Hi folks,
I've recently had the good fortune to view all the known existing Percival Vickers catalogues, plus one from Robinson & Co of Warrington from the 1920s I think. For reference the Percival Vickers ones are:
1846 cut glass
1881 cut glass
1881 pressed glass
1893 supplementary cut/moulded
1893 electroplate trade
1902 lighting glass shades
1911 supplementary cut/moulded
Some thoughts...
Perhaps everyone knew this already but it was a new thought to me - I doubt that many of the cut designs in these catalogues were ever produced, other than sample pieces. I simply don't see how Percival Vickers could dream up and produce >200 decanter designs in 1846 when they were founded in 1844. This would also tie in with difficulties finding examples of these cut pieces, and something the descendant of a Manchester glass cutter said to me the other month, about samples being produced prior to production, but the samples later being gifted to the original cutter.
It is clearer than ever that trying to match a tumbler / ale to any particular glass house is a forlorn task. Exactly the same designs pop up in the Percival, Molineaux and Robinson catalogues. With Molineaux Webb, there were some very distinctive looking almost Islamic style drinking glasses which I thought might be unique to the company, but nope, they are in the Percival Vickers catalogues as well!
There is a bit of a sea change between the 1881 Percival pressed catalogue, which contains designs from their earliest days in the 1840s, and the ones from the 1890s onwards which do not - though as these later catalogues were termed "supplemental" it is unclear if the company kept issuing the 1881 catalogue in tandem with later ones. The later catalogues used their registered pieces quite extensively in standard, electroplate, and glass shade design.
I was surprised to see a catalogue dated 1911 when I thought the company had ceased operation in 1907 (though it was finally struck off the company lists in 1914). There is information that Molineaux Webb advertising material was still being produced in the early 1930s after liquidation when others took it on, so I wonder if Percival Vickers went through a similar period of fluctuating ownership prior to the end.