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

[KevinH]

Good photos!

Now the GMB has probably a better range of images of "true Nailsea glass" than in most of the books I have seen so far.

[Baked_Beans]

Ta Kevin,

I was pleased that the photos were in focus , I thought the glass cabinet would mess up the auto focus on the camera.

Here is another one I took...see page 59 , plate 55 of Keith Vincent's book. Its interesting to read the card on window glass where it states that by the 1850's (at least) some domestic wares were being made on a commercial basis.

[flying free]

Great pics !  thank you 
so my knitting needles aren't 12"in length, but I have another question - did Nailsea use uranium in their glass?
m

[Baked_Beans]

In Keith Vincent's book he describes Nailsea Crown and sheet window glass as being 'soda-lime' glasses. "the standard 'sodium sulphate' mixture was composed of sixteen parts sand, six parts dry sodium sulphate five parts of hydrate of lime, twelve parts of cullet and small amounts of charcoal, arsenic and manganese. There was also a carbonate mixture of slightly different composition " I think it was impurities in the sand which caused the green tinge. There is no mention of uranium , this book is all I have to go on here 

Do your knitting needles glow ? under uv     

[flying free]

no, but today I bought this which does  (it was a lot more than £1.50 though) absolutely beautiful feathering, but a small bruise right at the bottom on one side.
m

[Paul S.]

nice flask m - what provenance did the seller give you?          Although the Nailsea works was still making glass some thirty something years or so after the beginnings of glass being coloured with uranium (Nailsea closed in 1874), I can't see anything in either Vincent or Margaret Thomas' book to suggest the Nailsea factory produced material with a glow        It's perhaps a possibility that as Nailsea appear to have been making crown glass (pale green) and bottles (dark green) which are both utility type material, then the addition of uranium would never have been a consideration.       According to the attachments above from Clevedon, Nailsea only ever made crown glass (soda-lime) and bottles - very little fancy glass was ever made, and apparently none commercially - I think David has already made these points.        Flasks were one of the most common kinds of friggers, so I guess were made at most of the Bristol, Midlands, and northern factories - and no doubt the Continent.  Manganese was certainly used, and I'd assume very essential, in view of the iron impurities in the sand, which until about 1830 was sourced locally since that was a lot cheaper  than places like the I.O.W.
Tomorrow I'm hoping to buy a 'violin/chello' in pale blueish green, so will post a pic. if I do manage to get it.

[flying free]

No provenance, just bought in the vicinity.  And yes,having re- read the thread and read the items you posted, I now know it wasn't made in Nailsea.  So why are these called Nailsea flasks I wonder - I will start a separate thread for it now 
m

[KevinH]

So why are these called Nailsea flasks I wonder

This is just a continued use of the name rather than saying "Nailsea-type" (referring mainly to the style of loops). Nothing more complicated than that.

[Paul S.]

Mike's suggestion that Clevedon may still have copies of Margaret Thomas' booklet is quite true, and I can recommend this as a very good read for the small outlay of something like three or four quid - well worth getting, so thanks Mike.

Coming back to the problem of why so much material was previously attributed to the Nailsea factory (when in fact most so called Nailsea glass was never made at Nailsea) - it seems, according to Margaret Thomas, that the culprit was a wrong assumption made early in the C20 by the then curator of Taunton Museum.       For copyright reasons I can't quote  from Thomas' booklet, but the bottom line seems to be that this assumption lead to all the material in a leading collection of C19 glass, formed by one Mrs. Challicombe, being described as having all been made at Nailsea...........and like so many areas of antiquity, subsequent workers following suit without checking facts  -  for those who may have the booklet, it's page 26.

I've attached a pix of my 'cello' (this is the correct spelling ).        Very pale blueish green (might it be described as aquamarine?? - certainly not the pale green of my hat shown above, somewhere)  -  c. 8.5" long, and appears to be an enclosed vessel.       Pontil has been snapped from the foot, and quite a lot of wear on the back, so would seem this instrument has been laying down for most of its life.          Attractive pincered work with some stones and bubbles as you'd expect.      Plenty of dirt in the crevices, and in my opinion no later than c. 1850 - 1860 - possibly earlier.    No idea of its origin though.
If inappropriate to post here, then please move  -  it might go into a 'frigger/friggar' post together with m's flask, perhaps  

[Paul S.]

Obviously not working well today          I meant to also add that the only other musical instrument frigger I can find is in Wilkinson, where he shows what appears to be a clear glass example of a violin/'cello.     He doesn't give any attribution, and comments that his is 'completely handmade c. 1860'.       Not easy to tell the collour of his example as the book pic. is black and white, but it looks to be quite probably a clear example  -  and a bit neater and well made than mine.