have we any references anywhere to crackle glass being made by
'...
before the final shaping, the outer case only is deeply marked with a piece of sharp metal (a nail will do) after which the blowing is continued '
Is it possible Manley did not understand how crackle glass was made? or more pertinently have I missed a vital technique that was used in the making of crackle glass?
I've honestly never heard of this method. It sounds pretty hard work to me - why use as a sharp nail (on a boiling hot gob of glass? how would you get near enough to it with a nail without burning yourself?) presumably to 'score' the surface in a nice pattern, when for hundreds of years glass makers have sprayed or dipped the piece into cold water and then blown it out further to make the same pattern?
Dodsworth does state it is blown into an irregularly patterned mold and I don't understand that description either - at least not in the context of looking at Manley's bowl. It doesn't match up (to me - again open to correction). And I am open to correction n all my thoughts, as what I know about glassblowing can be written on a stamp (or on the paperweight I made last week
)
Manley's 'crizzle' effect is actually the crackled glass that has not been blown out further I think. I have this on a Leveille vase where the internal layer is smooth then the exterior of that layer was sprayed or dipped to crizzle it into crackles all over that don't have fissures, then it is cased again, then cased in coloured glass, then cased again
- tis a mighty heavy piece of glass.
I would call this tight crackle but crizzle is a good description of the effect. Except that crizzled often refers to glass that has gone like this because of poor mix in the batch somehow I think. I mean in centuries old glass.
To reference some crackle points -
Here are some Stevens and Williams crackle glass pieces from the Broadfield House collection
http://gorgeousglass.org.uk/collections/getrecord/DMUSE_ST390/ (described as crackled with water) - I'd call this tight crackle, i.e. not blown out further)
http://gorgeousglass.org.uk/collections/getrecord/DMUSE_BH2757/ This is Abbey Glass the crackled version. The outer layer has been crackled and blown out further to open the fissures between the crackles
http://gorgeousglass.org.uk/collections/getrecord/DMUSE_ST406/ This is Moss Agate - done in the way I described my Leveille piece above I believe. It has been cased over the fine crackle so has a smooth outer surface.
There do not appear to be any pieces I could find that look like the Manley bowl I'm afraid.
However, to me, the Manley bowl looks like my little yellow vase I posted earlier with the crackled white exterior. i.e. a translucent glass outer that has been crackled, over a clear glass interior layer.
Re:
The ' opal' casing comment .... that denotes white glass I would suggest?
So could I be right that at least one of those pieces in the Manley book is cased in white and then crackled?
m