As a manufacturer of Bristol Blue glass since 1978, may I tie up a few loose ends?
The term originates around 1760 when a Bristol Chemist called Wiliaim Cookworthy started importing cobalt oxide from Saxony and supplying it to glassmakers. Only a few grammes are needed to turn a pot of glass a deep rich blue colour, almost black, if the glass is thick. Isaac Jacobs and The Ricketts family , Jacob, Henry and William, all used it.
Other oxides allowed them to make amythyst (maganese oxide)and a bright green glass (Chromium oxide ). Samples of all these are on view in the Bristol Museum who we supplied for many years with reproductions.
Bristol blue became a generic name - like Cheddar cheese which does not all come from the Cheddar gorge.
We took on bristol Blue from Thomas Webb's when they stopped making it, because the cobalt was contaminating their lead giving it a very blue tinge (bad housekeeping!)
Topic: Bristol Blue - Original or Reproduction? (Read 1869 times)
