Topic: Vermicular etched wine glass.

[Ekimp]

I thought this was interesting, it is an acid etched Vermicular or Vermicelli decorated wine glass, surprisingly, the etching is on the inside surface. The glass is good quality and quite fine with a good ring to it. The absence of a collar at the top of the stem where it attaches to the bowl might indicate the glass post dates approximately 1880, I’m not sure how reliable a guide that is for dating, I’m sure there are many exceptions.

I think it is either by Richardson or decorated by Northwood. Hajdamach shows a Vermicular decorated jug by Richardson on page 113, the vermicular pattern registered by Richardson on 24 August 1854, Rd No. 96703. The exact same jug (I have compared squiggles) is shown in Manley on page 57. Manley says that ‘many years later, John Northwood used it [the pattern] and it continued to be used at his works until 1918’.

The jug in the books looks to have clear vermicular lines with the area between lines being frosted, rather than on my glass where just the lines have been etched. The pictures of the jug aren’t too clear so can’t see any detail on how the etching was achieved. It would be interesting to see a close detail of the jug with the frosting as Hajdamach strongly implies that frosting by acid wasn’t developed in Britain until 1867 by Northwood (page 184). Prior to this, frosting was achieved by mechanical abrasion with grinding wheels.

The Decanter by McConnell shows another example of a Richardson frosted and vermicular decorated jug, page 283, that is silver mounted and dated to 1864 (presumably from a silver hallmark).

There is some discussion on the Richardson registration here: http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,63356.10.html from Reply #15, including a photograph of the registration document provided by Paul S. Photograph here: http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=63356.0;attach=195227

On the Registration it says ‘this Pattern upon all kinds of table glass’ and given what Manley says about Northwood production, it’s surprising you don’t see more of it.

[flying free]

Pretty!
Blown pink cased in clear for the pattern to show like that.  If the pattern had been done on the outer surface it would not have shown up.
Interesting.

m

[Ekimp]

Hi, yes...pretty I didn’t think it was cased though, it maybe my photos as it looks more crisp in the flesh. I can’t see any clear casing and at the bottom of the bowl you can see where it gets quite a bit darker where the glass is thicker. I’ve added a couple of close-up photos of the etching.

It’s not very hygienic to have the etching on the inside but it probably feels more classy in the hand and looks better with continuous reflections on the outside. Style over substance? It must be more difficult to etch too.

Meant to say it has a small polished pontil scar.

[flying free]

The pattern shows clear through the pink so it's visibly cased.  Also I  think in order to get that pink it would have to be a very thin layer cased.  The ruby on it's own would have been very dark (and expensive)

This is a Richardson's acid etched wine glass in blue.  No way of knowing if it's etched on the outer or interior though as it's impossible to tell from the photographs:
https://www.revolutionaryplayers.org.uk/richardson-acid-etched-wine-glass/
m

[Ekimp]

The etched pattern isn’t clear though, but the same colour as the surrounding glass. The bottom of the etched lines has a granular texture so catches the light differently to the smooth glass and there is a sort of halo each side of the etched line that catches the light too. I think where it might look clear in the photos is due to the way the light is reflected from the various planes of the etching. The halo looks like the acid has wicked under the resist to slightly affect the surface, to a width about the same as that of the etched line of the pattern.

Thanks for the link, that glass is also on page 178 of Hajdamach but only black and white. He says cased blue over clear, signed Mr B Richardson, Wordsley 1857.

[Ekimp]

Vermicular and Greek key frosted goblet, I’m sure this goblet is by Richardson.

The etching is on the outside surface. The matt frosted areas are by abrasion (grinding). I believe it has been acid etched, then frosted. Seven inches high.

The pattern, including proportions of the Greek key, looks the same as shown on the jug in McConnell second edition, page 283. That is dated 1864 (hallmarked silver) and identified as Richardson. The jug in McConnell also has vermicular etching above the Greek key, but otherwise is the same pattern.

Hajdamach says, page 177/178 that Richardson’s patent of 1857 (for acid etching) used an acid mixture that produced a finish that looked polished rather than matt. You can see this in my goblet, the acid etched lines look polished whereas on the red glass there is a more usual granular matt looking finish. The line thickness on the goblet is also much wider than other acid etched designs I have seen, including that on the red glass.

[flying free]

Lovely find!  These are a really pretty design.

m

[Ekimp]

Thanks. It’s good to be able to answer some questions that arise from the books

Thought they look good together. I would prefer the goblet to have a more substantial stem as it feels a bit delicate.