Bernard is no longer with us.
I have also been critical of Manley's book.
To put the record straight,it is remembered that Manley's book was written in the days before the internet. It is acknowledged that he publicised glass collecting and made great efforts to bring it to the fore as a collectable and to document some of it's history.
And it is acknowledged in more than one thread on here, that he would probably have loved the Glass Message Board and the opportunity to discuss glass with those who also love glass as he did. And I am sure he would have loved the access to information that the internet affords,but that was not available when he was writing his book.
However, because of when the book was written, and that at the time there was a lack of opportunity for him to garner original source references, there are numerous incorrectly identified pieces in his book on Victorian Glass. And so for the time we are in now, whilst I have the book and do use it often to see what he might have said, I would never buy it in order to use it to identify glass.
That does not take away from the fact that it is a lovely book with great glass in it. But it does mean that if others use it to identify glass, then many pieces may be incorrectly identified ... and that is a problem when it comes to someone selling glass on the basis of an incorrect identification of a piece that has subsequently been correctly id'd as another maker. It's a problem because it muddies waters again, and because it might be mis-representation. It may also garner the seller an enormous sum of money, by them mis-representing who the item was actually made by ... thus leaving an unsuspecting buyer with perhaps an item that is worth considerably less than they paid for it even allowing for market forces.
I am not denigrating the work that went into producing the book. But in my opinion I would not use it as a reference source.
m