Joseph Webb purchased the Coalbourn Hill Glass Works, Wordsley in 1850 (having previously been in business with his cousin Edward). He died on 1 May 1869, aged 56. Initially, Jane Webb, Joseph's wife, and Joseph Hammond, Jane's brother, took over as executors (because his 2 sons, Henry Fitzroy and Joseph Junior were still minors). Jane, along with various others, continued trading in the business from the Coalbourn Hill Glass works (acting as Joseph Webb’s executors) until 13 September 1887. The site of the Coalbourn Hill Glass Works now lies beneath Stourbridge’s Ruskin Centre.
Joseph Webb (and later Jane Webb and his other executors) were the only glass works in the Stourbridge area producing significant amounts of pressed glass wares in comparison to the other local glass works (who were predominantly producers of traditional hand-blown glass wares). The story of Webb’s business and pressed glass output is poorly documented, and their role and status as glassware manufacturers in the area has, in my opinion, been very undervalued. I hope to be able to rectify that situation eventually.
Between July 1872 and January 188, Jane Webb and various other executors registered 15 designs for glass as follows:
*1 Jane Webb & Joseph Hammond
*2 Jane Webb, Joseph Hammond and Henry Fitzroy Webb
*3 Jane Webb and Henry Fitzroy Webb
1872
July 21 (Parcel 6) RD 263540 *1 Trough for table decoration
December 19 (Parcel 3) RD 268883 *1 Flower boat
December 19 (Parcel 3) RD 268884 *1 Pressed Glass Rim fitted with Silvered Plate Glass Plateau.
1873
April 16 (Parcel 4) RD 272132 *1 Oval dish, 4 pad feet
December 10 (Parcel 11) RD 279179 *1 Pressed deoptric (dioptric) lamp glass for miners lamps
1874
June 15 (Parcel 1) RD 282961 *1 Pressed glass flower trough
December 21 (Parcel 4) RD 288015 *1 Swan planter (frosted)
1878
October 15 (Parcel 4) RD 327641 *2 Glass
October 15 (Parcel 4) RD 327642 *2 Glass
1879
June 14 (Parcel 2) RD 336135 *2 Spear or Assegai
July 21 (Parcel 2) RD 337344 *2 Glass
July 29 (Parcel 7) RD 337572 *2 Flower stand
1885
January 21 RD 20860 *3 Embossed pine decoration for cutting and moulding in glass.
January 21 RD 20861 *3 Glass perfume bottle formed as a shell.
January 21 RD 20862 *3 Glass Perfume Bottle formed as a form…
(Sorry about the formatting, but it goes haywire when I copy and paste from other documents).
Paul S. has already shown 3 of the design representations on the GMB:
RD 288015 at
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,54638.new.html#newand RDs 268883 and 268883 at
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,54366.msg308246.html#msg308246I have shown photos of RD 288015 (the swan planter) at
http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,54638.0.html Jenny Thompson has a photo of a frosted RD 272132 (oval dish, 4 pad feet) on page 65 (plate 22), and I am attaching a photo of a similar dish but unfrosted and wheel-engraved with ferns.
Does anyone have any photos of the remaining 13 Jane Webb &c registered designs to show, please?
The summary design descriptions from TNA are cursory at best, and it would be of great value to my researches if I could see the design representations. So if Paul S. happens by, If wonder if he would care to check his TNA design registration representations, please, for any of the remaining Jane Webb &c registered designs, please, and show them here in due course?
Fred.