Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests > Glass
Topaz or Canary or Victoria
flying free:
Issue arises:
In the link to the research I gave above, the source referenced, I think, for the acquisition of glass from Davenport was from Carol E Kohan's Historic Furnishings Report for Lindenwald (Reference 213 on page 52):
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Historic_Furnishings_Report_for_Lindenwa/RVRhp8ObPAIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=martin+van+buren+DAvenport+glass&dq=martin+van+buren+DAvenport+glass&printsec=frontcover
I have done a quick search in the Carol E Kohan Report but cannot access the Report. On the quick search searching the word 'Davenport' the Davenport that appears to come up is a ' William Davenport Liverpool' (see the reference snippet for page 79 attached).
Information here on the Davenport connection in Liverpool - possibly running under the name Davenports, Fynney & Co. in Liverpool at the time Van Buren ordered his glass:
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/db071d3e-e56e-48f6-914e-fd7e66d751ed
Interestingly page 156 in the snippet link to the Report seems to indicate that Van Buren requested additional tumblers and glasses to go with decanters he already owned and that they were, quote, 'plain fine glass not cut'.
flying free:
--- Quote from: cagney on December 16, 2023, 09:55:25 PM --- You are exactly where I am at. I have questions. George W Leighton sure seems to use the two terms interchangeably. Trying to find a second source to either discount or account for this topaz terminology. A bit obsessed to know if the English terminology is the same as the bohemian. No luck , need help. I seem to recall that Bohemian topaz had a certain gold matrix added . Am I correct in my recollection?
--- End quote ---
Re your question about the 'certain gold matrix' added to 'Bohemian topaz' -
Apsley Pellatt Curiosities of Glassmaking page 73
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Curiosities_of_Glass_Making/FCwGAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=apsley+pellatt+topaz+glass&pg=PA144&printsec=frontcover
'... light tinted glasses ... beautiful semi-opalescent yellowish-green colour; produced chiefly by the expensive oxide of uranium, mixed with a slight portion of copper, and appearing yellow or light green, just as the rays of light happen to fall...'
and
'... also produced by uranium alone, used as the colouring oxide for gold topaz: ...'
flying free:
--- Quote from: cagney on December 18, 2023, 01:50:48 PM --- I think your critiques of the VR bowl have some validity, especially the foot. As to the difficulty in the making of uranium/canary glass, I don't think it necessarily that difficult. My theory is that cullet used may interact negatively in the batch. Leightons advice to use flint batch No. 1 in his canary or topaz is telling, he literally makes his own cullet from the same flint glass recipe.
--- End quote ---
re the difficulty of uranium glass
Apsley Pellatt Curiosities of Glassmaking - 1849
page 78
'Uranium is specially affected by an excess of alkali, the colour varying from deep gold topaz to light amber-like opalescent green, as the alkali predominates. The proportion of lead is diminished in either case; and although an excess of alkali extracts most colour from the oxide, it renders the Glass liable to become unhomogeneous, by the exudation of it's alkali'.
I can't find my reference to Pellatt's supplying an order of uranium glass and having it crumble and having to resupply it but I'm 100 percent certain I read this from him - either in a lecture he gave or perhaps something written for the Great Exhibition or maybe elsewhere in the book but I can't find it at the moment? But I definitely read it.
See bottom of page 71 and top of page 72 for a description of uranium glass cracking and having to be completely re-supplied 3 months after it was made and sent out from the Falcon Glassworks:
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Curiosities_of_Glass_Making/FCwGAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=apsley+pellatt+topaz+glass&pg=PA144&printsec=frontcover
Which is what makes me wonder about the John Ford notes in his recipe book that I read from recent research where John Ford notes that his uranium glass was successful. If Apsley Pellatt thought his was so successful he cut an order from it and sent it out, and it then crumbled, who is to know whether John Ford's apparently successful batch failed at a later date after being supplied?
flying free:
Note - I've amended my previous post to include the information regarding the cracking of a supply of uranium glass objects and them having to be resupplied.
cagney:
I am currently working on two theories concerning both counts. The VA table set and Topaz. I find it hard to believe that one company makes this splendid array of table glass and does not insert their name into published accounts. Was it a joint effort and as a result no one would claim progeny. A sort of "for Queen and Country" thing. As far as topaz goes the term seems to change or morph the farther you get from the original source Bohemia.
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