Topic: Info on James Powell Topaz glass - "The Queen Victoria Topaz bowl"

[flying free]

With reference my comments yesterday on whether a coat of arms or a cypher (see quote below), see this finger bowl made in 1824 and engraved with a coat of arms:

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O2146/finger-bowl-wear-flint-glass/

There is a vast difference between the detail on that 'coat of arms' as opposed to what we see on the uranium glass bowls which is to my mind not a coat of arms but monogram/cyper i.e. an engraved VR with a crown above.

And going back to 'The mirror of literature, amusement, and instruction. ... vol.30 (Jul.-Dec.1837)'
Page 326
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101075454072&view=1up&seq=361&q1=glass

'The decanters, claret jugs, champagne, hock, and other glasses, are all richly cut, and ornamented with a vine border, varied with the rose, thistle, and shamrock, and the Royal Arms.'

There is no mention whatsoever of the Guildhall arms/flag seen engraved on the uranium glass bowls in the V&A and Corning. 
So ... the clear glass plates could have been for that banquet because they are clear glass which was obviously being produced at that time, although I think the design around the rim is a bit odd as no thistle, shamrock etc. and there is no Royal Arms on them (Unless The Mirror report mistakes the phrase 'Royal Arms' as a crown with a VR engraved on it, instead of reporting it as a 'VR insignia or cypher' which is what I think it actually is)

[flying free]

I have found a possible match to the quite distinctive style of foot on this bowl. 

Source: Charles Hajdamach, British Glass 1800-1914 (Published 1991)  page 48 Plate 34, Right hand Jug.  It appears to have the same foot design as the bowl


The caption of said piece says 'Jug with pillar cutting which matches a design in the Webb Richardson books, c.1830s . Height 10 1/8 in. (25.7cm).

He shows on page 46 some jugs and some celeries from Webb Richardson - see 'Plate 30. Plate 31.' and notes they're c.1830s.
I couldn't see a match for the entire jug design.  I could see what could  be a match for the curved pillar cutting on a piece on plate 31. bottom row middle item noted as 'Jug' on pattern, but not for the rest of the elements of cutting.

None of the pieces on the patterns shown on pages 45-52 seem to have this foot design though.





Unfortunately it's catalogued in the Glass Collections Dudley as 'Probably W.H., B., and J., Richardson.'  Graces says the company officially became this name in 1842.

https://www.blackcountryhistory.org/collections/getrecord/DMUSE_BH100

[flying free]

I've given in and bought the Davenport book.  If it's not  a categoric identification from that, I'll be quite cross 

m

[flying free]

The Gentleman's magazine - Obituary for John Davenport page 545 from 1849

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Gentleman_s_Magazine/YPb5jbale7IC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=john+brindley+glass&pg=PA545&printsec=frontcover

lots of mention for the service made for King William coronation - zero mention of anything for Queen Victoria Banquet at Guildhall.

Does mention that they started production of flint-glass, or chrystal, in 1801 and that it continued to be made still at the time of the obituary.
The glass production was started by a John Brindley and taken over by Davenport.

[flying free]

Topaz glass 1849 made by Messrs. Bacchus and Sons.  Specifically noted and highlighted in script as Topaz in the description in the catalogue -
Quote:
'179.  Water Jug and GOBLET in Topaz , richly cut, manufactured and exhibited by Messrs. Bacchus and Sons .'

in the:
' Catalogue of Specimens of Recent British Manufactures Received in Competition for the Society's Special Prizes
Session 1849 - 1850 '

See page 14  Item no 179

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Catalogue_of_Specimens_of_Recent_British/nkbp-Bq5qDQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=english+opal+glass&printsec=frontcover

[flying free]

Note:  Is it possible that glass denoted as 'topaz' or indeed 'topaz-coloured glass' doesn't necessarily have to be made with uranium in the batch.  Could the yellowish colour or amber colour of topaz can be achieved without using uranium?




Topaz glass 1849 made by Messrs. Bacchus and Sons.  Specifically noted and highlighted in script as Topaz in the description in the catalogue -
Quote:
'179.  Water Jug and GOBLET in Topaz , richly cut, manufactured and exhibited by Messrs. Bacchus and Sons .'

in the:
' Catalogue of Specimens of Recent British Manufactures Received in Competition for the Society's Special Prizes
Session 1849 - 1850 '

See page 14  Item no 179

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Catalogue_of_Specimens_of_Recent_British/nkbp-Bq5qDQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=english+opal+glass&printsec=frontcover



See also - Art Journal report on the 1849 exhibition in Birmingham
Page 294 where Bacchus and Rice Harris are noted as exhibiting Uranium glass.

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_art_journal_London/65BCAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=uranium+oxide+cornwall+mine+1817&pg=PA137&printsec=frontcover

[flying free]

An interesting bit of information here:

page 65
https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/American_Glass/JW9yDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=uranium+glass+1830&pg=PA127&printsec=frontcover
American Glass
The Collections at Yale
John Stuart Gordon
2018.




'In 1839 Thomas Leighton, the chief gaffer at the New England Glass Company, wrote to a colleague in Scotland  enquiring about the "Canary Metal" he had seen there. " You likewise informed me that to make your Canary Metal you used nothing but the Oxid (sic) of Uranium in your Flint Batch. ..."
Source for that is noted in there as '2. Thomas Leighton, in Jane Shadel Spillman, "The Leighton-Ford Correspondence ," Acorn 3 (1992)'

I think the Ford refers to John Ford of the Holyrood Flint Glass Works, Edinburgh, however it is just mentioned that he wrote to 'a colleague' so it might not have been Ford.

Attempting to work out who Leighton wrote to as a colleague in Scotland in 1839 regarding how much uranium to add to the batch.

This list of glassmakers paying taxes in 1833 lists makers in Scotland in 1833:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GU0SAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA74&lpg=PA74&dq=rice,+harris,+%26+co+birmingham&source=bl&ots=bXEQA2YWS-&sig=ACfU3U11WCdmxNfLfkuMoEpZq89suHx-LA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiS88KzqMv0AhVVgFwKHWr6CwM4ChDoAXoECAwQAw#v=onepage&q=rice%2C%20harris%2C%20%26%20co%20birmingham&f=false

Page 76 - Glassworks listed as : 
Ayr - Kerr Dunlop and Co

Edinburgh - Edinburgh and Leith Glass Company

Glasgow - Allen Fullarton
               William Geddes
               John Geddes
               Geddes, Kidston and Co

Haddington - William Baillie and Co

Stirling - John Sandeman


Ahah - in this link there is a quote from the book:
https://www.nbmog.org/cains
'In 1828 New England Glass Company superintendent Thomas Leighton wrote to John Ford at the Midlothian Glass Works, Edinburgh, about "a few of our Moulded Artikles [made] the same as you Make the Square Feet.'

Interestingly there is no Midlothian Glass Works listed in the 1833 taxes list above.

[flying free]

snippet found in an Antiques publication:  No idea if this is correctly 'snippeted' or if the info is true, but if true it would be by 1837. 
Leighton wrote to him in 1839 about the Canary metal he'd seen there.

Obviously also no idea also if the 'canary metal' Leighton had seen there was actually made by John Ford of course.  It might have been a piece John Ford had from elsewhere.
But anyway, he wasn't appointed manufacturer to the Queen until after 1837 her coronation and the link doesn't imply the canary metal was around in 1837 at all.

In 1835 this firm was dissolved and John Ford carried on in the South Back Canongate under the name Holyrood Flint Glass Works . Two years later that glasshouse was appointed ' Flint Glass Manufacturer in Ordinary to the Queen.

[Ekimp]

Hopefully your new book will tie these down! I was just having a look to see if the engraving on the finger bowl and plate looked to matched in style but it’s hard to see the detail, they don’t look very different.

I did notice that the plate especially (and possibly the bowl too) looks to be decorated with the Intaglio technique that was supposedly invented by Northwood I in the 1890s. I don’t suppose there’s any realistic chance the plates are actually that late?

From Hajdamach “...a standard intaglio cut will reveal a sharp edge on one side going into the surface of the glass at ninety degrees while the other edge slopes gradually upwards to the surface”. Northwood II seems pretty adamant this was invented by his father in early 1890s but maybe that’s in doubt, see also Paul’s decanter http://www.glassmessages.com/index.php/topic,70992.10.html But surely Northwood would have been aware of items like these?

Plate: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O2181/ice-plate-davenport-co/

[flying free]

This engraved decanter in the V&A is interesting.
Made 1800-1820 but engraved decoration added by Franz Tieze c.1910 - signed by him.  Nice shamrocks.

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O249879/decanter-and-stopper-unknown/