Topic: Figured blanks, earlier English version?

[flying free]

Interesting piece of history.  Did you mean 1904?

I generally try never to criticise glass because of the amount of time and effort that goes into making it however, it is very much death by a thousand cuts isn't it?    The shape is just lovely without the ground rim and the cutting on it. 
I had an old Victorian era I think marbled glass perfume bottle, handblown, that had been cut all over it.  I felt the same about that.  My eyes were constantly trying to view the piece without the cutting    Should be on the board somewhere - I'll have a look.

Edited to add - here's the perfume:
https://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,46142.msg258748.html#msg258748
m

[Ekimp]

Yes, 1904 was when Fry supposedly invented the figured blank and when I was looking for similar vases to mine they seemed to date to around that time.

I know what you mean about the cutting, I don’t like the neck at all although I do quite like some of the chunky stuff on the bulbous part, thought that part looked like an earlier bohemian style (except for the star).

Thanks for the link, not seen cutting on anything feathered before…does seem a bit unnecessary Shame people remove the rims, I assume to sell for the scrap value but they must be so light they’re worth peanuts

[flying free]

I suppose it  could also be that the rims get worn from polishing or dented/damaged and slip off and get thrown away perhaps?

m

[Ekimp]

Yes hadn’t considered that…and I’m sure some rims are moved to other more desirable pieces!

[Lustrousstone]

Rims are often held on with plaster that breaks up...

[flying free]

oh, that's an interesting point Christine.  I had that happen to a ceramic salt and pepper many moons ago.  I'd no idea they used the same technique on glass items.  Thanks

m

[Ekimp]

The American publication Appleton’s Dictionary of Machines, Mechanics, Engine-work, and Engineering has a clear description of using figured blanks, this appears to be from 1851. Again, this is much earlier than the supposed invention of the technique by Fry in 1904.

Page 869: “Glass, for the purposes of the grinder, is better prepared by the use of proper moulds than by simple blowing, partly because the forms are frequently not so simple as to admit of their being made by hand, and partly because the various grooves and projections upon the surface can be roughly given by means of a mould without adding to the difticulty of blowing, and time and trouble is thus saved in the laborious operation of grinding.”

And Page 879: “For this reason, the surface of moulded glass is not even, but always more or less curved, and the edges are not sharp; but the use of moulds as a preparatory step to grinding, is of great advantage to the grinder, as the vessel acquires a perfectly regular form, and, although in a crude state, presents all the prominent and receding facets to be perfected at the lathe.”

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Appletons_Dictionary_of_Machines_Mechani/H3wt6nG0wooC?hl=en&gbpv=1

[flying free]

This guide book to the Great Exhibition also talks about the use of figured blanks - also 1851.  See page 92. It talks about molds being used and then finished off by grinding/cutting at the lathe.
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Guide_book_to_the_Industrial_exhibition/7u4HAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=glass+for+the+purpose+of+the+grinder+1851&pg=PA92&printsec=frontcover

[Ekimp]

Yes, thanks. Makes complete sense that they would have thought to cut pre-moulded glass, probably as soon as moulded glass was developed.

[Ekimp]

Pepper pot with a hallmarked silver lid and the body cut from a figured blank. It is 2.5 inches tall with a flat polished base. I think the lid is probably original, hallmarked for London 1902 by Hart & Sons.

You can see a sliver where the cutting hasn’t removed all of the original surface of the blank, and if you poke a piece of wire inside you can feel the inside surface undulating as it follows the pattern on the outside.

The glass thread for the lid has been moulded and has four vertical seams. I expect anything with a moulded thread and a cut body will have been cut from a figured blank (and probably any items from the same set if a cruet set etc).