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Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => British & Irish Glass => Topic started by: mhgcgolfclub on April 26, 2015, 05:24:10 PM
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For reference a Sowerby uranium glass chamberstick .
The candlestick is marked with a date lozenge for 14th September 1880 and also marked with the Sowerby Peacock trade mark.
I cannot remember seeing another one of these , or find any image of another one on a quick search.
Length 6".
Height 2.5"
Roy
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very nice Roy - like the moulded snuffer - have you looked in either of Barry Skelcher's uranium books?
I'll go and check on the Kew archives to see if I have the original drawing submitted to the Board of Trade.
edit to add........... appears as Rd. 355154 for the date you mention. It may not be obvious to viewers of your pix, but the original factory drawing shows the shape as oval, and of course no mention of uranium.
will add the archive image tomorrow, probably.
have it now as attached, and had a look in above books but didn't see any chambersticks, although he does include several ordinary sticks in uranium.
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Thank you, Roy, for showing this chamberstick, and thanks to Paul too for his swift production of the design representation.
It is Sowerby pattern 1535, and appears as one of 5 chambersticks shown on page 13 of the Sowerby Pattern Book XI of 1885.
The pattern book illustration shows it as a registered design, and surmounted by a cone-shaped snuffer (presumably of glass too), the only one of the group to be shown with a snuffer. I imagine that any such snuffer would have soon been easily lost or broken .
Jenny Thompson describes it as a ‘candlestick (bedroom shape)’ and Cottle simply as a ‘candlestick’. Cottle does not show a corresponding pattern number.
I too have never previously seen a picture of an actual example of this pattern, and can only presume that it is exceedingly rare. Unusual also to see a Sowerby piece of this vintage in uranium glass (the only other one I have seen is the later 1927 pattern shoe in green uranium glass), though some of the 1870s-1880s pieces are known in a somewhat insipid pale blue-green non-uranium opalescent glass.
Fred.
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Thanks Paul and Fred
For adding all the extra information and design drawings.
I agree Fred there seems to be very little Sowerby uranium glass of that age, not counting the IQW the only item I can really think of is the pearline type uranium Cauldron. Maybe we should start a list of early Sowerby uranium pieces
The candlestick was not on its own but was one of a pair, makes you wonder where they have been sitting for the last 135 years without being separated .
Thanks Roy
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Very nice Roy
Interesting. I went through my Sowerby pieces and the only ones that 'glowed' green were the IQW and a couple of yellow 'giallo' pieces.
The other interesting thing is that an IQW 'Mortlock' candlestick did not glow. It looks like IQW but when compared with other pieces it is slightly darker and not such a yellowy/creamy colour.
But it looks like you can add Giallo to the list.
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Here are some photos of another Sowerby piece in UV-reactive transparent uranium glass (a distinctly emerald/ blue-green colour this time rather than the slightly yellowish-green tone of the Roy’s chambersticks).
It is a plate and stand in Sowerby’s 1102 ‘basket weave’ pattern, an unregistered design introduced in the late 1870s. The stand and the plate both bear the Sowerby peacock head trademark. (Permission for the re-use of these images on the GMB granted by Kevin Collins).
The plate and stand combination design seems to have been produced for quite a long period (I’ve seen examples in the 1870s-80s colours of white, black, pale blue and turquoise vitro-porcelain, Giallo, a rich transparent ruby (which I think is probably late Victorian), and iridescent marigold and amethyst carnival glass (so presumably from the 1920s or so).
This emerald/ blue green uranium glass is not unlike that of the Sowerby green uranium pattern 1927 shoe which first appeared (as an unregistered design) in their pattern book XI of 1885, so it may be that the pattern 1102 plate and stand and the pattern 1927 shoe in green uranium and both indicate a similar (but uncommon) late 1880s-1890s Sowerby colour.
Fred
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not having seen giallo in the flesh, I turned to Barry Skelcher's books for information, and he does appear to have investigated the uranium content of this colour, in some detail. Compared to Q'sIW, which is a pale straw cream, giallo is a strong attractive shade of custard - Manley shows examples of both, side by side, and the difference is pronounced. Giallo, like aesthetic green and some blanc-de-lait, did once fetch big dollars, especially in the dolphin bowl shape - whether they do still I don't know.
Could be my imagination, but from the few pieces I've had, the detail produced, in Q'sIW, by the mould, always looks more crisp and well defined than in other colours or types of Sowerby glass.
Somewhere I have several pieces of what I think are Sowerby's rubine, which according to Raymond Slack was a deep red translucent glass, which the factory introduced in 1882 - is this your "rich transparent ruby" Fred??
Of course, it may well have been a colour the factory continued for many years - am sure I ran down the pattern in Glen's CD catalogue - which is how I knew my pieces were Sowerby.
Used to see the odd piece of rubine up until year or two back, but not seen any for a while.
I thought that prior to about 1920, this sort of red could be achieved (in pressed glass only I'm speaking of) by the inclusion of gold (colloidal) - so was this rubine produced with gold (I wouldn't have thought so), or was the colourant copper?
sorry, can't think what any of this has to do with Roy's u. chambersticks ;)
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Part of this bundle maybe?.
5 3/8th inches in length, 3 3/4 inches in depth and 1 1/4 inches in height.
No Sowerby peacock though.
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this dish looks to be Rd. 355156 from small group of five Registrations allocated on 14th September 1880 - this one appears to have been designed as an unlidded piece - although some similarish pieces did have lids. We may have discussed this previously - but need Fred to confirm if that is the case. I don't have the time this morning to check, but hope folk will be aware that the presence, or otherwise, of these designs and Rd. Nos. can all be checked on the pressed glass section of the Board's Glass Gallery - a lot of which is the result of Fred's hard work.
Off hand I can't match the factory pattern No. with Registration details - will leave that to Fred.
Of course the Glass Gallery site isn't remotely a comprehensive list of Registrations - it covers only those we have discussed and photographed, and there are zillions of Registered designs we have not touched upon, but it's always worth a look, especially with a much discussed factory such as Sowerby.
I can post a picture of the National Archive image of 355156, if of interest, later today.
On the 24th of the same month there were a further three Registrations from Sowerby - Nos. 355627 - 29.
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Thank you for showing this, Chris.
it would seem to correspond to Sowerby pattern 5004, a sweetmeat/jelly, shown on page 45 of Sowerby pattern book XI (1885) - see photo.
The Sowerby design registration bundle corresponding to the registry date lozenge for 14 September 1880 - Parcel 1 is as follows:
RD 355154 Candlestick Pattern no. 1535
RD 355155 Butter dish
RD 355156 Dish
RD 355157 Dish
RD 355158 Dish
I think, Paul, that a pic of the design representation for RD 355156 would be a useful adjunct to this discussion, please.
I attach a photo of another piece with the lozenge for 14 September 1880 - Parcel 1, a purple marbled ?sugar basin which I think may be pattern 5002 (shown on page 55 of pattern book XI, 1885). Oddly, though, the year and parcel number signifiers have been transposed.
I also have photos of two pattern 5002 creamers, both also in purple marbled glass but, unfortunately, the lozenge on one is totally illegible, and the lozenge on the other only reveals the day digits '14' (which would match that on the 5002 sugar basin).
I would be grateful, therefore, if Paul were able to check and see if one of the RD 355154-158 bundle design representations matched the pattern 5002 sugar or creamer, please?
One might expect that Sowerby pattern numbers corresponding to this bundle would be in the very late '1400s' or early '1500s', but this seems to be one of the groups where Sowerby suddenly numbers its patterns in a seemingly illogical order.
Fred.
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Fred - regret something appears wrong with my archive pix, and I'm presently unable to locate some of the Sowerby pix from 14th and 24 of September 1880. However, can post 355156 discussed this morning, plus 355155 - the lidded butter. I'll be at Kew early next week and will make sure I get the others from both of these groups, and post soonest.
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Thank you, Paul.
Absolutely no doubt that RD 355156 correponds to Sowerby pattern no. 5004.
As to RD 355155, that seems to correspond to Sowerby pattern 5001 covered butter (shown on page 10 of Sowerby pattern book XI, 1885).
Does anyone have a photo of an actual pattern 5001 covered butter to shown, please?
Fred.
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here are some pix of the missing Registrations - let me know Fred if you still need others from these two groups.
Now attached ....... 355157 and 58 - also 355628 and 29.
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Thank you for your hard work, Paul.
There is no doubt in my mind, now, that the design representation for Sowerby RD 355157 corresponds to pattern 5002 (possibly a butter dish to go with the 5002 sugar and creamer).
Sowerby RD 355158 corresponds reasonably closely with Sowerby pattern 5003 dish, shown on page 28 of pattern book XI (1885) as a registered design.
The RD 355628 sugar is only really matched by Sowerby pattern 1562, shown, along with a matching creamer, on page 57 of pattern book XI (1885) as a registered design.
The RD 355629 'vase', though, has me rather foxed. The shape (with its 2 horizontal bands at the top and 3 at the bottom of the 'body' is most closely matched in the pattern books by Sowerby pattern number 1568 (shown on page 11 of pattern book IX, 1882, among the ' vases, spills & baskets etc.), but all the examples of which I have photos seem to be possibly sugar basins rather than vases, and all are quite clearly marked with the registry date lozenge for 11 March 1881 (RD 362734). I see from the Thistlewood Sowerby CD-ROM (vol 1) photos of Sowerby patterns that they too are somewhat confused (and, into the bargain, they show a sugar basin' without the two handles, unlike those in my reference photos, which do have handles).
I wonder, Paul, if you would mind checking the design representation for Sowerby RD 362734 some time to see if there is any similarity between that design and RD 355629, please?
Fred.
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attached is Sowerby Rd. 362734, and as you can see, there is no similarity at all with 355629.
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Thank you, Paul.
The design representation shape for RD 362734 of 11 March 1881 - Parcel 2 matches Sowerby sugar pattern 1560, which is shown (with a matching creamer) on page 51 of Sowerby pattern book XI (1885).
Jenny Thompson describes it as a 'sugar' and Simon Cottle as a 'sugar basin', but Cottle (page 104, 'Sowerby - Gateshead Glass') actually collates it with Sowerby pattern number 1568 'vase' instead of pattern 1560. It may be, therefore, that Cottle's [erroneous] collation has simply been used without further verification for the Thistlewood CD-ROM.
As to the examples of the pattern 1568 'vases' with clear registry date lozenges for 11 March 1881 - Sowerby RD 355629 of 24 September 1880 and RD 362734 of 11 March 1881 are chronologically consecutive Sowerby registrations, so perhaps whoever was responsible for the lozenge mark on the RD 355629 mould simply misread the Sowerby 'master' list of RD numbers and applied the wrong lozenge.
Does anyone have a Sowerby pattern 1560 sugar or creamer with a lozenge mark to show, please? I wonder if a 'wrong' lozenge has been applied to those also, and, if so, which lozenge?
Fred.