Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => Murano & Italy Glass => Topic started by: Howell on February 06, 2009, 05:53:10 PM
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Hello,
I do not know much about glass although I have one or two pretty Waterford pieces at home here.
I am studying the life of a forefather once removed by the name of James Howell, who was employed by a glass
manufacturer, Mansell, in England to go and pick the brains of the Murano workers in about 1620!
He became an enthusiastic supporter of trade with Venice , and worked for the Venice Turkey and Levant company at different times in his life.
I would like to get an idea of what he would have seen and what he would have learned in Venice in those days that was not already known to the glass makers in England!
Is that a pretty tall order?
Gareth (Howell)
James Howell was historiographer royal in 1660, and a frequent writer about Italy in those days, information well recorded and discussed in Italian and English history books.
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In 1620 he would have learned a lot, although how willing the sharing of information would have been is another question entirely. Might be worth contacting Broadfield House Glass Museum... maybe have info in their library or know where Mansell archives if they exist are located.
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Hi Gareth, welcome to the board. If you go to http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/A2A/default.aspx and put into the search box there Mansell glass, you should get 23 results for that search. Look through them and you will find several of them relate to Sir Robert Mansell, patentee for the sole making of glass, in the 1600s. The search will advise you which records office holds each item - they are pretty scattered but from the scope and content records they may give you some clues to follow up.
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Hi, At that time the Muranese were much more technically advanced then the British. I agree with the previous poster that "sharing" was almost certainly not on their agenda. However he may have gone there to hire Murano glassworkers. Many European glassmakers hired away Murano talent.