Topic: Breaking News Nailsea / Bristol hat found in charity shop in Bristol for £1.50

[Ivo]

it is about 2" and has a broken pontil mark which is very neat. And no fighting when there is glass in the ring, eyyy!

[KevinH]

In the attached text sheets, the brief history of Nailsea Glass Works is interesting  -  anyone know of 'The Nailsea Glassworks' by Margaret Thomas??

Like David, I also have a copy of the Margaret Thomas book, but unlike David, mine is easily to hand. What would you like to know?

[Baked_Beans]

This is wonderful !!

Your hat Paul looks like the colour of hat 1 on the far left under the glass hat search !!

The second hat in looks like it has a folded rim.....which is good news !

I can't see anything like mine there but I think mine is bottle glass and yours Paul could well be window glass (from Nailsea, what a great find if it is !!)..... mine might be from one of the bottle works in Bristol or Nailsea (perhaps) ..... I will just have to try and match the colour but as the greens varied so much even that will be difficult to prove. At this point all I can say of mine is that it has age, it was bought in the region, it's of a bottle green colour and has a half-folded rim  .

The other green hat I had of the same colour (mentioned above) had a sharp pontil snap , not fired  like this example. It might be an easy matter just to stick the hat under some heat though to smooth the finish. Perhaps this was done in the bottle making process where a seperate souce of heat was to hand.

The other hat, I had sold on ebay for £30.00 and was bought by an American gentleman.....oh how I wish I had kept it 

For me it's not the value of the hat that matters it's owning a piece of local glass history which would be nice to prove ! .....However , that might be too difficult.

I'm very pleased about the colour match with yours though Paul it looks very promising indeed !!

Thanks so much for all the comments everyone ....it's great !

[David E]

Like David, I also have a copy of the Margaret Thomas book, but unlike David, mine is easily to hand. What would you like to know?

Ah, found it - the red cover was easy to spot after all!

ISBN: 0862922852
Page: 55
Size A5 (210x148mm)
Written by Margaret Thomas, © 1987

The very last para is worth reading (rather too long to transcribe) as it does mention that by 1853 there was only one Bristol glassmaking company remaining (apart from Nailsea, which was in decline), and that was Powell & Ricketts. Perhaps this is where the hat derived from?

[Baked_Beans]

Thanks David,

I will try to get hold of a copy of the book .

I went shopping in Nailsea today and took some photos of the remains of the glassworks.

To get some general directions,  I called into a shop and the very nice lady I spoke to, just happened to own two lumps of cullet from the Nailsea Glassworks which have been passed down to her. So she's going to bring them to the shop and I will take some photos and post them here. They are a light green , window glass colour. It will take a few weeks because she is going away on hols.. Should be interesting to see them.....

[Paul S.]

my thanks to those who have now dug out their copies of Margaret Smith's book.        I wasn't in need of any specific part of the content  -  however, I was aware of two copies of the book available on Abe Books, both titled 'The Book of Nailsea' - and in view of this thought it possible that the volume was simply a history of the town rather than being concerned with the glass works - my confusion having arisen because from memory the NT sheets (shown above) give the book title as 'The Nailsea Glassworks'.           As interesting as I'm sure it would have been,I didn't want a book solely on the topography of a minor Somerset village.          Of course, it may well be that the book IS concerned with the glass works only  -  I should have worded my original question more clearly - wooly thinking again Paul S  -  must try harder.

[Paul S.]

less confusion would arise if I at least got the author's name correct..........it's Margaret Thomas

[Baked_Beans]

Hi Paul ,

I think you might be able to get a copy from here....If you scroll down you can see it ....I hope it's still available.

http://www.ndlhs.org.uk/publications.html

[David E]

Margaret Thomas' book is primarily about the glassworks. It has a very interesting historical connection with other glasshouses, Chance, Pilkington and Hartleys included and why it's essential reading for me!

[Paul S.]

thanks Mike  - I've sent an email, and fingers crossed they still have copies available.

Appreciate your reply David, thanks.