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Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => British & Irish Glass => Topic started by: agincourt17 on July 02, 2013, 08:52:33 PM
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A hand-blown pedestal vase in clear glass with three applied ornamental handles to the sides of the bowl. 14.5cm (5 ¾ inches) high. The polished pontil mark on the underside of the plain circular foot has an acid etched lozenge (12–C-C-8) for 12 January 1870 – Parcel 8. Registered design number 238052, registered by Hodgetts, Richardson and Pargeter, Wordsley Glass Works, Stourbridge. The registration description was for “Ornamental design for parts of a jug and goblet”.
There is a sketch of the registration representation on page 261 of Mervyn Gulliver’s “Victorian Decorative Glass – British Designs 1850-1914” which seems to show the details as on the vase.
(Permission for the re-use of the photos on GMB granted by James Miles).
This is yet another piece of mid-Victorian glassware that, without its lozenge, would have acquired all kinds of attributions, probably all of them wrong!
Hodgetts, Richardson & Pargeter only registered 6 designs between 1865 and 1870 (even though the partnership had legally ended in March 1869 – see below), and Pargeter left the business to run the Red House cone in 1871.
The registrations were:
RD 186478 – 3 May 1865. Flower stand in flint glass
RD 205210 - 27 December 1866. Flower stand (incorporates hanging baskets on rope pattern twisted rods).
RD 238052 – 12 January 1870. Ornamental design for parts of a jug and goblet.
RD 239421 – 28 February 1870. Handle and ornament for ewer and bowl.
RD 239242 – 28 February 1870. Handle and ornament for jug and goblet.
RD 246153 – 22 October 1870. Design for a comport comprising a shallow dish supported on a stem in the shape of a large S-scroll on a circular foot.
(Gulliver has sketches of all the H, R & P design representations on pages 261 and 262).
William J Hodgetts, Benjamin Richardson and Philip Pargeter were in partnership from September 1863 to March 1869 at the Wordsley Flint Glassworks, Stourbridge. Hodgetts and Pargeter were Richardson’s nephews. Pargeter returned to the works where he had been an apprentice in 1852. Hodgetts had been operating the Red House glassworks with his mother, Elizabeth.
According to Jason Ellis in “Glassmakers of Stourbridge and Dudley 1612-2002”:
“Surprisingly the new partnership was not responsible for any new designs or masterpieces of glass, but continued a steady output of commercial products. For example, 1864 was the tercentenary of the birth of William Shakespeare and a range of Opal vases decorated with transfer printed ornament of Shakespeare’s house and monument at Stratford-upon-Avon was produced. The partnership lasted six years and was dissolved in [19] March 1869. Pargeter, who had been the manager, remained for a further two years.
….Pargeter left the firm [ then trading as Hodgetts, Richardson and Sons] in 1871 to take over the Red House glassworks…
…William James Hodgetts patented the first machine for applying threading on 6th May 1876. The availability of a machine to apply threading lead to hundreds of designs using threading from this date onwards, both at Richardsons’ and inevitably among their competitors.”
Fred.
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Edited to cross-link to earlier thread by myself (with thanks to Fred for reminding me of its existence) and to remove unnecessary text and images from this post.
Link to earlier thread (http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,23030.msg129899.html#msg129899)
The photo below is a composite image showing the ribbing at the base of the handle and the design lozenge which is set on the lower part of the body. I believe the main feature of the 238052 design is the 16 ribs alternating in "large" and "smaller" ribs. This pattern is also clearly shown in the line drawings in Gulliver.
The vase above does have the same ribbed design but the alternating sections do not show very clearly and from a distance could easily be missed.
Perhaps this extension to the thread may encourage others to check if they have any examples of the design registrations in this very limited set.
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this shell-ribbed type of design for appendages etc. seems to have been popular at about the time that H, R. & P. Registered their 238052 in 1870.
Some two and a bit years earlier T/Webb Registered four separate designs Nos. 212674 - 77 for similar shell ribbed decorative designs, and somewhere between the two Boulton & Mills created yet more of the same with their Registration 221498.
Protection for Registrations during this lozenge period was for three years, and from memory there was no provision for extensions until 1884 - so you'd imagine the proximity of the above Registrations would probably have meant that there wasn't a legally available opportunity for one of them to have used a competitor's similar design.
However, there must have been considerable looseness of protection if all three were banging out similar designs of a shell-rib style at around the same time.
Don't have the time this week, but if anyone wants to see any of the Kew images for the above Registrations - let me know, and should be able to do something next week.