Topic: Sowerby Registrations from 14th May 1878 - Parcel 9.

[agincourt17]

I think there have been odd Sowerby design registrations for which there seem to be no pattern matches in the extant pattern books but I will need to check back through the reference photos before I can itemise them.

Fred.

[Anne]

I've looked at Sowerby Vol 1 (Thistlewood CD) and there is nothing in the shape of RD 321378 in it. Nor does it show in the two Sowerby catalogues VIII (1880) and IX (1882) here: http://www.victorianpressedglass.com/pattern_books.htm so it's a bit of a puzzle. I've also looked through Jenny Thompson's Pressed Glass and its white-covered supplement, no image of this in either volume, not in Angus-Butterworth either. Can't find a mention of it online anywhere, so I wonder if it was a design they tried and then found it didn't work in practice?

[Paul S.]

it is beginning to appear that way Anne - the more you look at the outline shape, combined with what may have been a very difficult if not impossible cavity to produce with a plunger, then it's not unreasonable to think someone was being a tad over optimistic.         That said, there are many Sowerby designs that had improbable looking bodies and cavities, but which did in fact see the light of day -  sometimes it makes you marvel at the factory's ingeniousness.

[Anne]

I would think something that shape would have to be mould blown rather than mould and plunger, or am I way off base there? 

[Paul S.]

do you mean manually by mouth, using a blowing iron  -  or by some mechanical pneumatic contrivance?             Showing my ignorance here Anne  -  I've no idea if, at that stage in the Victorian period, mechanical means were available  -  perhaps someone can tell us.
I'd agree with you, that the appearance of the body and presumed shape of the cavity, would suggest a plunger is out of the question  -  but whatever the situation, for some reason this design seems not to have seen the light of day.            I wonder if another manufacturer's design was being infringed, and Sowerby quietly withdrew this one?

[Lustrousstone]

Probably mouth blown but into a mould; it was and is very common

[Paul S.]

thanks