridge is self-supporting, and the initial idea

was that this structure would work on the same basis. It took
countless calculations to ensure that the curve changed on the

profile of the kiln and that the bricks altered slightly in shape

accordingly, to form the correct curve. I did a quantity survey
to

work out the volume of glass needed and the time to make the glass

including the moulds, and then produced a quote.

There seemed to be a long delay whilst Steve’s concept

had to go through approval from planners and public. This provided

time to research the right materials to produce the work, and
additional labour if the deadline looked like it was going to be tight.

When the commission came through, the deadline was

horrendously tight, and an overrun would incur thousands of
pounds-worth of penalties for each day the commission remained
incomplete. It would hold up the opening of the site scheduled for

the beginning of December. This gave me three and a half months

to produce three tonnes of glass! This whole process seemed to go
against the idea of finely crafting a piece of art. It is of course in
everyone’s interest to get the job done efficiently but not at the cost

of quality. I seriously considered withdrawing from the commission

at this point. After some reflection I chose to go ahead reminding
myself it was a great opportunity. The pressures facing

•
these realities on this level were immense and really

took the joy out of the project from there on.

Inevitably, changes to the design had to be made:
could a form built entirely of

glass with no supporting

steelwork take the weight of two
adults? Health and safety is of
massive concern with every

activity now given that the site is
in the middle of a town square; it

was quite plausible that someone
could actually attempt to climb on

top.
A structural engineer’s

advice had to be called for at this

time. I have to say their solution wasn’t really sympathetic to the

overall look of the project: the type of structure they prescribed was
comparable to that of a bridge—too bulky! However without their

advice at this stage the project would simply have stalled, and I now

believe they were a necessary evil to progress. It meant that I would

have to craft the bricks to fit around the framework.

The frame was amazingly crafted by a local father and son

team, Apollo Fabrications. They were responsible for producing all

the metalwork for the commission and well experienced in these
projects. Whilst the frame was being produced I set to my mind to

work on the cast disks that are set around the outside of the kiln.
Initially about a mile of cane was pulled in various shades of red. I

favour producing my own cane as it comes out quite irregular with

interesting qualities. The density of colour slightly changes as does

the thickness; these subtle details bring the casts to life for me and I

am still pleased with the results. These canes were then set within a

sand mould with granules of glass colour set around to tie it all
together. The clear glass was then poured at a temperature which
left evidence of how the glass poured, with a subtle texture on the

surface which would catch the light. The ovals were produced in a
few sections which would then be simply set on the floor as though

laying large tiles.

Apollo Fabrications

installing the steelwork

At the same time as producing these ovals, formers were

produced to build the columns in the centre and the handles. These
were also sand-cast but here simply produced in clear.

The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009
26

Detail of the discs

they were installed

Gluing of bricks”
to fit the,
rame
Gas- fire inside the kiln, to

help wt the bonding agent

Bottle firms within the kiln

Once the framework was delivered and bolted together I

set up to cast the bricks. There were about 1000 of them to produce

and all with slightly different profiles, I had to work it out as I went

along in order to ensure that a staggered brickwork effect was
created.

At this point the site should have been ready for the

installation, but as usual there had been a series of delays which had

the knock-on effect that we would not be able to gain access for as
long on site as once thought. I also found out at this time (autumn,

and a cold one at that) that the glass-assembly compound that I

wanted to use would not work below five degrees centigrade. I
decided quickly that I should join sections of the bricks together,

which would then be simply fixed to the frame on-site in larger pre-
formed panels.

Fortunately for me all of my equipment held together, and

so did everyone who helped throughout the relentless pace of
production, and all the glass was produced on time. I still shake my

head in disbelief at this: I had organised so many back up plans just
in case and I was certain that I would be using a couple at least. The

one thing that had gone against me though was that it was the
coldest November that I could remember, we had already had a bit

of snow, and we were due to go and work on site for a week fitting
the glass together. Not a pleasant thought for a glassmaker who

would normally enjoy this time of year making glass in a nice warm

workshop! Adding to this, Jim, my assistant, who had worked in
glassworks for over 30 years had never before been involved in an

outdoor job, so you can imagine his delight!

I had not had a spare second to consider the lighting

27
aspect of the feature, and Steve used his contacts to work on the

LEDs to flood the form from the inside with light. Although LEDs

are supposed to be maintenance free, the project manager of the site

wanted to be able to access all lights just in case, so the design of

the supporting steelwork had to be adapted to allow for this.

A plinth had been erected on-site for the steel to sit on top.

With some encouragement the metal slotted into place. Text by
local Wednesbury writer Brendan Hawthorne
“Firepit Glory Holes

illuminating darkness with the promise of a new dawn”
surrounded

the plinth. Now everything else was up to me, and so we began

installing the glass. I had to overcome the problem of using glue in
freezing temperatures. The solution was to put a gas fire inside the

kiln, work quickly fixing the panels in place, then wrap the kiln in

masses of bubble wrap leaving a small vent. This enabled me to

work inside, filling gaps with the assembly solution in the warm; a

small space to work, but probably the warmest part of the Town
Square! This resulted in using about a mile of bubble wrap, as each

day we had to peel off and use new stuff for speed, the old bubble

wrap being saved to be recycled later. This process was also used

whilst building the disks in the centre of the kiln Finally, to finish,

we set the disks in around the outside.

The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009

Once finished I just felt a massive sense of relief. I look at

the work now and am amazed at how it all came together so well
considering there are so many components. I now look at Public Art
in a totally new light and am in awe at some examples that I see,

appreciating what goes on in the background.

The kiln was unveiled with many good reviews. Locals

liked it, though some really didn’t understand what it was supposed

to represent. Unfortunately, within 30 days it suffered vandalism.
There were broken pieces inside, the metal had been damaged and

glassware chipped. I raced to the site to repair what I could, and

when I stepped away I was pleased in as much as I thought no one

would be able to tell. The implications of such an attack in such a

short space of time meant that it needed protecting against further

harm. Steel grids were installed across the front section to stop

unwanted guests spoiling the detail again. I was deeply saddened; it

was the first project that I had produced where any member of the

public could get to appreciate my work without having to make a

purchase. In other countries these pieces of art become tourist
attractions and national treasures. I had hoped this piece in time
might have the same effect.

Straight after completing the commission I relocated my

studio to Broadfield House Glass Museum. I was exhausted and
was upset that it could take so little time to damage something that

had taken so long to create. After recovering from the commission

and the move, I have to say it has not stopped my thirst for similar

projects though, and I would love to execute more. I have produced
quotes on some but none yet have come to fruition.

Meanwhile the studio collections have gone from strength

to strength. Demand has grown and developed to newer audiences;

this is really what keeps me going as a glass artist. A real
achievement for me was to be selected for the Biennale 2008 and to
run a master-class for the International Festival of Glass.

This year I have participated in a group show in Coming,

New York entitled
‘Same Dfference’ ,
almost selling out on day

one. This came as a total shock, as I thought collectors out there

would be really tough to appeal to, having such a massive amount
to choose from.

13-18 October I am due to participate in the country’s

leading craft fair,
Origin,
at Somerset House, run by the Crafts

Council. I have planned thoroughly for this, with an application for

assistance from the Arts Council. I have developed concepts from

the Biennale and Coming to produce a new body of work. I am
really excited by this project and the potential avenues I may take

next as a result.

Allister Malcolm

www.allistennalcolm.
com

Allister’s recent work on display
at the entrance to the Broadfield

House studio, children’s activities going on in the background
(August 2009)

The Prime Minister has said that we must ‘design our way

out of the recession!’ Easy words, but difficult to implement.

Industry as a whole, but glass in particular both here and in Europe,

are in a dire situation. This is principally due to exorbitant energy
prices, unworkable legislation from Europe and the UK, the
headlong rush to ecotopia and history.

Broadfield may only have 30 years fame, but the

collections, access to 400 years of knowledge and literature, coupled

with the studio, form a lynch pin for the future.

We need the history to avoid making costly errors, to look

to alternative methods of creating beauty and invention without

recourse to time consuming methods, access to objects of desire to
create wonder and to ask the question — ‘how was that possible?’.
The studio has given many the opportunity to develop

glassmaking skills and many visitors the opportunity to observe and

take part in those skills. A truly symbiotic relationship!

The economic future is uncertain, but one thing I do know

is that glass is a wonderful material. This area has a heritage to be

proud of and deserves to have a living museum to keep the heart of

glassmaking alive, form the core of the industry and be part of an
economic regeneration combining tourism, industry and education.
The Friends are from all backgrounds and age groups, part

of a larger support community in glass, who, together with the local

Council, can design a Museum that is truly world class.

Barbara P. Beadman
Chairman of the Friends

Director — Plowden & Thompson Ltd and Tudor Crystal.

The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009

Here Today and

Gone Tomorrow—
`

‘r Hilton-Robt

Committee

member Francis

Grew showing
mastery of the

engraving drill.

RECENT GLASS ASSOCIATION EVENTS

I
South West Meeting, 25 April

On Saturday 25th April the revival meeting of

the South West Area took place in Clevedon. I was understandably apprehensive as to how it would go, but need not have worried, for

30 members turned up to make a most enjoyable and informative
afternoon. The star of the show was Maurice Wimpory, ably

assisted by his wife Pauline, who presented an illustrated talk on

“Cut Glass from the Middle of the 20
6
Century”.
Maurice

presented over 140 slides showing cut glass in its various forms and

styles from the U.K. and around Europe. Most of the slides were

taken against a backdrop of an opaque glass window in Maurice’s
home which enabled each piece of glass to be shown to great
effect. Many of the pieces covered in the talk were on display for

the audience to examine.

It had been suggested that members brought some items

from their own collection, and to say what they did or did not know

about these items. There was an excellent response to the

suggestion. Following the main talk, Dr. Geoff Lawson spoke
about his interest in Swedish glass and the several pieces that he
brought, as well as giving a brief history of Orrefors and Kosta. (He

also was able to identify an item of Swedish glass which I had
bought in the seventies). Among those who spoke about their glass

was Peter Beebe who was accompanied by his glass working
daughter, Jane Evans, and former Association Chairman, John

Delafaille. Virtually everyone who had brought a piece along had

something to say. The enthusiasm and friendliness of those who
came from as far afield as the Midlands, South coast and Devon,

made for an excellent meeting, the success of which bodes well for

the future. I hope that further and regular meetings will now be
planned.

Valerie Humphries

Roman
Glassmakers & Glass
Engraving, 9 May

We last visited the Roman Glassmakers some years ago

when
they had their experimental wood-burning kiln in a field

adjacent to their workshop and studio. They burnt 4 ‘A tons of

wood in a season, so it is hardly surprising that it was only in use for
the period of the project, but any disappointment we may have had
at sitting around a modern kiln was soon dispelled by the quality of
Mark Taylor’s demonstration – his glass blowing, and his

explanations. Mark, with David Hill, not only showed the highly

efficient ways that the Romans developed to make their glass, he

explained the fascinating little tricks of the trade: how the materials

29
used for

the cores of
vessels

made before glass-blowing
were

pulverised by the process so were easily extracted through the neck,

how they used the flame from an oil-lamp to coat the inside of their
moulds with soot so that the glass did not stick, and much more.

The demonstrations moved forward into the mediaeval and Tudor

periods. They also make (and sign) reproduction 18
th
Century

wine-glasses and Mark impressed us with the ease with which a
skilled glass-maker could produce a twist stem.

We then adjourned to a nearby village hall where a tasty

lunch awaited us, prepared and beautifully laid out by engraver
Patricia Hilton-Robinson and her husband Peter. Patricia started the

afternoon session with an explanation of the various techniques of
engraving, and how it has developed in recent years. She showed

slides of some of the finest examples, starting with Laurence
Whistler and his son Simon. Their works were all on clear glass,

and Patricia explained the stir that there was when engravers started

to use coloured glass. This opened up a whole new world to the
engraver, and took their art to new heights. Patricia supported the

slides with
examples of her own
work, including graal (with a

dramatic example

of how a poor

glassblower can
ruin the hours of

work the engraver
may have spent on

the embryo) and
cameo, the latter
illustrated by a

beautiful

and

poignant vase

“Here Today and

Gone Tomorrow”

depicting the

plight of orang-
utans when their
rain-forest is cut

down for palm-oil
plantations.

The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009

Whitefriars Glass

Tazza (detail), 1902

University Library

Patricia followed the presentation with a demonstration of

“simple” diamond-drill engraving, and she then provided each of us
with a drill, so that we could engrave an initial on a wine-glass or
tumbler. One of the party was particularly adept, but we all were

able to produce quite presentable engravings with Patricia’s patient
guidance.

There is nothing like hands-on experience to give you a

real appreciation of the effortless skill that goes into producing the
finest glass, and our thanks must go to Patricia, and to Mark and

David for giving us such an interesting day (and leaving us with the

thought just how did the Romans produce their cameo masterpiece,

the Portland Vase, all those centuries ago?!)

Bob Wilcock

Mark and David welcome visitors at any time, but recommend a telephone

call or e-mail first (01264 889688; vitrearii(&,romanglassmakers.co.uk).
Reproductions may be purchasedfivm www.romanglassmakers.co.uk.

Patricia’s web-site is www.hilton-robinson.co.uk. She will be attending the
Cambridge Glass Fair on 27 September with her latest work and offers

10% discount to fellow GA members. She very much enjoys working with

clients on personal or corporate commissions, and also runs glass-

engraving courses. She may be contacted on 01264 771447 or by e-mail to

patriciaa,hilton-robinson.co.uk. Details of the courses are at

www.earnley.co.uk
(01243 670392)

Blackwell House, 18 July

Blackwell,
,

onnqUiV/IwffigmMT

with a spectacular overview
of

top-quality domestic glass

produced by the London
company from the 1860s to
the

early 1920s. The exhibition was
complemented by an illuminating talk on ‘

The Minefield of Arts &

Crafts Glass, or, Is it Powell?’
by Nigel Benson, who had loaned

many items to the exhibition. Nigel illustrated many of the
characteristics that identify Powell’s glass and also pointed out the

many pitfalls, giving us new hope that should we ever be lucky
enough to stumble across a piece, we would now be better qualified

to recognise it!

A delicious lunch of soup, sandwiches and lemonade — all

homemade of course — fortified us all and the excellent gift shop

with its selection of books and contemporary crafts relieved many

wallets and purses too. The exhibition closes on 1 November so

there is still time to catch it — beautiful objects, beautifully
displayed, it cannot not fail to impress. The following exhibition is

Catching the Light: Contemporary Glass so it will also of interest to
glass-lovers. Details about Blackwell The Arts & Crafts House can

be found on the website www.blackwell.org.uk or by calling
015394 46139.

Karl A. Moodie

The Garton Collection, 2 & 29 July
Following the presentation by Francis Grew at the 2008

AGM and his article in Cone 86 we knew we were in for a treat on
this visit. Only one or two key pieces from the collection are on

show in the Museum, the vast majority are in the Research Centre
at Mortimer Wheeler House in North London, so these visits were a
rare opportunity to see the collection.

We were asked to choose 3 glasses each that we would

like to see, using the online catalogue at

www.museumoflondon.org/ceramics,
searching under 34.139%,

and naturally a high proportion of those chosen were the rarer and
most interesting pieces. The pleasures were not just in looking at

the pieces, talking about them, and hearing the expert views of
Francis, Alex Werner and Beatrice Behlen from the Museum and

the highly knowledgeable members around the table, but actually
handling them. For one person the thrill was in a priceless engraved

Beilby goblet, for another an exceptionally rare taperstick with an
inverted acorn knop, for us all a hand-painted goblet with

charmingly naive images that made us think of a young lady fed up

with embroidering a tapestry and deciding to paint the designs on

glass; not an outstanding work of art, but an absolute treasure!

The historic glassware safely away, modern glasses were

filled with wine, and we had a brief look into the main store to

round off a truly memorable evening.

Bob
Wilcock

A warm welcome to new members
Edinburgh
W Sussex
Cheshire
London

Essex

Edinburgh
Gloucs

Ingram

Somerset

Suffolk
Suffolk

London

Oxfordshire

Essex

London

Australia

Cheshire

On Saturday 18th July, thirty-six

members and friends of the Glass

Association wound their way to

Bowness-on-Windermere in the
heart of the Lake District which
provides the picturesque

backdrop to Blackwell House.

Baillie Scott and built in 1898 –
1900, Blackwell House is a

superb example of Arts & Crafts
domestic architecture, which
was

at the forefront of a global revival
of vernacular architecture.

We were given a warm welcome

by Dr Kathy Haslam, curator of

who gave an interesting history of the house and
its

various incarnations as holiday home, school, offices and now

visitor attraction. Blackwell is very special for a number of reasons:

it is the only Baillie Scott house that is open to the public; it was

built as a holiday home and therefore is more whimsical in design;
and it was Baillie Scott’s first

major commission in the UK, Miss
A Dalton

having primarily built up
his M

r 0 Barret James

reputation abroad thanks to Mr &
Mrs R J Stephenson

publications such as The Studio.

Miss R Wallis

Powell & Sons was the glass- Mr & Mrs M Noble

maker of choice for many Arts & Mr
G Neilson

Crafts designers and architects,
Mr J Hobbs

and the exhibition, James Powell Mr
A Fraser & Ms

& Sons of Whitefriars: Arts & Mr
R Edmunds

Crafts Glass-makers shows why,
Mrs L & Mr Watts

Ms J Berk

Mr & Mrs M Rooker

Mr R Flory

Mr A Aaronson

Mr W Davis

Dr B & Mrs H Middleton

The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009
30

1111,

4,–w4
–

04
P

THE PRESCOT STREET ROMAN MOSAIC GLASS BOWL

Earlier this year the Museum of London announced the

discovery of what has become known as
“The Dish of a Thousand

Flowers”,
made up of hundreds of millefiori petals. The petals are

blue edged with white set in a red ground Unfortunately the red

faded quickly after exposure, but can be seen on the photograph of

some of the fragments before they were re-assembled by
conservator Liz Goodman, a process that took three weeks—the
dish was whole when found but came to pieces when it was lifted

from the soil.
This is an unprecedented discovery, not only for London,

but for the whole of the Western Roman Empire.
Guy Hunt &

John Shepherd from
the Museum give some detail of the discovery

of the bowl and its importance:
Excavations last year at

Prescot Street, on the edge of

the City of London, carried
out by L-P : Archaeology,

were the first large scale
excavations within the
Eastern cemetery since the

early 1990s. Among the
many finds, was an

exceptional late 2n
d

or 3r
d

Century cremation burial
containing a unique shallow

mosaic glass dish. Mosaic
glass is well-known from the
earlier period of glass

production, during the 1 s
t

Century BC and 1s` Century AD, but some researchers have long

suspected that vessels were being made at a later date. Until recently
it would have been necessary to point out that such suspicions “can

only be confirmed by the discovery of other well-dated

specimens…” (Shepherd in
Barber and Bowsher

2000). We now

suspect that one of these has just turned up onto centre stage.
The glass dish was discovered within a cremation burial at

the eastern end of the site, in an area with several other unusual
burial types and structures including a stone mausoleum and a
round or possibly octagonal building foundation. The relationship

between these structures, the rich cremation and the wider cemetery
layout is the subject of ongoing post-excavation work and analysis.

Our grave, however, contained a range of grave goods; these
included 7 ceramic vessels and 3 glass vessels, a coin and of course

the mosaic glass dish itself These have yet to be studied in full but

31
appear to be late 2n

d
or 3′
d
Century in date.

Mosaic glass vessels are generally considered to be an

early type of luxury glass dating to the early to mid 1s` Century. For

example, finds from Camulodunum show that mosaic vessels were
in use there before the town’s destruction by Boudicca and her

supporters.

However, recent work on the glass from Augst in

Switzerland by Beat Rtitti has demonstrated that mosaic glass may

well have continued to be made, though in smaller quantities,
beyond the late first century — perhaps as late as the third century.
This is where the London bowl fits into this exciting new

development. Whilst there is an outside possibility that the bowl
could be a one hundred and fifty or two hundred year old survivor
from the earlier period — though this in itself would be both rare and

fascinating – it is more likely that it is contemporary with it the

associated objects and so is a rare example of a late second or third
century mosaic glass bowl. In terms of Roman glass making

technology, therefore, it is becoming increasingly possible to think
of a resurgence of cast (mosaic) glass in the later Roman period.

Bibliography
•
Barber B and Bowsher D, 2000. The Eastern Cemetery of

Roman London. Museum of London, London.

•
Price J, 2009. Pers. comm. with John Shepherd

•
Whytehead R, 1986. ‘The Excavation of an Area Within a

Roman Cemetery at West Tenter Street, London El
Transactions of LAMAS. Vol. 37.

The dish is currently on display at the
Museum of

London Docklands
at West Ind Docks, London E14, a short walk

from West India Quay station on the Docklands Light Railway. The
Museum is open daily, 10am-6pm.

The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009

Late in 1993 a group of glass enthusiasts decided to form a

Friends organisation for the Museum. The first meeting was held at

Dudley Art Gallery in March 1994, and The Friends were delighted

and honoured that Mary Boydell, from Sotheby’s in Ireland, gave the
inaugural lecture. At present there are more than 300 members

throughout the world and 18 corporate members. Members’ interests
range from those interested in the local history to avid glass
collectors and researchers.

The Friends support the work of the Museum through a

range of activities. One of the invaluable methods of support is

through The Friends’ Purchase Fund. The Museum lost its
acquisitions budget a few years ago due to local government cuts

and purchases for the collection are now made thanks to The

Friends, grants from other bodies and donations.
To date the Friends have raised over
£50,000
to help with

acquisitions and match-funding for grant applications.
Other activities organised by The Friends, called the Facets

programme, include an annual series of lectures on glass topics by

guest speakers, visits to glass factories and studios, talks on major

exhibitions at the Museum, providing refreshment facilities at

events, and a Christmas party.
Membership Benefits

•
Cameo newsletter 3 per year, includes reviews of events,

news of forthcoming exhibitions and events, sales and

auctions, appeals, snippets and other articles.

•
Lectures, films and members’ evenings

•
Social events and excursions

•
Opportunities to help at Museum events

•
10%

discount on purchases from Tudor Crystal showroom

•
10% discount on gifts and 5% discount on books purchased

from the Broadfield House Glass Museum or Red House

Glass Cone gift shops (exclusions apply)

Membership Rates
•
Individual £10.00

•
Family £15.00

•
Corporate £25.00

For fuller details and a membership application form write to
Friends of Broadfield House, do Broadfield House Glass Museum,

Compton Drive, Kingswinford, West Midlands, DY6 9NS

or visit wwwfriendsofbroadfieldhouse.co.uk

The Glass Cone—Issue No: 88 Autumn 2009

Museum of London

conservator

Liz Goodman

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of
Broadfiel

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The Glass Cone_No.88 Autumn 2009

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