Glass Message Board

So, John Ford at Holyrood Glass works was making uranium glass in 1841. 

His uranium glass is referred to as 'called canary or topaz' in Jill Turnbull's book:
Source:  Jill Turnbull, The Magic and Misery of Glassmaking:  Researching the history of the Scottish Glass Industry
https://booksfromscotland.com/2017/09/magic-misery-glassmaking-scotland/


There were a dozen 'topaz-coloured' finger glasses on the Banquet table.

If the dozen topaz finger glasses  (assuming this means finger bowls) in the list for the banquet were uranium glass they would have needed to have been produced and cut and engraved in 27 days or less, because that is the length of time Davenports were given to produce all the glass and china for the banquet.

Could they have been made at Holyrood Glassworks?  and if so when could they have been made?

1) Could Holyrood Glassworks have made the bowls in the V&A and the Corning in 1837?

- We don't have evidence Holyrood Glassworks was making uranium glass in 1837.  The earliest reference is Leighton's letter in 1839. This is followed up by evidence in Jill Turnbull's book that they were making uranium glass in May 1841.


2) This is a clear cut glass epergne that this information from University of Edinburgh says was made by Holyrood Glass works. 
They say it was made by the Holyrood Flint Glass Company, Edinburgh, between 1840 and 1842, to mark the accession of Queen Victoria.

Artisans and Craft Production in 19th Century Scotland
University of Edinburgh online exhibition about Scottish artisans, their work and working lives, between 1780 and 1914
http://www.artisansinscotland.shca.ed.ac.uk/items/show/9

Shows a Glass Epergne from Holyrood Flint glass co. c.1841. It consisted of 40 separate cut pieces and apparently took two years to make.

Description says:
‘This cut glass epergne (table centrepiece) has 40 separate pieces.  It is about a meter in height and was made by the Holyrood Flint Glass Company, Edinburgh, between 1840 and 1842, to mark the accession of Queen Victoria. …’
‘…This epergne was made for a royal table setting and was used on state occasions at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh.  It was also displayed at the international exhibition displays that were mounted by the company – as in Edinburgh in 1886….’
‘…This glass epergne represents a spectacular display of craftsmanship and ingenious design, with numerous cut glass elements in the eight separate bowls and on the upper section, which is topped with a glass replica of a crown and a Maltese cross.  Richard Hunter, foreman glasscutter for the Holyrood Glass Company, made and probably also designed the piece, taking two years to complete it and bringing prestige and publicity for his employers in the process.’

- That seems like  a long time to make a cut glass epergne? 
It was 40 pieces though and by comparison if we assume the uranium cut glass engraved bowls in the V&A are the 'dozen topaz finger glasses' in the description for the banquet, we are only talking about 12 cut and engraved uranium glass bowls v 40 pieces.
However, they would have had to have been made, cut and engraved and delivered in 27 days



3) The uranium bowls are engraved. 

This is a report from 1869 (The Industries of Scotland, David Bremner) that described the engraved glass from Scotland of 1856 as in it's infancy and as 'coarse and inartistic'

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Industries_of_Scotland/fz1VAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=the+industries+of+scotland+manufactures+of+glass&pg=PA376&printsec=frontcover
‘In the modern school of glass-engraving Edinburgh stands in the highest class, and it is exceedingly creditable that that position has been gained after only a few years' exertion. At the Art Exhibition held in Edinburgh in 1856 glass-engraving was in its infancy in Scotland, and the specimens then shown were coarse and inartistic.'

- If the engraving was coarse and inartistic and in it's infancy in Scotland in 1856, then it seems to me  the engraving on the uranium glass bowls in the V&A and the Corning were unlikely to have been made twenty years earlier in 1837 in Scotland. 
The U instead of V is questionable however the rest of the engraving is to my mind very artistic.



4) From further reading it seems Holyrood Glassworks did have a connection with a Bohemian glass engraver called J. H. B. Millar.

Source: The Industries of Scotland 1869
See page 386 and 387 in the link below where it says Mr Millar only worked for Messrs. Millar & Co and for Mr Ford of the Holyrood Glasswork:

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Industries_of_Scotland/fz1VAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=the+industries+of+scotland+manufactures+of+glass&pg=PA376&printsec=frontcover

I can't find the info source reference now, however I think Mr Millar came over c.1850 and started his engraving then (will find source and link later).

5) Millar exhibited at the 1862 International Exhibition (see page 410)  where they were described as exhibiting engraved glass and china:
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Record_of_the_International_Exhibiti/Tx9dAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=great+exhibition+1862+glass&pg=PA402&printsec=frontcover


6) Further in the description of 1869 in Industries of Scotland by David Bremner, Bremner writes this:

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Industries_of_Scotland/fz1VAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=the+industries+of+scotland+manufactures+of+glass&pg=PA376&printsec=frontcover

‘At the Art Exhibition held in Edinburgh in 1856 glass-engraving was in its infancy in Scotland, and the specimens then shown were coarse and inartistic.

It was not until the firm of Messrs J. Millar & Co., of Edinburgh, turned attention to the matter that a decided. and hopeful start was made. So rapid was the progress, that Messrs Millar were able to show at the Great Exhibition of 1862 a collection of engraved glass which attracted universal attention, and won the favourable notice of art critics. A happy hit was made by the beautiful fern pattern then first produced, and now copied by engravers everywhere. Following up the success thus achieved, the firm have gone on producing novelty after novelty. At the Paris Exhibition they made a magnificent display, and, notwithstanding the severe test of competition with the famous glass-makers of the Continent, held their own in the department of engraved flint-glass. Some of the decanters and wine glasses shown were exquisitely beautiful, and were eagerly bought by art collectors. In order that engraved glass might become popular, it was necessary that it should be cheap as well as beautiful; and the Edinburgh makers were among the first to meet both requirements, the result being that their productions are finding their way to the tables of the middle as well as of the upper classes of society. The nobility are now having their coats of arms engraved on every article of table crystal; and persons who have no heraldic emblems to display are having their glasses inscribed with mono-grams.’

So could Millar's have engraved the uranium glass bowls in the V&A and the Corning after 1850?

7) Bonhams show a c.1862 goblet with a coin in the stem here, of which they say in their footnotes 'The engraving was probably executed in the glass engraving studio of J.H.B. Millar, which was supplied with blanks by the Holyrood Glassworks of John Ford. Several examples exist in the collection of Huntly House Museum, Edinburgh.'

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/17241/lot/1410/

Not the greatest photography (click on the image and it will enable you to + to enlarge the detail) to show the design but the style of engraving might have some similarities with the V&A and Corning bowl engraving in the style of the leaves?