A clear press-moulded pedestal bowl with registry date lozenge for 28 March 1872 – Parcel 7 to the base of the bowl interior which, according to the online summary at The National Archives at
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_hb=tna&_q=261532design+registered+glasscorresponds to registered design number 261532 – registrant W.J. Copeland & Sons, 160 New Bond Street, London.
The bowl is 13.25cm high, and has a bowl top diameter of 13.25cm
(Permission for the re-use of this image on the GMB granted by David Garrett).
There does, however, seem to be some ambiguity about the precise details of the registrant which leave me somewhat confused:
Although the online summary at TNA clearly states the registrant to be “W.J. Copeland & Sons”, Raymond Slack (page 159) gives the registrant as “W.T Copeland”. The copy of the original handwritten registry entry summary in Thompson (page 108) is sufficiently indistinct as to be ambiguous, so is there a transcription error somewhere [W.J.Copeland / W.T. Copeland]?
Googling “W.J. Copeland + glass” has generated an undated entry in a trade directory as of “Mr. Copeland, Bond Street London – English Crystal Glass”.
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O6259/the-copeland-vase-vase-jones-j/lists an engraved glass vase made by “Copeland about 1872-1873”. This vase won a Bronze Medal at the Vienna Exhibition of 1873 where Sir Richard Wallace bought it. J. Jones, an artist employed by the COPELAND GLASSWORKS IN LONDON [my emphasis], made the original design, which consisted of intricate flowing lines known as arabesques. There is a copy of it in the V&A collections. The decoration on the finished piece shows that Paul Oppitz, who engraved the design on the vase, added some fine detail and the winged beasts to the original design.
The Copeland RD 231562 of 28 March 1872 is the only glass design registration I can find. Other W. [J or T] Copeland design registrations in the online summaries of TNA seem to be Class 4: Glass, earthenware etc. …, with addresses in Stoke on Trent (so presumably pottery or china rather than glass)..
There seems to be a link to the long line of Copelands associated with the family firm which produced Spode china in Staffordshire since the 19th century. William Copeland (1765-1826), a traveller in the tea trade became a partner in Josiah Spode's London warehouse and, by 1812, owned three quarters of the London business, comprising the warehouse and showroom that sold fine china to royalty and the aristocracy.
His son, William Taylor Copeland (1797-1868) capitalised on his father's efforts, buying the entire Spode business, including the pottery at Stoke-on-Trent, in 1833. The Copelands continued to run the enterprise, making Spode and Copeland china as W. T. Copeland & Sons, for the next four generations.
According to
http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/copeland-william-1797-1868…In 1833 he [William T. Copeland] and his new partner Thomas Garrett acquired complete control of the London business for £21,500 and bought the Spode factory in Stoke for £44,000…becoming particularly celebrated for its parian groups and statuettes. He dissolved his partnership with Garrett in 1847 AND SHORTLY AFTERWARDS MOVED HIS LONDON PREMISES TO 160 NEW BOND STREET, subsequently bringing HIS FOUR SURVIVING SONS INTO THE BUSINESS. He died in April 1868 at his country residence at Russell Farm, Watford.
THUS, THE ADDRESS OF THE COPELAND SPODE LONDON PREMISES, 160 NEW BOND STREET, IS THE SAME AS THAT OF THE REGISTRANT FOR THE COPELAND RD 261352.
In 1866, Spode held a Royal Warrant as “Manufacturers of China and Glass to H.R.H. The Prince of Wales”, but all other Royal warrants held by Spode only mention them as manufacturers of pottery or china.
I have drawn a virtual blank regarding a “Copeland Glassworks” in London. Does anyone have any more detailed information about such a glass manufacturing enterprise, and/or the links between the various china and glass manufacturing Copelands, please?.
Fred.