Rare Cameo Vase is Saved by Museum

 

The blue glass vase, cased with ruby and white coloured layers, stands some 18cms high and is finely decorated with a large cabbage rose and leaves on one side with a small butterfly on the reverse.  The artist was someone called David Grainger who was born in Stourbridge in 1852 and whose name appears in the 1871 and 1881 local census returns as a glass engraver.  It is thought that Grainger worked for Thomas Webb’s in Amblecote before setting up his own decorating workshop in Wordsley in the late 1880s.

 

The vase was purchased by auction from Sotheby’s for a hammer price of £8000 plus buyer’s premium.  Grants of just over £4000 each were received from the Victoria & Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund and the Friends of Broadfield House Glass Museum, with the remainder of the money being provided by Dudley Council.

 

Roger Dodsworth, Keeper of Glass, said:

“We are delighted to have saved this small piece of Stourbridge glass history for the Museum.  Until the vase came up for auction, I must confess that I had never heard of Grainger, but according to the vendor, who was descended from Grainger, the vase had been decorated by his ancestor, and subsequent investigations have convinced me that this story is true”.

 

The vase is now on display in the Cameo Gallery at Broadfield House.