Topic: Bolton, Son & Wood Rd. 310657 dated 04.06.1877

[Paul S.]

could be wrong, but a quick search showed nothing previously on the Board under this name, and looks to be equally thin on the ground in the usual list of details of diamond Registrations.
The original drawing submitted to the Board of Trade is, as you'd expect, without the engraving, but am assuming this company made and engraved the dish  -  the engraving making an attractive piece out of what otherwise would be just another C19 pressed dish.
Length is about 11" (c. 280 mm) - and one of the most legible lozenges I've seen.

I know less than nothing of Bolton, Son & Wood (Warrington, Lancashire)  -  so if anyone has information which they would like to add to this topic, please feel free to contribute.              thanks.

[Anne]

I don't know much about "Bolton, Son and Wood" either Paul, but in my searches of old newspapers I found a mention of them, dated Tuesday 4 September 1877, in the Staffordshire Sentinel where it was reported that a tragic accident had happened at the Orford Lane Glassworks of Bolton, Son and Wood, when a cupola chimney collapsed into the street killing two children and injuring many other children and adults. Earlier the same year, in April 1877, Thomas Barker and Thomas Nevins - both glassmakers at Bolton, Son and Wood - were fined for employing children after 10 o'clock at night! [Source: "Narrow Windows, Narrow Lives: The Industrial Revolution in Lancashire" by Sue Wilkes]

Meanwhile, on the Great Glass website I found a mention of the glassworks as follows,

Bolton, Edward
Warrington, Lancs, England (c 1869 - 1901)
(see also the Orford Lane Glass Works. Formerly Robinson & Bolton (1855-1869, Peter Robinson leaving to found Robinson & Skinner), becoming Edward Bolton (1869-1875), then Bolton Son & Wood (1875-1877), Edward Bolton (1877-1885), & finally Edward Bolton & Sons (1888-1892), the glassworks finally closing in 1901. Pressed glass. 7 designs registered from 1869 to 1875, then 1 design (4th June 1877) as Bolton, Son & Wood, 1 design (11th December 1885) as Edward Bolton, and 1 last design (11th August 1888) as Edward Bolton & Sons

So the design you have is the only one they registered as Bolton Son & Wood, Paul.

[Paul S.]

many thanks Anne  -  that's a marvellous contribution and addition to the pressed glass information storehouse on the Board - there can't be many Registrations that are unique in the sense of a single entry under the one name.
Very human story to so much of the Victorian way of life - no doubt there were many tragic accidents and abuse of child labour similar to those you mention  -  reminds me of the depressing read every time I pick up Henry Mayhew's 'London Labour, London Poor' - more accounts of those at the bottom of the social strata and without any workers rights etc. 

Compliments also to the Great Glass site  -  someone has obviously done their homework and it looks to have been quite a complex job unravelling the name of Bolton.

If anyone wanted this dish they're welcome to it gratis, although you'd have to collect - I tend not to keep such pieces these days, and it will go back out to the charity shop in the coming week or so.

thanks again.

[agincourt17]

Thank you for showing this, Paul.

Fred.

[flying free]

oh gosh Paul, shouldn't it go to a museum or something?  if it is the only one registered?
is it the only one in circulation so far? Perhaps it should go to the V&A maybe.
m

[Paul S.]

cogitating on how many individual pieces might have been made, of any one particular Registered design, is intriguing and doubtless impossible to answer.     Some of Sowerby's popular designs for example might have been made in many tens of thousands, bearing in mind the lifetime of a well made mould, and as we know some moulds were sold, at the demise of one factory, to be re-used by another.
I've not seen this one before  -  I don't think Fred has either - and bearing in mind the rather fragmented history of the company then this is probably one of those pieces produced in vastly smaller numbers.
Might send an email to Reino Liefkes, but think they tend to concentrate on what most people consider to be more important pieces - just don't think they would have room for much in the way of pressed glass however interesting it may seem to us.            thanks for the suggestion though.

p.s.    why don't you take it and become a collector of pressed glass. 

[Lustrousstone]

You could contact Warrington Museum http://www.warringtonmuseum.co.uk/

[Paul S.]

thanks Christine.

[Anne]

That is a good suggestion, Christine.

[Paul S.]

have spoken to the museum and they sound interested, but they have a system of vetting and discussion before deciding apparently, so will let you know their thoughts later.