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Anne — What a wonderful find. Yes, it's a rummer, but what a stunner. It is of major importance. I've never seen one before, nor had I ever suspected its existence.
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I had better explain.
On October 13, 1849, W.H., B. & J. Richardson of Wordsley near Stourbridge registered a design for a pressed glass tumbler with a slightly taller facetted pattern, see Hajdamach, British Glass 1800–1914, pl.302(iii). This would have been the first pressed glass design registration by a British glassworks known to us today, had Richardson's not been beaten to it by just one day, by Thomas Gammon of Birmingham, who registered your design on October 12, 1849.
To my certain knowledge there were just two patterns made under this registration by Thomas Gammon, a pickle jar with matching lid (Hajdamach, pl.302(ii)), and a footed jelly. The jelly has the lozenge sideways on fitting snugly under the bottom row of facets. The lozenge has III in the "handle", then clockwise from the top, S, 12, 6 (parcel number), B. You will probably find that there is a faint registration lozenge in the same position on your rummer, but it could be unmarked, or it is just possible that it carries a different lozenge, as Thomas Gammon registered other designs around the time. Hajdamach, pl.302(i) is a tumbler in a similar pattern.
Of course, only the top was pressed. As the design finishes at the top of the facets, where there is a clear mould line (explaining the roughness at this point), the rim must have been vertical when moulded (otherwise it would have been impossible to remove the glass from the mould), and only flared after the addition of the hand-made stem and foot, and the subsequent transfer to a pontil rod. I can't remember whether the main part of the mould was 2- or 3-sided. On some early (1860s–70s) pressed rummers you get anomolies like eight pattern repeats split asymmetrically 2-3-3 around a 3-sided mould, but I don't think this is one of those.
Hajdamach's photograph was first published in the Glass Circle's Strange & Rare in 1987. There is some confusing text in this book on this subject, and I am convinced that Hajdamach interpreted the evidence as I have done above, as he just omitted the confusing bits. While Hajdamach is a superb reference, you will find that the book is also a model of diplomacy, with anything controversial like this omitted.
Bernard C. 8)
Anne — It doesn't surprise me at all that you couldn't find a registration lozenge. Had you found one, it would have been found on other examples, and be well known. Also thanks for your earlier kind remarks, but I can assure you that anyone who is reasonably familiar with English Victorian table glass would have told you the same; I just happened to be the first to respond.
Your rummer is important because:With the possibility of tumblers with ground and polished pontil marks being cut-down broken rummers, reducing their value as evidence, it changes the status of the Thomas Gammon registration from two items, a pickle jar and jelly glass, to a suite of tableware.It also raises the likelihood of other unmarked items in the suite which have yet to be found and identified.This would be the first registered suite of English pressed tableware, not just by a day, but by years.With the mould lines, all of which are zigzags, all hidden in the decoration, it is evidence of a level of sophistication of mould-making that brings into question the traditional view that English glass houses were considerably behind their American competitors in pressed glass technology. This view may have arisen from lack of substantive evidence about the early years of pressed glass here in Britain. I have long held the view that suppliers of raw materials, machinery, &c., spread such information worldwide very quickly indeed; it was, and still is, a core element of supplier sales and marketing strategy.Your rummer is the first and only example known to me of a fully attributed handmade Thomas Gammon stem and foot.
Bernard C. 8)
Anne, Connie et al — I've found an early example of a horizontally orientated cut pattern like that on your rummer, Anne. This is a wine glass, pattern No. 366, from the 1846 cut glass catalogue of Percival, Yates & Vickers of Manchester. It has a tall blank rim above the three interlocking rows of slice cuts, which looks as if it may have been lightly engraved with a design like fruiting vine (it was too early to be acid-etched; PV started using acid-etched decoration some years later.) This cut pattern with an intaglio engraved fruiting vine design around the rim was one of the staples of John Walsh Walsh, certainly up to about 1940, and may have been made by them up to their demise in 1951. Other patterns in the 1846 PV catalogue show engraved decoration of fruiting vine, ivy, rambling roses, and, possibly, hops.
So we have here a very long-lived pattern, probably dating from earlier in the 19th Century, or even earlier. The novelty of the Gammon registration was probably its transfer to press-moulded manufacture, but this can only be confirmed by checking the archives at Kew.
Here are the published sources I have used, in date of publication order:
Percival Vickers: Yates, Barbara, The Glasswares of Percival Vickers & Co. Ltd., Jersey Street, Manchester, 1844–1914, in Glass Association Journal Volume 2, 1987.Gammon pickle photograph + text: The Glass Circle, Strange & Rare — 50th Anniversary Exhibition of The Glass Circle, 1987.Gammon & Richardson registrations: Thompson, Jenny, The Identification of English Pressed Glass 1842–1908, 1989.Early pressed glass history & Gammon pickle photograph: Hajdamach, Charles R., British Glass 1800–1914, 1991.More details of the Richardson registration: Thompson, Jenny, A Supplement to the Identification of English Pressed Glass 1842–1908, 1993.Walsh fruiting vine: Reynolds, Eric, The Glass of John Walsh Walsh 1850–1951, 1999.
Connie — Re the US Georgian pattern (Georgian over here means cascading cubes like Fostoria American). W.H., B. & J. Richardson registered the design for a decanter in this pattern on 11 January 1851, illustrated in the Thompson supplement. It looks identical to a decanter shown in the 1846 PV cut catalogue. Thomas Percival was the nephew of Thomas Webb Snr, in Stourbridge, just down the road from the Richardsons. If you are going to steal someone else's design, at least make sure they are a long way away, the width of the Atlantic Ocean, for example. Not wise with a powerful uncle just a few yards down the road. I wonder what happened.
Bernard C. 8)