Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => British & Irish Glass => Topic started by: neilh on February 29, 2016, 10:41:46 PM
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Hi folks,
Through the Molineaux Webb website I've been contacted by the descendants of a designer glass cutter from the firm, George Edward Darby, who was active circa 1880 until his death in 1927. The family have several dozen pieces which they understand were samples prior to production (they had more but many were lost in WW2 bombing).
I have tried to date and ID these but as you might know, info on early 20th century Manchester cut glass is near zero. My guess is they come from approx 1905-1925 (with a gap for WW1 where no table glass was produced). The family also have some pressed pieces which can be dated to registrations of 1911-1912 which ties in.
What is just as interesting as the date is who these pieces may have been sold to. Going off the firm's account books, the three main runners would appear to be Stoniers, railways, and retail. My guess - from looking at the wine glass image, is that some of these pieces may have been sold on to Stoniers for cruise ships etc - but all other ideas happily entertained.
A few of these pieces are of shapes which I've not seen before. The shallow plate is an odd one and the image I've labelled "wild thing" seems to have a spout on top but not like anything I've seen previously...
Anyone like to comment on date, style of pieces or likely use?
Here are some images courtesy of the family concerned...
Neil
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Some more...
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One more... that might be part of a diamond cut set, and may be a little earlier than the others.
I guess the silence suggests that this era of cut glass in the NW is pretty much unknown!
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Interesting, but I know nothing about cut glass. Stoniers also had a very large retail outlet in Liverpool.
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hello Neil, interesting note, thanks. As we all know, photographing clear glass requires more than the usual amount of effort, and not easy to produce a good result.
Regarding your comments about the existence of some pressed items, and judging by what you say, presumably you know the Rd. Nos. and to whom these were Registered - which I'm thinking wouldn't have been Darby if they were cutters/decorators only............ just out of curiosity I've checked the Blue Book for the years you mention and there's no mention of George Edward Darby.
Are you able to supply some more information on these pressed items in particular - expect Fred will be interested :)
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As far as I know George Edward Darby was one of many glass cutters employed by the firm. I've had maybe 4 or 5 descendants of Manchester glass cutters contact me over the years, but unless they happen to appear in a news clipping, there is nothing one can say about them. It's a struggle to pin them to a particular factory but in this case by family word of mouth they know it was Molineaux Webb. This chap is the first one I've heard of who left pieces behind. I know of another whose tools have been kept but not the items he worked on.
The pressed pieces are known registrations from 1911-12.
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thanks - my misunderstanding then.... obviously ageism doing its best to confuse me. So, M. W. pressed pieces then, and from what I can see there are three recorded Rd. Nos. for them during those two years, in the Blue Book, but unlike you I know little about their output and there may well have been other patterns from that factory that were not Registered with the Board of Trade.