Topic: Alfred and James Davies, Stourbridge, bowl - RD 9807, 15 July 1884

[agincourt17]

A mould-blown hemispherical bowl of cranberry opalescent glass, the rim of the bowl being crimped into 32 small folds. The bowl exterior has an applied clear opalescent trail pincered into five stub feet. The underside of the bowl has a polished pontil mark engraved ‘Rd. No. 9807’.  4 1/8 inches (10.2cm) high by 4 3/4 inches (12.1cm) top rim diameter.

Registered design number 9807 was registered on 15 July 1884 Alfred and James Davies, [Amblecote, Stourbridge]. The design was for pattern and shape.

(Permission for the re-use of the images on GMB was granted by ourplacean).

James & Alfred Davies were cousins, and they took over the Parkfield  Glassworks (on the south side of King William Street, Amblecote)  some time before 1881. The firm traded as Alfred  and James Davies, Dennis Park Amblecote. James died in 1895, and the firm continued to trade as A. and J. Davies. Alfred died in 1910. The business was taken over by his second son, Alfred Edward Davies, and eventually closed in about 1932. The cone at the site has long since gone, but the main façade facing King Street still stands as Faraday House. 

I can only find five registrations for their designs:
RD 4242   27 March 1884
RD 9805-8   15 July 1884

Without the Rd. No., this would simply have been another unattributed ‘Stourbridge’ piece, or wrongly attributed to Webb, Stevens & Williams, etc.

Does anyone have photos of other Alfred and James Davies registered pieces to share?

[Bernard C]

A brilliant and most important discovery.   My wholehearted congratulations.

Bernard C. 

[bOBA]

Threads such as these really make GMB worthwhile! Factually accurate additions to the extant knowledge base are really vitally important. I also live quite near this place so I will look out for the old building frontage next time I am passing... It makes you wonder how many unrecorded pieces this small glasshouse produced....


Robert (bOBA)

[agincourt17]

Robert, Dudley MBC has a Glass Quarter Historic Landscape Characterisation planning document outlined at
http://www.dudley.gov.uk/resident/planning/historic-environment/historic-landscape-characterisation-hlc/glass-quarter-hlc/
and on that page, there is a list of pdf documents.

If you open up the second pdf document in the list, entitled
Glass Quarter HLC Appendix 2 [pdf / 544KB] Proposed Listed and Locally Listed Buildings and Archaeological Priority Areas
page 30 has the schedule for Parkfield Glassworks, King William Street, Amblecote, [HSBMR: 4808]
including a photograph of the frontage before it was renovated, and more details of the whole site.

The same appendix also has lots of information about other scheduled former glassworks sites, with some interesting photos.

[Bernard C]

...   this small glasshouse   ...

Robert — Do you have any evidence for that?   Note the Davies glassworks'

• Sophisticated use of colour and opalescence,
• Clever use of moulds and formers,
• Marketing to the USA.

It may have been rather more than a small glassworks.

Also see Gulliver p.63 for other examples of similar foot construction.

Bernard C. 

[bOBA]

Fair point Bernard, the size seems to be undetermined. I have known of factories export to the USA with fewer that 20 employees but some may say that still doesn't constitute a small glassworks. You are correct that the number of employees that were working at this factory (a number that doubtless varied) is not known to us and indeed may not have been "small," as I suggested,

Robert (bOBA)