Topic: What's "Bristol glass"?

[Leni]

Yeah, as if you invented glass!  I suppose you invented the wheel, too?

Yup!  Sure did! 

We caught up quick, though.  The best of our ABP beats the pants off anything you guys did for rich cut.   That could have been a style thing...  I just heard someone say that at the time the British despised American Brilliant glass because it was gaudy.  Is that true?  That would explain why the super sparkly never caught on in Europe at the time.

I thought it was because of the glass tax that all the best cutters left the UK and went to America? 

[krsilber]

Actually, my impression is that it was because of higher wages here (part of what made a tariff necessary to compete with the Europeans), but you make a good point.  From Sinclaire and Spillman's The Complete Cut and Engraved Glass of Corning:  "The 1880 census showed that 22 of Corning's 40 glass cutters had been born in Europe, 21 of them in England or Ireland."  That's an early census, though.  By 1905 there were 490 cutters and 33 engravers in Corning.

[Frank]

Just to add to the breadth of the actual makers of modern Bristol Blue (catalogue 1977) by Thomas Webb & Sons, in the blurb they credit the colours to  being imported from Saxony. Bristol Blue, Bristol Green and Bristol Amethyst. They state these were originally made in Bristol in the 18th and 19th centuries. All labelled as Bristol Glass. 

[krsilber]

I got Bedford's Bristol and Other Coloured Glass and had to laugh at the first sentence in the intro, "'Bristol' is probably the most richly misused word in glass fancying."

[Sendhandfran]

Hi, this is a fascinating post. I'm interested in the milk & custard glass ware attributed to Bristol Glass. May i ask if there's a way to tell if it is BG?
I ask as I've recently got an odd shaped cream coloured custard glass vase, I'm trying to find out about.
Sorry, unable to load photo atm

[Lustrousstone]

The short answer is that it probably isn't. There was a glass industry producing some fancy goods in the 18th C but by the 19th C when most so-called Bristol glass was made the glass industry was window glass and bottles.

[Sendhandfran]

Thanks Lustrestone:) Its all new to me. I'd not heard of Bristol glass before today. There's a wide variety of glass described as Bristol glass I've found, mostly the clear blue stuff but also a lot of custard glass. i wondered how they know its Bristol glass or if that was a kind of generic term used for any odd custard & deep blue clear glass.

[Lustrousstone]

Bristol glass is a misnomer used in the USA for painted "custard" type glass, usually Bohemian. Bristol blue and Bristol green are merely describing the colours cobalt blue and a dark green. The belief is that the minerals used to produce these colours were imported to the UK in large quantities through Bristol.

[Sendhandfran]

Very interesting. Its a lot more complicated than it first appears! & i thought it just meant it was made in Bristol. Is painted custard glass, Lustres for example, as likely to be Bohemian as English or French?

[Lustrousstone]

Enamelled glass could be from anywhere. The term Bristol glass should be avoided unless you are referring to the modern products from http://www.bristol-glass.co.uk/ and I believe those are marked