Topic: Dishes ID: Stuart (registered design)

[Anne]

Whilst sorting out my kitchen cupboards I realised I have quite a few (about 30!) of these - all glass, various colours and designs.  Three of them are the same - clear glass with a green edge to the foot and what appears to be a hand-painted design of apples on a branch. On the base of each is etched " RD No 681649 Stuart " (without the quotes).

I went a-googling for the RD no shown and found several other pieces shown with this RD no but they are not the same design as mine, although they have the same shaped bowl.  The foot on each is different to mine though.  Would the registered design part relate to the bowl-shape rather than the whole design including decoration?

[Bernard C]

Anne:

Stuart registered some 20 designs around 1921.   Most that come up today are ring moulded tableware, also made in colour from the '30s.

I have just not kept records as to which number went with any particular design, so I can't help there.

You can register a complete design or any part of it, including shape, decoration, &c.   Strictly speaking, a process could not be registered, only patented, but a process with a distinctive design outcome could, in effect, be protected by registering the outcome.

Distinctive glassworks-specific hand-blown pattern moulds are actually quite unusual for British production.   Most, if not all of those used by Webb, for example, (Jackson lists: Cascade, Fircone, Old English Bull's Eye, Pineapple, Lattice, Mirror, MoirĂ©, Wave, Ribbonette, Corduroy, Spiral and Pea), could have been fairly standard items made to order by a specialist mouldmaker.   These moulds, whether one-piece dip moulds or 3-section opening moulds, were precision machine tools, made to the highest standards, and designed to last indefinitely.   And they were obviously expensive.   They would have had to be used perhaps thousands of times to recoup the capital outlay.

The only other British glassworks registering such patterns known to me was John Walsh Walsh.    See Miller's '20s & '30s, p.22, Rd. No. 458344 of 8th June 1905.   I have an EPNS-mounted bride's basket in stock in the same Walsh tulip? pattern, but a totally different shape.   Several of the Walsh pattern moulds were so protected, but they never carry a registration mark, probably for reasons relating to their successful marketing strategy to the USA.

Bernard C.  

[Anne]

I'm sure I replied to Bernard's helpful post above but it's not here so presumably was a victim of the earlier hosting problems we experienced when posts kept vanishing arbitrarily.  :cry:  So, thank you again Bernard.

To update this topic, I recently borrowed Charles Hadjamach's new book from the library and was delighted to find a section about Stuart enamelled designs in it, and from that I was able to establish that this decoration is pattern 24469 which dates from Jan 1929, whilst the Blue Book tells me that the RD No 681649 was registered on 12 March 1921. So that pretty much answers my original question as the decoration pattern date post-dates the registration date by 8 years!  :thup:

[ahremck]

I was under the impression that the design number was intended to register the particular profile of the glass - so that the decoration mattered little the number remained the same.  Is that a fair assumption?

Ross

[Lustrousstone]

Is that a fair assumption?

Not entirely; sometimes the registration is the UK was for a particular pattern to be used on various items. Have a look through the designs here and you'll see what I mean http://www.cloudglass.com/RegDesign.htm

[Anne]

Ross, in this particular instance it seems that is the case, but as Christine says, it's not always so.   

The RD no on my dishes is also seen on dishes with the same shape bowl but different shaped feet and different decoration.

The only way we could tell is by obtaining a copy of the original registration record with illustration/s from the National Archives in London.