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| One of the rewards associated with
glass collecting is to acquire an item of glass which can be
positively identified to a particular factory and better still
to the original design number and date of its first manufacture.
Press moulded glass often carries a trademark or registration
number, which makes this relatively easy. However, free blown
items generally carry no marks to assist in their identification;
but on rare occasions the item does carry a mark. In the case
of the bowl illustrated (right), the relatively easy attribution
of the basket weave pattern is supplemented by the registration
number, scratched with a diamond point on to one of the few
blank spaces on the item. |
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Flint bowl
(120mm diameter)
with detail of registration number.
Click on image for larger picture. |
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| The number 38983 was assigned to
Stevens & Williams (S&W) dated 1 December 1885 and is
described as "Pattern for |
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| ornamentation of flint glass tableware".
S&W also described it as "Square basket weave wheel decoration
using a multi mitre intaglio wheel." A single cut with this wheel
produced four parallel V grooves, which enabled a basket weave decoration
to be cut relatively quickly into the surface of the glass. |
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Detail
of registration
number 38983.
Click on image for larger picture. |
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Assisted by the date of the registration, a trawl
through the pattern books is rewarded by pattern number 10925,
dated 1/1/1886. Yes, they did work on New Year's Day! (See Below). |
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| The size (120mm diameter) and shape of this bowl
would lead you to think of it as a finger bowl or finger cup
but this bowl appears to be described as a "Coiner".
Other items listed under this number are “Hair Brush &
Comb Tray”, “Ring Stand”, “Candlesticks”,
“Pin Tray”, “Tooth Brush Tray” and “Puff
Box” all components associated with a dressing table set;
so have I read this correctly? Does anybody know what it was
used for? |
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| The bowl was found at the National Glass Collectors
Fair at the Motorcycle Museum in May 2002 and is in remarkable
good condition with not even a blemish on the delicately scalloped
rim. |
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| The design does not appear too profusely in the
pattern books and normally is associated with decanters and
other table glass. Joseph Keller illustrates a goblet cut in
this manner in his Book of Designs. |
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Pattern book showing
pattern number 10925. Details from S&W Pattern Book
10 courtesy of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council.
Click on image for larger picture. |
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| As often with styles of decoration, the basket
weave was not exclusive to S&W, but the use of a multi mitre
wheel to achieve it, as far as I know, was. Thomas Webb &
Sons (TW&S) produced a basket weave made up of several separate
cuts, usually applied to part of an article, the top of the
decoration finished by laying |
| the vertical lines in an interwoven,
undulating manner. These cuts were usually left dull, whereas
the S&W multi mitre design was usually acid polished. Just
to complicate things S&W also produced this type of decoration
as well. |
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| S&W also produced a range with
a moulded wicker pattern (see below). These are an opaque ivory
colour in combination with another die-away, or shaded, colour. |
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Stevens &
Williams moulded wicker pattern vase.
Click on image for larger picture. |
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| Pattern book
showing pattern number 11068. Wicker pattern, Blue die away,
Matted. (Details from S&W Pattern Book 10 courtesy of Dudley
Metropolitan Borough Council.) |
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| This article first appeared in The Glass
Cone, Spring 2003, Issue No 63, (a periodic publication of the Glass
Association). This attracted the following observations from Jenny
Thompson: |
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| “I think the bigger bowl is a centre
bowl and the smaller a corner bowl. Several Stourbridge firms, and
others, made mirrors for dining tables (Boulton & Mills registered
these as plateaux of silvered glass with plated or gilt rims). These,
depending on how elaborate the setting was to be, could be in the
middle of the table with a central bowl and smaller ones in the corners.
Like the Sowerby flower troughs, there were permutations. The mirror
illuminated the effect and with candles made a pretty scene.” |
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| (Illustration of table setting.) |
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As stated above, the basket weave
pattern was produced by various firms, the bowl illustrated
(Right) is by Stuart & Sons Ltd and carries the registration
number 556784 which was taken out in February 1910. The basket
weave is made up of individual cuts and is left dull. It incorporates
two oval cartouches each engraved with a bird in branches
of blossom. Although reminiscent of their medallion cameo
in style, the technique is quite different and the quality
of the work significantly inferior. |
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Stuart basket weave
bowl with engraved detail.
Picture courtesy of
Halls Fine Art. Shrewsbury.
Click on image for larger picture. |
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| End Of Article |
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