Cameo

Extracts from Cameo
Back issues of Cameo are available at 50p each including postage - please contact The Editor c/o Broadfield House Glass Museum.

A Brief History of Cut Glass
Glass cutting has a long ancestry going back to the Roman period. In Britain cut glass did not become a significant force until the 18th century when it was realised that the new lead glass composition developed by Ravenscroft, with its softness and high refractive index, was ideally suited to decoration by cutting.

The great period of British cut glass began in the early 19th century with the introduction of steam power to drive the cutting machinery. Glittering cut glass suddenly became fashionable and was used for elaborate dessert services such as the Londonderry Service, now in Sunderland Museum and Art Gallery. Britain's reputation for cut glass spread to other countries, and continental and American manufacturers imitated the British style.

 

The 20th century witnessed a number of important technical developments including the replacement of the labour-intensive process of hand polishing by acid polishing and the introduction of diamond wheels to replace the two-stage process of roughing and smoothing. These developments speeded up the whole cutting process, but inevitably led to some reduction in quality. In the middle part of the century designers such as Keith Murray, Clyne Farquharson and Irene Stevens attempted to break away from traditional prismatic cutting and introduce more contemporary designs in which the decoration was subservient to the form. These more modern designs were never embraced by the buying public at large, and the bulk of cut glass production remained traditional in style.

The demise of firms like Thomas Webb and Webb Corbett and the recent announcement of the closure of Stuart Crystal have cast doubt on the whole future of the cut glass industry in Britain. It will be interesting to see what direction the remaining Stourbridge manufacturers decide to take in order to safeguard their business.

Article by Roger Dodsworth in Cameo No.32, following his talk to The Friends in November 2001.

 

The pictures are of "The Race" vase by Thomas and George Woodall. One shows the vase in full, the other is a close-up showing the signatures. Thomas and George did not produce many items jointly. The Sappho plaque which forms the heading of Cameo is one such.

 

The vase is 30cm high and is carved white on brown. It is the second in a series of two, the first being titled "Before the Race". They made two copies of each of these vases. Both copies of "Before the Race" are in the United States, as is the other copy of "The Race". One of the vases is in the Chrysler Museum but the precise location of the others is vague. The purchase of this vase was funded largely by the Heritage Lottery and the V&A Purchase Fund, the remainder being donated by The Friends in a successful attempt to retain this great treasure in the United Kingdom where it belongs.

Article by Derek Wyndham Parsons in Cameo No.35.

 

Stan's Snippets
During his researches on papers from the Thomas Webb record, Stan Eveson came across the following extract from the hand-written notebook of Benjamin Richardson I, dated 1886. It is given here exactly as it was written.

"There used to be a Glass House near to Coalbourn Hill and on the Hill near to the Canal Bridge on the Way to Wollaston and used to be Workd by Ensells that came once from the Continent and report says that he was one of the First French that did come, and the Coalbourn Hill Glass House was a very old one and so lapidate that the Bricks so in holes that a Nanny Goat got up the Outside to the top of the Cone, and could not get down and the Glass Makers Shot the Goat and it fell down and the Glass Makers choped the goat and cooked it and eat it. The Glass House was pulled down and the Bricks were used up."

Article by Stan Eveson in Cameo No.33.