Topic: Lily of the Valley-unidentified so far

[flying free]

I didn't know where to put this information but since we had been discussing French Glass factories, I thought it was an interesting fit here.
It's possible you have already seen this or know about it, but I came across this article written in 1849 for the run-up to the Birmingham Exposition and thought it interesting that they mention the glass industry in Birmingham and then reference comparisons to  Munich, St Mande and Murano

'The refined taste which characterises Messrs. Bacchus’ work, and the facility with which,  by the employment of English workman only they can now imitate and reproduce the most elaborate varieties of the manufacturies of Munich, St Mande and Murano, scarcely need our commendation.'
(no comments on paperweights and none on Richardson's which is what I was searching for)

http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/DLDecArts/DLDecArts-idx?type=turn&entity=DLDecArts.JournDesv02.p0019&id=DLDecArts.JournDesv02&isize=M

The journal of design and manufactures
(1850)

The journal of design and manufactures. No. 7. September, 1849,   p. [1]
Original papers: Birmingham, its manufactures and approaching exposition of products of industry.,   pp. [1]-17

m

[tropdevin]

***

Hi.  These references to the English makers are always intriguing. There are contemporary comments in journals about paperweights by Bacchus 'and other manufacturers' (no names, sadly), which compare them favourably to 'the many' Bohemian products. That last bit is odd: we find very, very few Bohemian paperweights of that vintage around the UK, but quite a few St Mandé and Clichy.  I suspect that unscrupulous retailers were selling certain French paperweights as 'Bohemian', because Bohemian glass commanded a premium.

I too am still searching for evidence that Richardson, Walsh Walsh, William Gammon or various others made some paperweights around 1850...but there may well be information out there that will one day come to light. There has been success with Maltsov catalogues showing Russian plaques and paperweights, and Baccarat catalogues that show the moulded lion and bee paperweights, so we can live in hope.

Alan

Alan

[flying free]

If I find anything on paperweights I'll post, but really I was searching for Richardson's glass 

I just thought it interesting that they mentioned St Mande as a competitor since St Mande seems to be the least talked about/known about compared to St Louis, Clichy and Baccarat here if you see what I mean?

When you mention your article and they say ' the many Bohemian products' do you think they mean vases/goblets etc, or is it implicit that they mean paperweights as a comparison?  I only ask because the press seemed obsessed with Bohemia as a competitor around that era, I think because of the development of coloured and cased glass etc and Bohemia being one step ahead at that time, with British glass following in their footsteps (or so it seems to me).

It's a weird thing that article, because they talk gushingly about Rice Harris and Bacchus, then Richardson gets a small mention but they described them as '...monster glass-works'.  So on one hand they were obviously huge, but on the other they merit a tiny mention and one picture of a goblet.  Rather irritating for me, since I'm searching for Richardson pics.
m

[flying free]

Alan, have you seen in Charles Hajdamach's British Glass 1800-1914, the reference on page 419 under the list of Richardson's exhibits at Birmingham 1849, no 84. ' Plain egg-shape Specimen'?
m

[tropdevin]

***

Hi m. Thanks - I'll check out that reference.

I recall that there are images of Richardson glassware in 'The Art Journal Illustrated Catalogue: The Industry Of All Nations 1851', which is digitised and available online - but maybe you have seen those.

Alan

[flying free]

thanks Alan, yes I've been trawling books for those as well as online
It did occur to me that by 'Specimen' they might mean a specimen vase for one stem, but having looked again at the list, they seem to capitalise the first letter for a particular 'shape' and if they mean 'Vase' they say Vase.  So I think the shape will have been called a 'Specimen' and it's plain and egg-shaped therefore ... a paperweight of some sort possibly? otherwise I think they would have called it 'Specimen Vase'.
m

[flying free]

Alan I've just been re-reading the exhibition catalogue and again you probably already have this info but since the Richardson display mentioned 'egg-shape' Specimen, I thought I'd mention I'd come across this for Rice Harris Islington
https://archive.org/details/artjournalillust00bradrich
page 182
where the author mentions amongst a list of items such as toilet bottles, claret jugs, vases, there is also mention at the end of the sentence of 'specimens of colours combined by casing or coating; specimens of threaded or Venetian glass' - is it possible that by 'specimens' they mean paperweights?
Just thought I'd mention it - I'm probably wrong
m

[tropdevin]

***

Hi m.  I think the word 'specimen' was used then in a similar way to our use of 'object' or 'item' now, and does not imply anything specific. When I looked at the Art Journal in the past I concluded that the threaded glass referred to was probably twist stems of wine glasses, and similar.  Around that time the words 'letter weight' were used as much as 'paperweight', and 'millefleurs' was also used.  I thinks one needs to find such references to be confident that they refer to what we would now call a paperweight.

Alan

[Krecik]

Another Lily of the Valley to add to the examples.  A recent Purchase from an auction house in Ottowa Canada. 

[w8happiness]

Hi and thanks a lot!

A very exciting find indeed! What makes me wonder is the fact that we
must add CANADA to our list of appearance on the market, so what we
have had of countries so far was

Germany, Northern England, France, United States (?)  and now Canada

- except one object that was an ashtray every item was a paperweight...

attached a Picture (courtesy of Andreas Stammwitz) this will be my next
purchase so this is #3 in my collection,

Kind regards E.