Edward Bolton of Orford Lane Glassworks, Warrington registered 10 glass designs during his time as proprietor, and they cover the period from 5 July 1869 to 11 August 1888. The most commonly-encountered Edward Bolton design must surely be the Grace Darling boat flower trough in all its variants (RD 39414, registered on 11 December 1885).
Thomas Joyce gives an excellent overview of the Orford lane Glassworks and its proprietors (including Edward Bolton) at
http://www.inchicore-pressedglass-museum.org/Edward%20Bolton1.htm Information about Bolton’s early design registrations is, however, somewhat patchy
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,46011.msg271150.html#msg271150but Thomas Joyce illustrates his account with a photo of an Edward Bolton curved pressed glass flower trough RD 252159, registered 29 April 1871 – Parcel 9.
Now Simon Jones has kindly given me permission to show his photos of a matching rectangular version of the Edward Bolton flower trough bearing the same registry date lozenge. The trough measures are 29.2 x 4.5 x 4.8 cm. This is the first time that I have come across an example of the rectangular trough (and I only know of the curved trough though Thomas’s photos).
Presumably the curved and rectangular troughs were meant to be used in various combination to create table centre displays – similar to those sets produced by other manufacturers such as Sowerby, Molineaux, Webb & Co., Edward Moore etc.
Does anyone have any photos to show of the RD 252159 flower troughs in other shapes (and possibly sizes), please?
Fred.