Could have been a useful mention:
Walter Gandy, The Romance of Glass-making, S.W. Partridge & Co 1898
bottom of page 134 and onto page 135
Under chapter 'Glass in Great Britain'
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Romance_of_Glass_making/VqwaAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=uranium+glass+birmingham+1849&pg=PT4&printsec=frontcoverQuote
"Several names of manufacturers are honourably mentioned in the histories of the art. Messrs. Bacchus and Sons of Birmingham were among the first to revive the Murano twisted and filigree work. The first canary-coloured glass is also said to have been made by them on the discovery of the peculiar colouring properties of uranium'."
He phrases it as ' ... said to have been made by them' so it sounds a bit like hearsay, or something he'd read in a report, definitely not an evidenced piece of information.
His information may have been obtained from the list of the Birmingham exhibition 1849 in the Art Journal perhaps?
see link here page 294
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_art_journal_London/65BCAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=messrs.+Bacchus+sons+birmingham+uranium+glass&pg=PA294&printsec=frontcoverHowever the Art Journal doesn't say 'Bacchus were the first to make canary-coloured glass'. So I wonder where Gandy got that info from?
Bacchus were around in the 1830s so that can't preclude them from making a bowl in 1837, however the report in the Art Journal does sound as if this use of uranium was something interesting (new? maybe) to report. The Art Journal also mentioned Rice Harris showing uranium coloured glass.
So if uranium glass had been produced in 1837 in Great Britain would it have been mentioned in that way in a report in 1849.
'
Recent Posts
