Topic: Opinion Sought - whether to publish John Ford Lecture

[neilh]

Hi folks,

I am approaching the start of the first draft on my book on Percival Vickers and am selecting material.
I have a small pamphlet dating to 1883 which I acquired from a bookseller in Cumbria - a lecture by John H Ford on glassmaking for the layman. It's a nice little thing with some basic sketches, no major revelations. It would be a good way to illustrate what was taking place in a British glass house at the time.

I'm thinking about adding it as an Appendix chapter. As far as I can gather from Worldcat, only one other copy is known, in the University of Maastrict. There is an archive relating to John Ford in Edinburgh I think, which was delved into by Jill Turnbull for her works on Scottish glass. I have one of her books, "From Goblets to Gasslights"... and I don't see it in there.

Does anyone know if pamphlet has been previously published in another glass book?
Anyone even aware of it?
Would you like to see it in a book (transcription + sketches) ?

Any opinions welcome...

[chopin-liszt]

 
I'd like to see it ANYWHERE. What a treasure to have unearthed!
Even if there is nothing new, it tells us what was thought and known at the time. It's actual evidence of that.

[MHT]

Not seen or heard of the pamphlet before.

I agree with Sue, it should be published somewhere so at least it can be seen online or in a book and not hidden in some dusty archive.

I have just finished photographing and editing 140 pages of minutes of Sowerby glassworks directors' meetings (book 3 of 3) for the Archive page on my website.
Probably not of interest to anyone but at least they are there to be seen.

[neilh]

ok, I'll add it. My main concern is that it had already been seen somewhere, difficult to find anything that hasn't been scanned by Google or uploaded these days!

[flying free]

I would love some more information to be made available on this glassworks.
I've done quite a lot of searching to find info re the V&A glass bowl (possible candidate J Ford) and not seen that online yet.

m

[Anne]

Ohhhh yes please Neil! I think we should encourage reprinting / reproducing of all these old tracts as they all add a bit to the pool of knowledge.