Topic: Rare 1840s Baccarat uranium glass becher -show and tell Launay Hautin 1841

[flying free]

Thank you Neil.  I'll investigate further.



The designs of the shapes I am certain come from facet cut glass goblets designed in Bohemia in the 1830s by the way. 

There is an excellent example in Farbenglas II Walthraud Neuwirth page 75 shown in a stunning sapphire blue glass. It's a lidded pokal and stands 24.2cm high however without the lid it is virtually identical to some of the goblets shown in the Launay Hautin catalogue 1841. It dates to before 1837.
 (can't face trying to find an example to show you right now, but will do this morning and post later).

Also a triple cased becher shown on page 111 is most certainly extremely similar in design to my two green glasses including lenses.  The difference being mine are tulip shaped of course whereas that is a more traditional Bohemian straighter shape.  Certainly there will be something in the L&H catalogue that is almost identical in design idea. 
The lenses and design of the tumbler were around for years before 1841 in Bohemia. Certainly before 1837.
It's a very Biedermeier style design.

[flying free]

Regarding Baccarat and selling abroad:

This from CMOG site (my bold) -
'Jane Shadel Spillman - This article was published in European Glass Furnishings for Eastern Palaces, 2006, pp. 116–127.'
https://www.cmog.org/article/baccarat

' In 1832, Baccarat and a rival glasshouse, the Compagnie des Cristalleries de St. Louis in Moselle, joined with Parisian wholesalers to create Launay, Hautin & Cie. This firm operated showrooms in Paris and was the exclusive outlet for the products of both glasshouses until 1857, when it was dissolved. From that time, Baccarat’s own warehouse and workshops were located at Launay’s former address. Maintaining impressive Parisian showrooms was vital to French glass manufacturers, especially those that wanted to expand their markets outside the country. In the 1830s, when colored glass and pressed glass were added to Baccarat’s product line, the company actively sought new customers in other parts of Europe and in North and South America. By then, the factory employed about 700 workers.'

[flying free]

Some more examples of green uranium glass from Saint-Louis c1840
https://www.pressglas-korrespondenz.de/aktuelles/pdf/pk-2007-1w-vogt-meyr-teller.pdf

This green is very similar to my smaller glass.

Neil, the knife rest on your site in green glass - do you recall if it's uranium glass and have you any idea what date it might be please?
  It's a similar colour to my larger glass I think.

[neilh]

I haven't seen the knife rest myself but I believe it is uranium - one is illustrated in a Barrie Skelcher article. They will date from some time between 1850-70

[flying free]

Thank you.

The ones on Barrie Skelcher's picture aren't the same as the drawing and green version on your site and I'm not sure they are the same colour green as my larger glass, but the one on your site I think is a good colour match.

http://www.glassassociation.org.uk/sites/default/files/Uranium_Glass_sample_article.pdf


Good example of Bohemian cut faceted glass becher in a similar shape from an earlier decade:
https://www.cmog.org/artwork/beaker-614?search=collection%3A69f974fc03ba6c7b4462a27d7a51b6b5&page=465

(by the way if you click on the Corning photos and copy and paste onto a Word document they enlarge beautifully where all the detail can be seen)

[neilh]

Ironically I'm now the owner of a couple of Launay Hautin goblets myself from the 1840 catalogue, from a seller in Milton Keynes, so I guess these do drift across the channel from time to time. Mine are plain. They are heavy lead glass.

[flying free]

In that period Neil, I just get the impression from info I've read (have no special research to back it up) that there was trade between France and England.  The development of coloured glass was a big deal.   Chance employed a French specialist, Bontemps in 1848, but even earlier employed French and Belgian workers see under para '19th century':
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chance_Brothers
and  my research on Varnish and Hale Thomson 'mercury glass' or double walled silvered glass from 1849/1850 shows they were in France registering a patent for it.

I think there was more trade then than is written about potentially.  So it's not necessarily that Launay products came here more recently.

[neilh]

With the exception of a few stippled plates known from Molineaux Webb, and the odd Royal commemorative, there appears to be very little evidence of lacy pressed glass from British factories prior to the mid 1840s. It would pop up more often if it was out there. I read something in an old Pottery Gazette saying that the first wave of British pressed glass, salts and so on, were already very rare and difficult to find by 1900.

[flying free]

yes from what I've read it seemed  there was a lot more Bohemian glass and some French glass coming this way than going back the other during that period.  But again, that's just my impression.  I don't have tonnage of imports to back up that surmise, though I think they do exist.  My impression from my readings over time is that it was a hay-day period for Bohemian glass and their exports (not pressed glass though).  Pressed glass seemed to be in ascendancy from Baccarat and Saint-Louis. 

I wondered when doing all my reading, whether the Hale Thomson patent was done because the technique was good for use on mirrors for example (that method was much more healthy as the previous method was poisoning the workers) and Belgium and France, where they registered their patent, was a big supplier/maker of mirrored glass. From reading the court reports on their case, it seemed they didn't have a problem popping across the channel to register their patent. There was no indication it was  a difficulty.  Also prior to 1850 they were using Bohemian glass and silvering the interiors and again there seemed to be no problem with supply. 

I think glass trade into England during that time (early 1800s to 1850)was big.  And part of that was possibly due to more attractive colour developments (certainly with Bohemian glass) but possibly also English development of coloured glass was restricted by the prohibitive tax up to the 1840s.

In the case of the Hale Thomson patented silvered glass there were lots of developments in that time for the use of mirrored glass for telescopes for example, so presumably they also wanted to register their patent to protect for a potential growth in that market. 

[thewingedsphinx]

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