Topic: Frosted glass bust of Prince Albert Edward, Prince of Wales – info, please?

[agincourt17]

A frosted glass bust of Prince Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII following Queen Victoria’s death in 1901) with ICH DIEN (the Prince of Wales’s motto) at base of bust. The bust itself is of solid glass sits on base of glossy black glass with a concave base, the rim of which have been ground flat to allow the item to stand vertically. The joint between the black base and the bottom of the frosted bust is two flat horizontal surfaces which seem have been to be glued or fused together. There are no visible maker’s names or marks. The whole item is 8˝ inches high, the black base about 3inches, and the frosted bust about 5 ˝ inches.

(Permission for the re-use of these images on the GMB granted by Richard Knowles).

The bust shows Albert Edward in ceremonial or uniform dress, with braids and medals or orders. The likeness is very similar to those from photos of the Prince of Wales taken during the 1880s or early 1890s (when he still had longish hair on top of his head, with a centre parting), and unlike those from the late 1890s though to his death in 1910 when his hair was much shorter on top and receding (and with no centre parting) and his bear somewhat more trimmed and pointed.

Neilh on
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,31314.msg169734.html#msg169734

I see in Lattimore pg143 there are similar clear busts of Gladstone and Disraeli which are unattributed.

I ran these images past Siegmar of the German Pressed Glass Correspondence magazine and he sent back some sketches from the Josef Riedel factory in Bohemia of a series of busts dated to 1885. Subjects included Gladstone, Disraeli, Queen Victoria and others, but only examples in clear glass are known, and none of these sketches were a good match for those shown in Lattimore's 1979 book or the images in this post.

In Musterbuch Josef Riedel, Polaun [Polubný], Bohemia c.1885 at
http://www.pressglas-korrespondenz.de/archiv/pdf/pk-2005-3w-01-mb-riedel-1885.pdf
the following busts are listed (but not shown):
#514 Gladstone  - p118
#515 Disraeli – p117
#516 Prince of Wales – p118
#517 Queen Victoria – p118

http://www.pressglas-korrespondenz.de/archiv/pdf/pk-2005-2w.pdf
has photos of some frosted glass busts attributed to Riedel, as well as some frosted glass busts possibly attributed to Harrach (but unfortunately none resembling Gladstone, Disraeli, Queen Victoria or the Prince of Wales for comparison).

Michael Nott shows a frosted glass bust of a female at
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,24495.msg136530.html#msg136530
the style and size of which (if not the subject) matching that of the Prince of Wales bust. I suggest that it not unlikely that both busts are from the same manufacturer and of approximately the same date. I suppose the female portrait might possibly be that of Albert Edwards’s wife, Alexandra of Denmark, but photos of her from the 1860s onwards always show her with somewhat curly hair (no centre parting) piled on top of her head.

I can find nothing to match online, so does anyone have photos of the Riedel busts of Disraeli, Gladstone, Queen Victoria or the Prince of Wales for comparison, please?

As with the case of Michael Nott’s frosted glass female bust, I would be grateful for any feedback, opinion or speculation.

Fred.

[agincourt17]

More photos.

Fred.

[gaspy1]

I have a similar bust of Prince Albert, which has the deteriorated remains of a paper label on its base. The piece is a cast glass bust (head and shoulders to top waistcoat button) of Prince Albert, in translucent clear glass on a black glass plinth.  The two pieces are, I think, glued together with a cork filler.  It’s 15cm high, and 7cm wide at the shoulders.  The bust itself is 10cm high.  On the lower front of the bust is the name Prince Albert.

There are no marks, but stuck up in the interior of the pedestal is a small diamond shaped label with the now very faint printed text “Sydney International Exhibition 1879” in a gothic font.  It’s very hard to read (let alone photograph) but with a hand lens and a good light, that is quite clearly what it says – and nothing else, unfortunately.  There is no trace of a maker’s name or mark on the label, or on the piece itself.

I bought this piece at auction in New Zealand, but have been unable to find out any more about it, so I was delighted to see this discussion.

[agincourt17]

Certainly a reasonable likeness of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband and Consort, as he would have appeared in just before his death in 1861.  See Fig. 7 at http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/journals/research-journal/issue-03/john-thomas-and-his-wonderful-facility-of-invention-revisiting-a-neglected-sculptor-1/

It does seem slightly odd, though, that commemorative busts of Albert were still being sold in 1879, 18 years after his demise.

All we need now are photos of frosted glass busts of Disraeli, Gladstone and the august Queen Victoria in the same style, though that would still be little nearer producing an attribution.

Fred.

[agincourt17]

Here's a photo of Prince Albert Edward taken in 1860.

There is a possibilty that the bust was made in commemoration of his wedding to Princess Alexandra of Denmark in 1863 (though he was actually clean shaven at the wedding, growing his beard again shortly after), and the likeness in the photo is still pretty similar to that of the bust and the later photos I have posted.

Fred.

[gaspy1]

Given Queen Victoria's doting on Albert, I don't think it is all that unusual they were still selling his busts. And perhaps they were getting rid of old stock in the colonies 

[neilh]

According to Jill Turnbull's book on Scottish glass, From Goblets to Gaslights, John Ford, Holyrood Glass Works Edinburgh, showed several busts of famous people at the Sydney Exhibition of 1879, and Prince Albert was amongst them.