Topic -
Coloured Bohemian glass vases recorded at Mr Drayton's premises at 310 Regent Street having been silvered.
Recorded in the 'The London Literary Pioneer' Saturday 26th August 1848 on page 311 of link below
Click here to viewMy comments:
I do not know if these were double walled or not. I wasn't sure from reading but I don't think they were (this was 26th August 1848). From reading the description I think they may have just been silvered on the inside of the vessel i.e. for example where the water would go in a vase, but I can't be sure.
But they are recorded as being Bohemian and in Red, Blue, Green and Yellow.
I add this to show:
1) that there was a record of
Bohemian coloured glass being used (albeit maybe not double walled glass)
2) and because the article does talk about other items being silvered such as hollow tubes.
3) the article talks about Drayton's silvering process being silver nitrate and oil of cloves or cassia.
I thought by this time he'd have been using grape juice as it had turned out by then that oil of cloves meant the silvering quickly ended up with brown spots on it? This article does also say that he was given a gold medal for it, by Prince Albert (see next post as that might have been given in 1847?). But does this mean that his use of grape juice and nitrate came after August 1848 (or 1847 if this article was based on the info re medal perhaps being given in 1847 - see next post?)
Note
- This article was written in August 1848
- According to Thomson ( from Trial 1) he got on board with Drayton in 'about October 1848'
- Thomson talks in trial 1 of 'the first patent in 1848, was for silvering glass and other surfaces' and says he had been working on it for months before he took on Mellish
- According to (trial 1 evidence) Thomson engaged Mellish in Autumn of 1849
- From something else Thomson said in trial 1, it looks as though Mellish started in October 1849:
Thomson said 'I got the second patent for introducing silver between two glasses, in Dec. 1849, two months after Mellish had worked for me'
- Thomson appears to say that the double walled glass items from Powells came into being after he trialled a Lund inkstand and realised double walled would work so the double walled seems to have come about c. Dec 1849.
- That could imply that Drayton's coloured Bohemian glasses (vases.cups etc) were single walled in 1848.
But nevertheless, it shows they had access to coloured Bohemian glass from somewhere.
Which means the Bohemian glassmakers have to have been at least in the running for making double walled items presumably?
And possibly means the silvered globes may have been Bohemian glass? (because they might not have needed to be 'double walled', they could have just had the silvering poured inside them and then been sealed couldn't they?)
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