Kev we posted at the same time. But I've written it now so I'm going to post it anyway
Rockingham Ware was a Wedgwood treacly brown glaze colour used from c.1865 from what I can deduce.
So - is it possible that 'Rockingham' was what S&W called that dark reddy brown or browny red colour seen on the overlay casing on that crystal jug from Bonhams, in homage to the Rockingham Ware from Wedgwood?
Reading Manley I agree with you Kev that he was using Rockingham to describe a colour of glass.
But where is his proof that vase (item 93) was made by Stevens and Williams?
Without wishing to muddy the waters, could the confusion with silver foil items might have come into play because:
in Charles Hajdamach British Glass 1800-1914 pp 287-289 he talks about the popularity of the combination of glass with metal as a decorative technique in the latter part of the 19th century. He says not only in England but in Europe and the United States. He goes on to talk about Stevens and Williams developing an
electro-plating silver deposit method.
This silver plating was used on the outside of their glass pieces from my reading of the above article in the book, but he goes on to say that it was also used on china, because on page 288 and 289 he continues the description of S&W development of this method as follows:
'
On Stevens and Williams examples the silver was usually engraved with linear designs and buffed to a bright shine. Some silver deposit decoration was also carried out on ceramics at the glassworks. Two entries in the pattern books,at numbers 24347 and 24348, read 'Coalport China silver deposit' and 'Rockingham Ware silver deposit' and date to the very end of 1897'.
(The 'Rockingham Ware' may be a coincidence in our narrative because Wedgwood have a range called Rockingham Ware)
The silver plating method CH describes in the book appears to describe a surface decoration method of silver deposit on the outside of the glass. He references a black and white plate 209 on page 217 which appears to have a silver surface deposit rim and foot (but difficult to tell in a b/w photo). I don't read it that it is describing a method of using silver internally in a glass item and then casing it over in glass.
Is it possible that somewhere along the line the word 'Rockingham' has been misappropriated and used as a descriptor for those items that contain a dark red or reddy brown glass and also have silver foil encased in them? Possibly taken from Manley's description of item 93?
Did Manley know something about that vase item no 93 that he wasn't telling? did he know S&W made it or did he just decide it must have been from S&W? There are many other examples in his book which have not been correctly identified.
The Bonhams descriptor taken from the pattern books could therefore accurately describe the pillar rock crystal jug, as it could be Rockingham (the colour which is a dark reddy brown or browny red) cased over Ruby (which is the brighter red glass that can be seen on the internal layer) or ...
it could be that the colours show as dark red over lighter red because it was a thick layer of red glass and, where it has been cut back in cameo, the result is the thicker parts just look darker than the thinner parts. So in fact the 'Rockingham' part of the 'Rockingham/Ruby' descriptor in the pattern book actually refers to 'Rockingham' being some silver deposit S&W made on the piece, over 'Ruby' being the entire red colour glass they used to make the blank.
It may well be that a silversmith then added further silver embellishment (lid,spout,curlicues?) as well as the already applied (bands around jug body, and foot and plated handle?) 'Rockingham' silver put on by S&W.
But the pieces which have intercalaire silver foil, i.e. sandwiched between two layers of glass, and are also made from glass which may contain a reddy brown or browny red colour included somewhere in the item, cannot accurately be identified as 'S&W' or even 'S&W Rockingham' without further evidence that S&W made glass in this encased foil method can they? i.e. Manley's item 93 and the items Greg linked to.
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Topic: Victorian Glass Vase Raspberry Pontil S&W Rockingham / Thomas Webb OR Walsh (Read 7026 times)
