Topic: Early Sowerby Pressed Glass High Level Bridge Mug c1850

[mhgcgolfclub]

A nice find today a pressed glass mug thought most likely to have been made by Sowerby in the early 1850's.
The mug commemorates the the opening of the High Level Bridge over the River Tyne in 1852.

The mug has the inscriptions HIGH LEVEL BRIDGE NEWCASTLE ON TYNE. COMMENCED APRIL 24 1846. OPENED JANUARY 16 1850.
A railway train can be seen crossing the bridge.

Roy

[Bernard C]

Roy — a lovely and unexpected find.   Congratulations.

I've checked it with my photographs of the two plates I had marked SOWERBY'S PATENT, made under J.G. Sowerby's patent No. 2433 of 15 September 1871 for Ornamenting pressed glass with design in glass of a different colour, again well before the peacock's head TM was introduced c.1876.   It looks as if the same set of hardened steel punches was used for both inscriptions.

Let me have some exact lettering dimensions* and more close-ups of the lettering if you want me to check this further.   Unfortunately my material dates back about a decade — before I fully appreciated the importance of mouldmakers' alphanumeric punches in attributing glass — so I kept no measurements other than the overall diameter of the two plates.   At least I have enough information to do the calculations.

* — Please use millimetres, decimals of an inch, or binary fractions of an inch (like 64ths or 32nds), whichever you're happiest with.

Bernard C. 

[Paul S.]

nice piece Roy, good find.

[mhgcgolfclub]

Thank you Bernard

I have checked all the lettering and they all seem to be 6 millimetres in height except for April and Januy which seem to be nearer 5mm.

I have added some close ups of the lettering.

Roy