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Author Topic: Sowerby Pattern  (Read 7347 times)

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Offline Adam

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Sowerby Pattern
« Reply #10 on: May 02, 2005, 06:38:04 PM »
Hello folks,

What a lot of follow-up questions I trigger off every time I open my big mouth!  I'll answer them first and then add personal stuff.

First "my" dates.  I tend to forget our newer friends - the old ones have heard these ad nauseam.  I've updated my Profile to include my glass career dates where anyone can see them.

The metal comport (compote?) feet were obtainable in chrome finish or aluminium.  In my time Sowerbys were supplying the latter only (can't remember who made them) which I always regretted because they looked cheap and nasty (sorry Anne) at least after a short time in use.

Abrahams were big chrome platers and were very big customers certainly of Sowerbys and I think of Davidsons.  They took over Davidsons some time in the 1960s I think and moved some or all of their plating processes to Davidsons site.  I saw this myself in 1974 or 1975 as part of my later non-glass career.

I might have phrased my sand-blasting sentence in a confusing way.  The glass industry of course bought sand hundreds or even thousands of tons at a time so it was an extremely cheap material for sand-blasting.  However it was banned on health grounds (silicosis) just after WW2 I think.  Safer but vastly more expensive carborundum-type grits had then to be used but the process was still widely called sand-blasting.

It is not always easy to tell whether an article has been "sand" blasted or acid etched, especially if it is done right across one surface.  S/B is usually coarser but technically doesn't have to be.  I can't always be sure myself which is which.  Whether or not any bit of the bottom is polished afterwards is irrelevant.

Many thanks for the kind remarks.  I'm not used to being called a treasure by ladies.  "Vulgar, disgusting old man" is the term of endearment I'm most used to (my wife doesn't read these postings).  After I left the industry in the 1970s I hardly thought about glass until about ten years ago when I first discovered the Internet and then Angela.  I was astonished to hear that the cheap stuff which I had helped to make was becoming collectible and that people were actually interested in how it was made.  That revived my own interest, although I am still not a collector.

Although most of the technical stuff which I spout can be found in text books my objective has been and is to get as much of the details and personal bits and pieces which are not on record anywhere else into the public domain.

Keep the questions coming and I'll do my best!

Adam D.

Offline Anne

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Sowerby Pattern
« Reply #11 on: May 02, 2005, 08:41:11 PM »
Adam, thank you for adding your dates - that's great as it ties down my double cakestand to a fairly narrow time span. I wonder what else in my collection I can tax your memory with? :D

As to the aluminium stand, I agree with you wholeheartedly!  It does look cheap and tacky, which is why it puzzles me all the more as the glass part of it is lovely - it certainly feels better made than some of the other pieces I've seen and is a beautiful blue - the photo really doesn't do the colour justice. I have a spare chrome stand which I was tempted to put onto the comport instead but am loathe to change it from its original state in a way even though the stand looks tacky. Crazy huh!?!
Cheers! Anne, da tekniqual wizzerd
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Offline Adam

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Sowerby Pattern
« Reply #12 on: May 02, 2005, 09:24:21 PM »
Anne,

Be a little careful with your "narrow band".  Your cakestand could have been made from perhaps a couple of years before my arrival up to an unknown number after I left.

Adam D.

Offline Anne

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« Reply #13 on: May 03, 2005, 12:55:16 AM »
Caution noted Adam, thank you. :)
Cheers! Anne, da tekniqual wizzerd
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Offline Frank

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Sowerby Pattern
« Reply #14 on: May 05, 2005, 09:55:49 AM »
There were several companies involved in manufacturing of decorative products such as these from Victorian times, and probably earlier, I listed a number of these from the discussed period in an earier thread.

It would be common practise to source glass and pottery from various glassworks, potteries etc.

Such companies were listed as giftware manufacturers, glass refineries, finishers etc. This is a huge area deserving more research than currently exists. Often they would mark the products with their trade mark.

Offline Anne

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Re: Sowerby Pattern
« Reply #15 on: March 22, 2008, 11:30:09 PM »
Cheers! Anne, da tekniqual wizzerd
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