Topic: Davis, Greathead & Green, Stoubridge, piano insulator RD 119975, 20 May1859

[flying free]

please see my post just above this one
 reference your request for output of Davis Greathead and Green from when they were at the New Dial Glasshouse (from 1860)

and also this:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=s9w8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA178&lpg=PA178&dq=davis+greathead+and+green&source=bl&ots=hucXSkYYBW&sig=pSZdkdbGqAVzs5CtZPnvQ5aCM5M&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ek2nUsuEIOGt7QbxhoDICg&ved=0CGgQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=davis%20greathead%20and%20green&f=false
In the link it mentions the makers represented at the 1851 exhibition including  Davis Greathead and Green but then says that in the 1862 exhibition the only ones represented from 'the district were Chance Brothers of Spon Lane and W.J. Hodgetts of Wordsley'.
m

[flying free]

with regards Davis Greathead and Green moving to the New Dial Glass House in 1860 and it possibly laying empty from 1853 until the lease was signed in 1860 for 21 years, this site (  http://www.holytrinityamblecote.org.uk/glassmakers.html  )  says:
'William Greathead (1799-1867)
Born in Louth in Lincolnshire he worked for William Gammon of Aston in Birmingham. He came to work in Dudley in 1839 and went into partnership with Dudley MP Thomas Hawkes in 1841. In 1850 he helped form Davis, Greathead and Green in Brettell Lane a company which exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851. In 1853 the firm moved to the Dial Glassworks.'

I don't know what the source was for that, but perhaps they'd moved there in 1853 and then a lease was signed for 21 years in 1860?

my underlining.
m

[flying free]

In answer to my question on  flint glass
this information here  ( http://archive.org/stream/illustratedrecor00shaf/illustratedrecor00shaf_djvu.txt  ) states:

[i]'Mr. Apsley Pellatt, the talented reporter on the Glass Section, informs us, that the
masters of his craft divide glass into simple and compound. The former contains
only silica and flux, this flux being either soda, potash, lime, magnesia, alumina, or
mixtures of some of them : in which case, the glass is simply a silicate of an alkali. To



INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 71

this "simple" glass belong plate, window, and bottle glass of every description.
" Compound glass," besides these simple elements of silica and alkali, contains also
the oxide of a metal ; and it is known among us as flint-glass, and on the continent
as crystal. It is employed for articles of luxury and domestic use. The oxide is
introduced to give more refractive power to the glass, by not allowing the rays to
pass through so freely as in simple glass, and the result is much greater brilliancy in
the metal. This flint-glass, wdiich is employed for achromatic purposes, and for
articles of luxury, requires the utmost attention of the manufacturer, as its quality is
of the highest importance. There is some difficulty in procuring the materials in a
state of perfect purity, and, perhaps, a greater difficulty in regulating the escape of
oxygen, while the elements are in a state of fusion. We are told, that " deoxidation
alone, supposing all the materials to be perfectly pure, will affect the colour of flint-
glass ;" and that "if oxygen be not supplied, the materials, when fused, will produce,
not a white, but a green tinted glass." It is for the purpose of retaining the requisite
amount of oxygen, that the black oxide of manganese is employed in the manufac-
ture of flint, as this substance has a strong affinity for oxygen, parting with it very
slowly, and not until it has escaped from the other ingredients of the metal.
A danger exists, on the other hand, of the glass being injured by the excess of
oxygen, in which case it receives a light-purple tint, and acquires a more frangible
character. '[/i]

my underlining

m

[agincourt17]

Thank you for the informative links, Sue & m.

I think it’s unlikely that Davis, Greathead and Green moved to the Dial Glasshouse in 1853. The contractual terms of leases meant that were not easily shed or transferred, and there seems to be no record of a different leasholder or proprietor(s) at the Brettell Lane glasshouse between 1853 and 1860. Neither was a glass manufacturer likely to be a leaseholder simultaneously at two geographically distant sites – the costs and logistics involved were not normally conducive to business efficiency or profitability. Moreover, there seems to be no record of any kind of agreement (perhaps a simple rental contract ), commercial transactions, or gazetteer entries for them at the Dial Glasshouse before 1860.

As to William Greathead describing himself a ‘flint glass manufacturer’:

The most common type of glass produced throughout much of Europe for hundreds of years was soda-lime glass It is composed of about 70% silica, (silicon dioxide), 15% soda, and 9 percent lime, with much smaller amounts of various other compounds. The soda serves as a flux to lower the temperature at which the silica melts, and the lime acts as a stabilizer for the silica. Silica, in the form of sand, and limestone were abundant nearly everywhere. Soda ash was readily obtained from hardwood forests, though Venetian glassmakers favoured potash produced by burning seaweed. Soda-lime glass is inexpensive, chemically stable, reasonably hard, and extremely workable, because it is capable of being resoftened a number of times if necessary to finish an article. These qualities make it suitable for manufacturing a wide array of glass products, including bottles, windowpanes, and (increasingly from the 1850s) press-moulded glass.

Certainly what the Victorians would have called flint glass, we would probably now simply refer to as Crystal, or Lead Crystal, heavy and durable glass characterized by its brilliance, clarity, highly refractive quality (especially when decorated by cutting or engraving), and usually having that characteristic ‘ring’ when struck. Originally developed by George Ravenscroft in 1675, the first clear crystal he produced used calcined flint as a base, but it decayed after a period of time. This fault was usually overcome by adding lead oxide to produce lead crystal. (“Flint glass” thus became a synonymous term for lead crystal, though flint is no longer part of its composition). It ushered in a new style in glassmaking and eventually made England the leading glass producer of the world.

So, I think Greathead would have referred to himself as a manufacturer of flint glass partially as a statement of enhanced status to imply that the glassware that he and his partners produced was of particularly high quality (and hence likely to be more stylish, luxurious and decorative, and, of course, correspondingly more expensive, than everyday, common-or-garden utilitarian domestic glassware). By contrast, lots of other glasshouses of the day (and their proprietors) described themselves as manufacturers of bottle, broad or crown glass (both types of window glass).

By the same tokens, a manufacturer of sophisticated opaline glassware decorated in the Etruscan style was more likely to have been from a background of flint glass production than that of bottle, crown, broad, or pressed glass, though the production of many different types of glassware often occurred within the precincts of a single glasshouse.

Fred.

[flying free]

Fred I'm sorry, I didn't see this post and haven't thanked you for taking the time to type it all out and reply.

I just came across this - have you seen this document?
Dial Glassworks information from 1747 (on page 5 of the document.)
And also information on Dial early 1800's page 8
http://www.broseley.org.uk/miscfiles/GlassHist.pdf
and on page 10 there is further ownership information up to the late 1840's .
m

[chopin-liszt]

I did not provide any links, informative or otherwise - it is ALL flying-free's work, all credit to the lovely m. 

[agincourt17]

Thank you for the link, m.

I was vaguely aware of it, and much of the information is found in Jason Ellis’s book.

Fred

[agincourt17]

A kind lady (who wishes to remain anonymous, but lives in a small country town in Australia) has sent me some nice photos to show of the elusive Davis, Greathead and Green RD 11975 piano insulator in green uranium glass.

She notes "that it doesn't have exactly the shape as that shown in the design registration representation, the sides being more upright.   It's also a rather small item - diameter at base is 9cm, but height is just 3cm at the sides and quite thin in the centre."
 
Fred.

[agincourt17]

Like buses, nothing comes along for ages, then two come along together…

Some photos now of the Davis, Greathead & Green RD 99632 of 10 March 1855 – Parcel 3, which turns out to be a very nice pedestal bowl (presumably a sugar bowl) in part frosted heavy press-moulded glass (top rim diameter 14.5cm and height 12.5cm). The underside of the foot rim is ground flat.

(Permission for the re-use of these images on the GMB granted by Nigel Deakin).

The base of the bowl interior bears the appropriate registry date lozenge for 10 March 1855 PLUS the embossed registration number 99632 adjacent. I think that this is the first time that I have seen a piece marked with a lozenge AND the corresponding registration number  - does anyone else know of pieces with such dual RD marks, please?

Also interesting is that fact that Davis, Greathead and Green were produced press-moulded glass pieces at such an early date and in the Stourbridge area too ( which is much better known for the production of hand-blown glass items, of course). The only other glass works in the Stourbridge area that I know produced press-moulded glassware in any quantity was Joseph Webb (and later his wife, Jane Webb, & his executors) at the Coalbourn Hill Glass Works.

Fred.

[Paul S.]

I'm a big fan of Wendy Cope's poem too......

attached is a watermarked image of The National Archives original drawing for Davis, Greathead & Green's Rd. 99632 from 10th March 1855 - with the usual loss of clarity, but think it's good enough to see most details.

Kew reference for the Representation (images) is BT 43/61  -  this is the largest single grouping of images of all the pre 1884 books  -  it covers the period April 1852 to September 1870 - something like 18 years or thereabouts.................   the other pre 1884 groups run out at about 10, 9 and 5 years.........   thus giving the total of four Representation books.

The Register reference is the single book BT 44/7 which covers the entire lozenge period, and contains details of CLASS III items (glass) only.