Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => British & Irish Glass => Topic started by: agincourt17 on February 15, 2013, 05:17:31 PM
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An oblong (sort of hybrid between rectangular and oval) clear pressed glass dish bearing a nice, clear registry date lozenge for 18 April 1849 Parcel 1 (corresponding to RD 59584) to the edge of the interior. Registered by Thomas Gammon, [The Belmont Glass Works], Birmingham. Measures 13.2cm x 10.3cm x 2.8cm deep; quite thick (10mm at the rim). The centre of the underside has an impressed star design, the border of which is polished flat.
There have been previous threads on GMB regarding Thomas Gammon pieces
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,8995.0.html
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,22176.msg125092.html#msg125092
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,23669.msg132192.html#msg132192
and all stress the importance of marked Gammon pieces as examples of attributed early English pressed glass.
There are five Thomas Gammon design registrations between 1849 and 1852
59584; 18 April 1849 Parcel 1 corner design for glass dishes
60072; 22 May 1849 Parcel 2 pickle jar
62918; 12 October 1849 Parcel 6 tumbler, pickle jar
73334; 5 November 1850 Parcel 3 salt cellar &c
82737; 10 January 1852 Parcel 3 no subject
If I interpret the discussions correctly, the previous earliest extant marked Gammon design examples were for 12 October 1849 Parcel 6 (RD 62918) and would seem to be a jelly glass and a pickle jar (also shown in Hajdamach 1, page 335, plate 302).
Now it would appear that my dish is not only an even earlier example of marked Thomas Gammon ware, but an also example of the EARLIEST Thomas Gammon registered design.
Is it, therefore, also an example (perhaps the only) of the earliest extant marked piece of English registered PRESSED glass?
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Here are a few random jottings about the history of Gammon & Son, Belmont Glassworks, Great Brook Street, Birmingham, that may prove of interest.
Although glassmaking in the West Midlands is mainly associated with the Stourbridge area, it was an important Birmingham industry as well. 18 glassworks were established in Birmingham in 18th and 19th centuries, mostly alongside canals, which were ideally suited to carry the bulky fuels and raw materials required by this industry and its bulky and fragile products.
In 1803 the Belmont site, alongside the Digbeth Branch Canal was owned by a china and earthenware manufacturer, and by 1806 cut glass was being made there. Pottery making ceased by 1807 but glassmaking continued. Three glass cones are shown on a site map of about 1855, by which time the works occupied both sides of the canal. One of the glassworks' boundary walls is still visible. Recent excavations have revealed part of one of the cones and remains of other glassworks buildings marked on the 1855 map, together with a circular brick structure which was probably an earlier glass cone, that had gone out of use before 1855.
In 1830s, in various gazetteers, William Gammon & Son, Belmont Glassworks, Great Brook street, Birmingham.
In 1880s & 1890s, adverts in Pottery Gazette for W.[illiam] Gammon & Son.
Thomas Gammon was formerly the partner of George Bacchus.
There are five Thomas Gammon design registrations between 1849 and 1852
59584; 18 April 1849 Parcel 1 corner design for glass dishes
60072; 22 May 1849 Parcel 2 pickle jar
62918; 12 October 1849 Parcel 6 tumbler, pickle jar
73334; 5 November 1850 Parcel 3 salt cellar &c
82737; 10 January 1852 Parcel 3 no subject
W. Gammon & Co., Belmont Glass Works, Birmingham
244491; 1 September 1870 for the bottom of a railway carriage lamp
In 1849, Thomas Gammon , glass manufacturer, Salford House, Slade Road, Erdington, Birmingham. Gammon & Sons, glass manufacturers, Belmont Glass Works, Gt Brook St, Birmingham. (Salford House has now disappeared but apparently now 20 Kegworth Road sits on the site).
Notice in London Gazette 1851:
NOTICE is hereby given, that the Partnership between us, Mary Gammon and Thomas Gammon, as Glass Manufacturers, at the Belmont Glassworks, Great Brook-street, in the borough of Birmingham, under the firm of Gammon and Son, has been dissolved by mutual consent. Debts due to and from the late firm will be received and paid by Thomas Gammon, - who will continue thebusiness on his own separate account.Dated this 22nd day of July 1851.
Mary Gammon.
Thos. Gammon.
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Thanks for all this - most interesting. I also have a Thomas Gammon glass like Sue's as you posted here (http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,23669.msg132192.html#msg132192) with a Rd lozenge that's indecipherable.
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Sometimes, if a lozenge is difficult to read or worn, blu tack can help.
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A piece of Belmont glass shown here on this link:
http://historywm.com/wp-content/uploads/issues/issue4/files/res/pages/page_0034.swf
m
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thanks - in view of the nature of Gammon's business then ordinarily we would assume their glass was pressed - but that castellated rim is not something that would be seen normally on pressed glass, neither would it be possible to 'press' a complex shape like this - at least in one go.
Of course, the rim might have been cut as a final part of the pressed design.
Like the Sowerby 'two part bowl and pedestal' designs, this one may have been made in two parts. Pity the article doesn't clarify details for this stand/bowl.
Is everyone else assuming this is a pressed piece, embellished by some cutting?? OR is the entire piece cut??
Have added a picture of Gammon's Rd. 82737, for which Fred was unable to provide a description. Presumably we assume 82737 was intended to be part of a design for a mould pressing (rather than a cut design).
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Could it be a very early piece from Belmont Glassworks?
Fred said
'In 1803 the Belmont site, alongside the Digbeth Branch Canal was owned by a china and earthenware manufacturer, and by 1806 cut glass was being made there.'
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the style and shape would suggest not perhaps, but really no idea - Fred far more likely to know.
Here are couple of National Archive pix for the piece which started this thread - Thomas Gammon Reg. No. 59584 dated 18.04.1849 - hope the writing is legible.
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I see what you mean.
Btw just in case anyone was wondering (as indeed I was, and had to work it out ::))
if you right click on this link you can then click 'zoom in' and it enlarges the picture in focus and significantly so all the detail of the pedestal bowl can be seen:
http://historywm.com/wp-content/uploads/issues/issue4/files/res/pages/page_0034.swf
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Thank you for showing the design representations, Paul.
Fred.
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thanks and yes, zooming in does make for a much clearer image. It's usually pressed glass that is Registered, not cut glass, although some pressed Registered designs have additional decoration in the way of real cutting. Zooming in makes it appear more like cut glass, at least to me.
Suppose we could always ask the Birmingham Museum to check for us, assuming they know. They don't provide any provenance as to the claimed attribution - presumably from some catalogue or advertisement perhaps.
It would have been made in two parts originally anyway, whether pressed or cut, and then joined.
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Here is an improved image of Rd. 82737, plus pictures of drawings of 60072 and 73334. Regret presently unable to locate a copy of 62918 - obviously slipped through the net, for the moment. :(