This pedestal bowl was listed recently on eBay as a Percival Vickers stemmed bowl with indistinct lozenge (but thought to be about 1864/5).
I was intrigued as, although there were similarities to some of the Manchester glass registrations of that period (type of stem, frosting, star decoration), nothing quite fitted the bill for any of the known Manchester registrations. So – last of the big spenders – I acquired it for the grand sum of £2.20.
It stands 14.5cm tall, with a top rim diameter of 13.5cm. The bowl is frosted and the rim scalloped. The bowl is decorated with three horizontal rows of impressed, graduated, 8-pointed stars. The baluster stem and circular foot are clear, and the underside of the foot has an impressed 36-point star pattern. Registration lozenge off-centre from the polished bowl interior. The quality of the pressing is excellent, and the bowl has an a nice ‘ring’ when struck.
To me the lozenge reads:
Class III (looks like lower case ‘m instead of the standard ‘III’); year N (but written backwards) – for 1864; day 11 (looks like lower case ‘n’); parcel 11 (looks like lower case ‘n’); month C – for January.
If my interpretation of this rather strange lozenge is correct, then the only registration on 11 January 1864 was for RD 170914; the registrant the The Tutbury Glass Company, Tutbury, Staffordshire and London, and the registered parcel number is 11 (as expected).
This appears to be the first design registration for the Tutbury Glass Company. Their next 3 registrations from were a batch on February 28 1868 (RDs 217107-9). I can’t see any more ‘lozenge’ registrations, and I haven’t checked the 1884+ registration numbers.
A continuous presence in the glassmaking industry had existed in Tutbury since at
least 1810 with the establishment of works on the Ludgate Street and Burton Street
site. The earliest history of the site was associated with a glass cutting works - glass vessels were produced offsite in Birmingham and imported to be cut, patterned and finished, but by 1839-40, the site was making own glass. The Tutbury Glass Co., principally manufactured cut-glass, until 1880. By 1884 the business had been bought and reopened by Sir Tonman Mosley of Rolleston Hall, who retained the company name. The company at this time was predominantly involved in the production of jugs, tumblers and measures for the Burton brewery houses. In 1894 the works was leased to theTutbury Glass Co. Ltd., and in 1906 the lease was taken over by Thomas Webb &Corbett Ltd. of Wordsley, in Kingswinford, which bought the works in 1920.
Presuming that the piece is indeed by the Tutbury Glass Company, it’s the first I have seen, and probably the earliest definitively documented design from the glassworks.
Were there any other shapes bearing this [1864] lozenge?
Does anyone have images of any (or all) of the 1868 TGC registered designs to share?
Are there any other known pressed glass pieces attributed to the TGC?
