Just sold on eBay for a whopping £68.90!
A clear pressed glass piano insulator. Diameter 100mm x height 42mm.
Date lozenge to the base for July 1859 - Parcel 2. Corresponds to Registered Design number 120613, registered by Thomas Dawkins of 4 Little Warner Street, Clerkenwell, London, and the design registration is for a piano insulator. National Archives refs: BT 44/7/120613 and BT 43/61/120613
The 1861 census gives Thomas Dawkins as ‘importer and manufacturer of musical instruments’ (presumably including pianos).
Googling generated an article: Uranium Glass by Barrie Skelcher
http://www.glassassociation.co.uk/sites/default/files/WEBSITE%20Uranium%20Glass%20website%20%282%29.pdfFrom page 8:“Two items I am confident come from this earlier period are a piano insulator and a tumbler (Plate
. The former (Plate 8, right) is green, has a density of 3.00 g/cc and a uranium content of 0.22% by wt. It bears a diamond registry mark equating to registration 120613, 8th July 1859. The deposition states: “Made and Registered by Percival, Yates, & Vickers for Thomas Dawkins, Little Warner Street, Clerkenwell, London”. From this it would seem that the original article was made by Percival Yates & Vickers but raises doubts as to who owned the moulds. The matter is significant, as I have examined several other examples of this design. These do not have the diamond registry mark on the underside but a pattern of either concentric rings or small squares (Plate 8, left). The density of these was 2.52 g/cc and they had a uranium content of 0.25%-0.28% by wt. I have also seen this pattern portrayed as made by the Crown Crystal Glass Company in Australia!.... "
Does anyone have photo of the uranium glass (registered or unregistered) examples to share, please?
Does anyone know of any other examples of Pecival Vickers (or any of the other Manchester glassworks) apparently registering designs or making pieces for third parties?
(Permission for re-use of these images on GMB granted by maitland1972).
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