| This article provides a brief history
of the Whitefriars factory and the role the Powell family played in
establishing the company. |
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'The History of Whitefriars Glass'
was written by Willie Clegg from
The Country Seat: Renowned dealers in fine examples of Whitefriars
glass. |
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If you interested in learning more
about Whitefriars and the designs of Harry Powell, you may be interested
to know that The Country Seat are holding an exhibition entitled
'Glass Act IV'.
Click Here For more information.
Alternatively, you can visit The Country Seat Website: www.whitefriarsglass.com,
where you will also be able to buy examples of Whitefriars glass. |
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The History of Whitefriars Glass
By Willie Clegg |
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| Background |
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| When James Powell bought Whitefriars in 1834 it was
to keep his three sons fully occupied! He was a Wine Merchant who
perhaps bottled his own claret and port from the barrel using Whitefriars
as his bottle supplier; he may even have sold cut glass decanters
as a sideline. The Powells were a non-conformist intelligentsia family
living amongst like-minded London businessmen in Chigwell. |
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| The business specialised in chair hand blown glasses
of traditional heavy cut glass of the early 19th century, tavern glasses
and other fine tableware. They were capable of innovation in the chemistry
of glass using uranium to colour a presentation service for Queen
Victoria in 1837. |
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| In addition they made stained glass windows and by
1854 were experimenting with the chemical mixes to achieve mediaeval
coloured glass [quarries] for Charles Winston, the authority for cathedral
and church window restoration. Through his recommendation Powell was
supplying Burne-Jones with stained glass muff with the right mix of
air bubbles and brilliant natural colours to match mediaeval glass.
Soon Powell was commissioning cartoons from Edward Burne-Jones, Henry
Holiday, Anning Bell, Edward Poynter, Ford Maddox Brown and George
Cattermole. |
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| Through Burne-Jones, Powell was introduced to William
Morris supplying him with pots of glass mix wholesale for his own
stained glass business at Morris, Faulkner, Marshall & Co. When
William Morris commissioned his friend and colleague the architect
Philip Webb to design the Red House, Bexley Heath, he also asked him
to design a wine service in the Venetian style. Both Morris and Webb
were Oxford men who knew Burne-Jones through the Union and had been
taught by the influential and innovative Art Historian, John Ruskin,
an advocate of Venetian Gothic style. The new Ruskinian style and
ethos rejected the classical orders, preferring a naturalistic form,
and decoration. Thus the first English Art Glass was created using
the skills of Whitefriars blowers and designs of a Gothic architect.
This was an innovation which was to move Whitefriars to the forefront
of domestic and decorative glassblowing in the new style which was
sweeping Britain; first in ecclesiastic buildings but gradually, thanks
to Pugin’s writings, also making inroads into mainstream municipal
and domestic building. |
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These designs were more successful commercially for
two reasons; firstly they were incredibly modern and light in weight
in spite of being made in “flint” glass and secondly,
unlike Webb’s
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The Oval "Leather Bottle"
This model was launched in various colours, amber [dark],
green [dark], flint and straw opal, and continued in production
until the 1920s. |
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service, they were designed for the traditional glass blowing chair
culture used at Whitefriars with ogee shaped bowls with knops under
for a better grip and generous feet. You could buy matching decanters
and fingerbowls.
Jackson was a great friend of James Crofts Powell, becoming a travelling
companion when they went abroad sketching architecture and ancient
glass, both in museums and those portrayed in paintings by Old Masters.
T. G. Jackson designed decorative glass for exhibition and retail
and his designs influenced many of Harry Powell’s designs
from 1878 – 1914 in terms of weight, style and quality. Harry
was to introduce vertical ribs and twist ribbing along with many
stem variations as well as myriad subtle bowl shapes and challenging
new proportions using “straw” stems which could be short
or have great length. The Harry Powell scientific workbooks at the
Museum of London list colour formulae for both flint and soda glass,
and include the use of metallic foils for many exotic effects. Harry
joined the firm from Oxford, and his enquiring mind led to many
years of experiments which resulted in new colours like Alsatian
blue, pale amber, pale green, sea green and rare ruby. He introduced
straw opal and also blue opal, which was rarely used due to a blue
casing over the straw, which may have been less stable. |
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Harry Powell’s technical books detail not only
the size of a given hand blown glass but also its maximum weight!
The fact that so many hand made glasses were virtually identical when
in sets is a testament to his meticulous mind and the immense skill
passed on by the gaffer in the chair to the servitor and the footmaker.
When you lift a Harry Powell straw stemmed glass and experience negative
gravity along with the perfect ring, you can share in something unique
in the history of glass. He also fought hard to improve the quality
of the clear glass mix, forever finding better sources for the sand
and other materials, and asking scientists to improve the formula
for purity and consistency of colour.
When Harry took over as Manager in 1876, James Crofts Powell, his
cousin, ran the important stained glass department using in-house
designers and famous artists like Burne-Jones for important commissions. |
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| Harry’s interests and reputation for the science
of glass for major commissions was further stimulated by his friendship
with the director of the British Museum, who asked him to recreate
some of the very fine Roman glass that was being excavated both in
London and around the country. This meant not only recreating the
formula, but also recreating the patina caused by burial. He recreated
the iridescence and often had to complete the shape as often only
fragments survived. These pieces were then displayed in the British
Museum alongside the originals. They proved to be a remarkable source
of shapes and forgotten techniques as well as created ones! |
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| Through this connection Harry found that the only cutting
he liked was shallow Roman cutting, which did not spoil the outline
shape of the design; Harry had rejected all cutting especially the
heavy mid-19th century style in favour of the naturalistic Ruskinian
free blown shapes. His influence on avant-garde furnishing glass style
cannot be over estimated. His glass was stocked by Morris & Co,
as were Webb’s and Jackson’s before him. He also made
glass for Tiffany, Meier-Graefe’s Maison de L’Art Moderne
and Samuel Bing’s Maison l’Art Nouveau, C/F Cat.No.214
for a yellow exclusive to Bing. |
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| His Opaline shades were used by Benson for his lighting
with brass and copper mounts as were the more mundane shades; from
1875 Harry Powell had a blacksmith called Edminstone with a boy called
Edmund Francis employed to make wrought iron lighting fixtures, which
again used his fabulous shades. He supplied many other makers with
various shade shapes. Edminstone would also have made and maintained
the chairs tools, trolleys and sheets. |
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| The Harry Powell style is one of economy in design,
unfailingly perfect line and innovative, decorative effects like tears,
spiral, melted threads, metallic and gold effect, dichroic glass and
art nouveau engraving – again naturalistic – and the superb
Egyptian taste cut glass. His designs retained a quintessentially
English style and quality. |
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| His management of the company was dynamic in spite
of cramped, worn out and un-commercial works at Whitefriars off Fleet
Street, which were soon upgraded internally by T G Jackson, architect. |
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| Naturally, Whitefriars was one of the first glass houses
to use electric power to light the factory; the heating to control
the annealing process [the gradual cooling of the glass creating great
strength and a good ring] remained traditional and expensive. [The
electricity was powered by a Pasman of Colchester engine.] |
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| Harry published articles and books on technical, “The
Principles of Glassmaking”, and aesthetic, “Glassmaking
in England”, glass. Under his guidance James Powell & Sons
[Whitefriars] exhibited abroad at exhibitions gaining private commissions
like the Count Minerbi service, C/F Cat.No's 243 – 246, and
wholesale clients, but also selling to museums throughout Europe.
Powells also made a group of avant-garde heavy bubbly vases for the
Artificers Guild designed by Edward Spencer, C/F Cat.No’s. 412,
416, 417. James Crofts Powell remained in charge of the stained glass
department doing traditional work but also developing mosaic techniques
to the Byzantine standards of Ravenna. His opus sectile mosaics were
tilted to deflect the light and gained sufficient credit to be used
by William Blake Richmond in his work at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Harry was a member of the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society and
an active exhibitor there and internationally. |
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| >> Continued........ |
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