Posts Tagged ‘18th century’

PITCHER IN ‘AGATA’ GLASS
New England Glass Company, U.S.A., after 1885.
Ht. 101 mm (7-5 in.)
‘Agata’: Joseph Locke secured the patent
for the making of ‘Agata’ glass shortly
after 1885. According to his patent, it was
made in the following way. The object to
DC decorated was first partially or wholly
coated with a metallic stain of the desired
colour. The part that was stained was
spattered, or had applied to it a volatile
liquid such as benzene, alcohol or naphtha.
When the volatile liquid evaporated, it
left a mottled surface on the glass, which
was fixed to it by firing in a muffle kiln.
The result was an all-over pattern sug-
gestive of a fanciful golden spider-web on
the glass. Sometimes so-called ‘oil spots’
of a blackish-blue colour appear within
the pattern. This type of decoration is
more usually found on glossy pieces than
on matt-finished ones. The New England
(ilass Company, Mass., produced Agata
glass, mostly confined to decorating their
Wild Rose Peach Blow ware.
VASE IN “SECOND GRIND’ POMONA GLASS WITH
BLUEBERRY DECORATION
New England Glass Company, U.S.A., 1886 r .
III. 121 mm (475 in.)
‘Pomona’ glass was yet another invention
of Joseph Locke’s for the New England
Glass Company. His first patent, issued
in 1885, referred to what is now called
‘first grind’ Pomona, and involved cover-
ing the glass with an acid-resistant coating
carved with thousands of minutely en-
graved lines in the parts where a frosted
appearance was required. When the piece-
was plunged into acid, this cut into the
lines, producing the frosted effect once
the acid-resist was removed. Locke-
achieved a cheaper alternative in his
second patent of 1886, now called ’second
grind’ Pomona. To produce a stippled or
frosted ground, the area required was
covered with a thin layer of some finely
pulverised acid-resisting powder; this
adhered to a thin layer of oil or varnish.
All parts of the vessel protected by these
fine particles were not affected by the acid
bath, which produced a fine stippling
over the body of the article. Pomona
glassware was decorated with amber, blue
and rose-coloured stains.
‘Royal Flemish’: The patent for ‘Royal
Flemish’ glassware was issued to Albert
Stcftin in 1894. Raised gold-enamelled
lines divided the glass article into sections,
which were later coloured to give an
appearance rather like a stained glass
window. The different segments were
painted in transparent enamels in con-
trasting colours, usually brown, beige and
gold. The background of this glass is acid-
finished to give a matt appearance. Royal
Flemish glassware was manufactured by
the Mt. Washington Glass Company,
New Bedford, Mass., about 1890, several
years before the patent was registered. It
is noted for its painted enamels with the
designs in high relief, the old Roman
motif medallions often being used, as in
the jar illustrated. Designs include winged
creatures, cherubs and ‘guba-ducks’.
Sometimes Royal Flemish is marked with
‘RF’, the initial ‘R’ being reversed to the
initial ‘F’, and enclosed in a four-sided
diamond, orange-red in colour.
‘Feloton’ glass was patented in 1880 by
Wilhelm Kralik of Newclt, in Bohemia.
According to his specifications a gather of
glass would be dipped or immersed —
cither before or after it was worked into
shape— into a container that held filaments
or threads of coloured glass, this being
continued until sufficiently adhered to the
metal. He stated that these filaments could
be thrown on to the hot paraison, or the
paraison could be rolled on a surface where
the filaments lay, in order to catch them
up. The article would be reheated at the
glory-hole until the filaments became
homogeneous with the original body of the
glass, and it would then be pressed or hand-
tooled to the desired shape. Clear, coloured
and opaque white backgrounds were used.
Sometimes the finished article would be
given an acid bath for a satin finish.
Occasionally, heavy enamelled surface
decoration was added to give a more ‘busy’
effect.
‘Onyx’ glass was produced by the Dalzcll,
Gilmore, Leighton Company, Findlay,
Ohio, from about 1880; it was in this year
that George W. Leighton of Findlay
secured the patent for the firm. Prom the
Specifications il is apparent that “onyx’
glass was made from a sensitive mix con-
taining metallic constituents capable of
producing silver, ruby and other lustres.
The colours were made In subjecting the
glass to heat and gaseous fumes. Lustre
colours applied to the patterns are usually
in contrast to the main bod) ol the piece.
A moulding process was used that involved
two moulds, one lor pattern, one for
ultimate size and shape. Owing to the
difficulty of the technique, il is rare for any
two similar-shaped pieces to be of ihe
same shade. Rough rims arc quite com-
monplace in onyx glassware, since fire-
polishing these extremities could have
caused the sensitive material to change
colour; the rims were therefore cut and
ground to a tolerable smoothness.
K. Varnish, London. England, about 1850
I II 134 mm (o in.)
Silvered Glass: li was not until F. Hale
Thomson’s patent for silvered glass that a
satisfactory and reasonably economic
method of producing it was successfully
introduced. The British patent for the
production of this glass in quantity was
taken out in December, 1841) by Hale
Thomson and Edward Varnish, the piece
illustrated being made by E. Varnish of
I .ondon in about 1850. The goblet consists
of two layers ol glass, with silver mercury
applied to the back of the glass. The silver
has not discoloured, since goblets made b)
Varnish were permanently sealed. In
addition to a clear outer layer of glass, a
coloured transparent outer casing was also
used; this was carved through, to reveal
the silver-reflecting inner layer. Silvered
glass was made in various parts of Europe,
but Varnish was undoubtedly the best
exponent of the technique. Varnish, Hale
Thomson and others used a stamped
metallic disc J-inch in diameter, embedded
underfoot to mark the factory name on the
piece.
Glass with silver decoration was popular
from the last quarter of the 19th century
to just after the First World War. Several
means of depositing silver and other metals
on glass were patented in the last half of
the 19th century, the most notable being
those of Oscar Pierre Krard, a Frenchman
residing in England, and John H. Scharl-
ing of the U.S.A. Erard produced such
exceptional items as the jug illustrated lor
Stevens & Williams of Brierley Hill,
England. In 1889 he and John Benjamin
Round patented their method for electro-
depositing gold, silver, copper and other
metallic designs on glass, porcelain and
earthenware. They prepared a special flux
containing silver, which was formed into
a wash by being mixed with turpentine.
The design was painted on the glass in this
wash and was then fired in a kiln. The
article was placed in a solution of the
particular metal required, and an electric
current caused this to be deposited on the
glass.
Iridescent Glass: From 1863, when Ludwig
Lobmeyer exhibited the first iridescent
glass to be commercially produced in the
19th century, numerous patents were filed
for methods of making this attractive
glassware. The object was to imitate the
iridescence found on ancient pieces of
glass as a result of burial. In 1877 Thomas
Wilkes Webb of Stourbridge, England
was issued with a patent. The secret of his
method lay in the use of a closed muffle
furnace, where the fumes from the evapor-
ation of tin and other metallic salts were
allowed to come into contact with the
surface of the glass vessel. The hot surface
of the glass has an affinity to the acids being
used, thus causing them to remain perm-
anently attached to the glass. The result is
a rainbow-hued, mirror-like appearance.
In 1878 the patent was amplified to include
a fine crackled effect, in conjunction with
iridescence on the surface of the glass.
Patents for iridescent glassware continued
to be registered until the 1800’s, then for
a short time this ware was made only
sporadically. After 1000 the technique
took on a new lease of life both in the
U.S.A. and on the Continent. The best-
known makers of iridescent glassware in
the U.S.A. in the early 20th century were
Tiffany Furnaces, the Quezal Art Glass &
Decorating Company, the Durand Art
Glass Company, the Union Glass Works,
and the Steuben Glass Works. The last-
named produced iridescent glassware
under the trade name ‘Aurene’, which was
granted to Frederick Carder, Samuel
llawkes and W. II. Hawkes of the firm in
Corning, New York, in 1004. Fred Car-
der’s ‘Aurene’ and ‘Verre de Soie’ glass
ranks very highly. He introduced the
technique of spraying the heated glass in
a muffle kiln with a solution of tin crystals
dissolved in distilled water, which attacked
the surface, causing a shining, iridescent
effect.
‘Verre de Soie’, which translated means
literally ‘glass of silk’, shows the iridescent
finish just described. As in the case of the
example illustrated, practically all the
ware is of a soft grey-white appearance.
Occasionally, a very pale green colour is
added in the manufacture. Frederick
Carder, who had been co-founder of the
Steuben works in 1903, looked after most
aspects of the firm’s glass-making until
igi8, when the plant was sold to the
Corning Glass Works. 1 le continued as art
director until 1034, producing a massive
range of new art glassware. Besides the
glasses mentioned, he was responsible for
such specialities as Jade glass, Cluthra
glass, Cintra glass, Acid Cutback, lvrene,
Calcite glass, Intarsia glass, Bubbly glass,
Paperweight glass. Moss Agate glass,
Millcfiori glass, Rouge Flambe glass, and
others.
Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1934) de-
veloped many unique forms of art glass,
including iridescent ware. With Arthur J.
Nash and his sons A. Douglas and Leslie
Nash, he set up a factory at Corona, Long
Island, New York. Between the years 1894
and 1920 Tiffany’s registered several trade
marks. Leslie Nash, an accomplished glass
technologist, was granted a partnership in
the Tiffany In maces for his creation of the
‘Peacock’ Iridescent Glassware, which
made Tiffany’s world-famous. It should
be noted that it was also he who developed
‘Cypriote’ glassware for Mr. Tiffany. This
glass, an example of which is shown here,
was an imitation of the pearly and pimpled
effect one sometimes finds on the surface
of ancient pieces of glass that have been
buried for a long period. Tans and blues
are used most frequently as colours for
‘Cypriote’, and the surface looks as if it
were constructed of groups of minute
burst bubbles, the size of pinheads.
Tiffany Furnaces made single-colour iri-
descent glassware in which the surface is
broken up into thousands of fractures that
split ordinary daylight into rainbow col-
ours. They also decorated their iridescent
glass with trails from marvered-in coloured
fibres of glass. The quality of the wares
was enhanced by shapes to complement
the decoration; these include flower forms
such as bulbous tulips, or lily tops on long
stems and wide bases. ‘Lava’ glass is
usually found in deep blue and iridescent
gold glass, as in the example shown. A
splotchy iridescent gold is also found
amongst the deep blue. Tiffany became
famous for many other forms of art glass,
particularly for his Paperweight glass,
Agate, Marbleised ware, Cameo Glass,
Intaglio, Millefiori and Diatreta ware.
Other Tiffany products, apart from vessel
glass, were stained glass windows, mosaics,
enamels, jewellery with iridescent glass
and lamps with shades of floral or insect
design.
VASE IN IRIDESCENT GLASS
J. Ltttz Witwe, Austria, aboui iuoo
in pair de verre
Henri Cros, France, late ii|ih centur) ‘early aoth
». en tun
Some excellent iridescent glassware was
made, during its revived popularity, by the
Austrian firm of Ldtz (Loetz of Austria),
also known as L6tZ Witwe of Klastcrsky
\ll\n. The shapes and surface iridescence
show great similarity to some of the best
American iridescent glass products, not-
ably those of Tiffany furnaces. A com-
bination of iridescent and glossy finishing,
however, is usually restricted to Lbtz, and
is not seen on any Tiffany pieces. Other
makers of fine iridescent glassware were
the Quczal Art Glass & Decorating Com-
pany already mentioned, founded b>
Martin Bach (formerly an employee of
Tiffany Furnaces), in Brooklyn, New
York. The Durand Art Glass Company
produced beautiful iridescent glass at its
factory in Vineland, New Jersey. Late-
pressed iridescent glassware was produced
notably by the Northwood Company of
Wheeling, West Virginia, and Indiana,
Pennsylvania, the Fcnton Art Glass Works
of Williamstown. West Virginia, and the
Imperial Glass Company ol Belaire, Ohio.
Pale de verre, which was known in
antiquity, was revived in modern times by
the Frenchman Henri Cms (1840-1907).
The making of pate de verre is a technique
which lies somewhere between pottery and
glass-making whereby a plastic material of
powdered glass can be made into sculp-
tural forms or vessels by a process of
moulding. Henri Cros started his career as
a sculptor and painter, but was continually
fascinated by ancient techniques, so he
combined both arts in producing models
in coloured wax as craftsmen did in the
16th century. He evidently wished to
discover a plastic substance which could
be used for polychrome sculpture, so he
set to work to discover the lost secret of
plastic glass or pate de verre. It was only
after many years that he found a com-
position of powdered glass that could be
coloured and moulded. At home, and later
at the Sevres factory, he conducted
numerous experiments, and finally suc-
cessfully produced his own pale de verre.
Between 1893 and 1903 Henri Cros
produced a famous series of reliefs in
several colours in pate de verre. To produce
them, he placed in a hollow mould of
refractory clay a mixture of powdered
glass and other constituents in a soft pasty
condition, which was allowed to dry for a
time. It was then fused in a muffle furnace,
the mould breaking away, and the baked
shape was then ready to be polished or
wiped clean. The exact constituents or
how they were worked were never dis-
cussed by Henri Cros; the only informa-
tion he disclosed was that he used ‘un-
coloured powders made from blocks of
glass produced in crucibles’ which was
something of an over-simplification. His
son Jean was the only person to directly
follow in his footsteps, producing works in
pale de verre in his style. Dammouse,
Dccorchcmont and the rest found their
own individual interpretations of pate de
verre.
Albert Dammouse (1848 1926) was a
potter at the Sevres factory and began
experimenting with small vessels in pale
de verre in 1898. The material he used was
a soft enamel paste somewhere between
soft porcelain and glass, basically different
from that used by Henri Cros. The
products had a slight translucency. He
moulded this material into fragile vessels
with delicate flowers in pastel shades. It
could be said of his work that he showed
off the technique of pate de verre to the
best advantage and achieved the finest
harmony between form and material in the
vases he produced. Another worker in
pate de verre who deserves a mention is
Georges Despret (1862-1952); in the
Exhibition in Paris in 1900, he showed
some small bowls in ‘natural’ shapes, of a
heavier pate de verre in dark shades.
Despret’s pate de verre was a dense, almost
opaque, yet richly coloured paste, remin-
iscent of precious stones, which was some-
times engraved. Emile Galle also occasion-
ally made objects in pate de verre.
By Francois Decorchemont, France, i.iuio
Hi. 178 mm (7 in.)
From 1904, Francois Decorchemont dedi-
cated himself completely to the making of
vessels in pale de verre. He had been
originally a painter and potter, but found
the medium of pale de verre more satisfy-
ing. In his early work he used to put his
paste in the mould until it dried sufficiently
to be removed, then he proceeded to shape-
it as a potter did, and bred it in a muffle
furnace. In his later work he never re-
moved the paste from the mould, with
much better results. His first works were
made in a fine but opaque substance which
was rather grey and dull. It was only after
he returned from the First World War,
towards 1920, that he discovered the
formula for a hard, translucent material,
made up of silica and oxide colouring
agents in entirely new proportions. This
material was placed in a mould based on a
plaster model, the thickness being regu-
lated throughout.
vase in green pale de verre
By Francois Decorchemont. France, 1930
Hi. 162 mm (6-38 in.)
Decorchemont’s paste was baked for a
matter of 20 hours in an oil furnace he had
designed on the same lines as an oil lamp.
It was allowed to cool slowly, before being
removed from the mould, and then the
parts that were to look bright against a dull
background were polished. Until 1914 he
had made small vessels decorated with
animal or plant motifs in Art Nouveau
style. Between the wars he continued his
work in pate de verre, which differed from
that of other makers in that he worked with
a fairly heavy material, reminiscent of
natural stone in consistency and colouring.
He moulded this into plain shapes, at
times somewhat hard and angular in
outlines. The vase illustrated, in green
pate de verre, is an excellent example.
When his glasses were exhibited in 1925,
the Recorder of the Glass Section, Antonin
Daum, commented on their ’style, their
form and their sober magnificence’. In
later years Decorchemont did some ex-
quisite sculptural work, which in both
material and shape is reminiscent of jade.
plaque in white vitreous paste depicting
oliver cromw ell
Tassic. England, r.1700. Ht. 152-5 mm (6 in.)
James Tassie (1735-99), his nephew
William (1777-1860), and their successor
(from 1840) John Wilson, made original
portraits and copies of engraved gems in a
white vitreous paste related to pate de verre.
James Tassie was born at Pollokshaws,
near Glasgow, and began his career as a
stonemason. He learnt how to make casts
of engraved gems in glass paste from Dr.
Henry Quin of Dublin and in 1767
established himself in London, where he,
and later William and John Wilson, pro-
duced their medallions, casts and reliefs in
white and coloured paste. Tassie’s medium
was a finely powdered potash-lead glass or
pate de verre, which was first softened by
heating. When fully plastic, the glass was
pressed into a plaster of Paris mould,
which had the impression of the subject
being reproduced on its inner surface.
When an original portrait relief was being
made, a wax impression was first modelled,
from which a plaster mould was then made.
finger bowl and plate in ‘tortoise-shell’ glass
About 1880. Ht. 102 mm (4 in.)
‘Tortoise-SkeW Class was made in both
the U.S.A. and Europe. The ware has a
glossy finish, and the brown mottling is
enclosed between two layers of glass. An
interesting description of the process is
given by a German chemist, Francis Pohl
of Silesia, who received provisional pro-
tection only on a patent registered on
October 25, 1880. Several bubbles of
different shades of brown glass were
blown and then broken into small pieces.
Next, a bubble of plain glass was blown
and cut round the middle, leaving the
lower portion adhering to the blow-pipe.
While this was being done another bubble
of plain glass was being blown and rolled
in the fragments of brown glass, which
were carefully marvered in. This bubble
was inserted in the cut-off upper portion of
the first bulb, and the two were blown
together. The bulb was then reheated and
blown into the required article.
Steuben Glass Works. U.S.A., early 20th century
Ht 254 mm (10 in.)
Cluthra Class: Fred ( .arder of the Steuben
Glass Works of New York was responsible
for many developments in the coloured
glass field. Steuben depended wholly on
its sales of coloured glass to stay in busi-
ness, so vast ranges of colours and a great
variety of shapes were available. One ol
Fred Carder’s developments was the so-
called Cluthra glass, which is a partially
transparent, two-layered glass. The exam-
ple shown is the most common shape in
the Cluthra line. Between the two layers of
glass small air pockets in the centre of
white splotches have been introduced by
the use of chemicals; the air pockets are
slightly off-centre of the white marks.
Cluthra comes in single colours as well as
in shaded pieces; sometimes the pieces arc-
signed. The Kimball Glass Company,
Vineland, New Jersey, also produced a
cluthra-type glass. Knglish Gray Stan
glass, produced in the 1920’s, likewise-
made use of Cluthra decoration.
VASE IN ‘INTARSIA’ GIASS
Hy Frederick (larder. Steuben Cilass Works.
U.S.A., late 1920s early 1930*5
Ht. 15a mm (6 in.)
‘Intarsiu’ glass, made at the Steuben Glass
Works, Corning, New York, in the late
1920’s and early 1930’s, was considered by
Frederick Carder to be his greatest achieve-
ment in artistic glass-making. The name-
was probably derived from mlarsiatura, a
type of 15th-century Italian marquetry.
1 n tarsia pieces are made up of three livers
two clear, colourless layers encasing a layer
of coloured glass which forms the design.
To make a piece such as the one illustrated.
Carder would blow a bubble of clear
colourless glass and case this with a thin
layer of coloured glass. This was allowed
to cool, and a design was etched through
the outer coloured casing. A further gather
of clear, colourless glass was then taken up,
which sealed in the coloured design. The
bubble was then blown to the required
shape—usually a vase or a bowl, though a
few wine-glasses were made.
Powdered Glass Decoration: In 1806, John
Davenport of” the Davenport firm at
Longport, Stoke-on-Trent, England, pa-
tented ‘A New Method of Ornamenting
of all Kinds of Glass in Imitation of
Engraving or Etching, by Means of which
Borders, Cyphers, Coats of Arms, Draw-
ings, and the Most Elaborate Designs may
be Executed in a Stile of Elegance’. A thin
coating of a powdered glass paste was laid
upon the surface of the glass, and a pointed
tool was used to scrape off the coating into
the desired pattern. The glass was then
light!) fired, so that the decoration fused
with the surfaceof the glass. The ornamen-
tation does not really resemble engraving
or etching, but is entirely pleasing. It is
presumed that this patent refers to a group
<il glasses, with the word ‘Patent’ inscribed
on their bases, which arc decorated with a
\anety of patterns, including heraldic-
insignia, and elaborate sporting scenes
with costumed figures dating to the
beginning of the century.
Decorative Inclusions: Apsley Pellatt
(1791-186?) established a glass-house in
Kalcon Street, Southwark, in London. He
was interested in the French process <il
‘cameo incrustations’, or objects contain-
ing ’sulphides’. In 1819 he patented
several methods of embedding small white-
paste figures in clear glass. The process,
which he first called ‘crystallo ceramic-’,
then ‘cameo incrustations’, involved the
enclosing of medallions and ornaments ol
pottery ware, metal or refractory material
in glass. The ornament was pre-heated
then covered with the hot glass; some
difficulties were encountered, due to the
differing rates of contraction and acci-
dental air bubbles. He decorated many
objects in this technique, including paper-
weights, decanters, smelling bottles, wine
glasses, girandoles and plaques. As in the
cup illustrated, the glass vessels were often
finished by fine cutting. The process was
apparently first used in Bohemia in the
mid-18th century, and was later developed
by the French factories such as Baccarat
and Clichy.
The making of objects in crystallo ceramie
has been previously attributed to Bohemia
from the 13th, 16th and late 18th cen-
turies. However, most Bohemian examples
of the technique seem to date to the first
half of the iqth century. Dionysus Lardner
in his treatise on glass-making dated 1832
said that cameo incrustation was first
attempted about 50 years before (that is,
about 1780) by a Bohemian glass manufac-
turer. His success was indifferent, for
‘the material of which he made choice for
his figures, expanded and contracted very
unequally with the surrounding glass, and
their adhesion to it was consequently
imperfect’. Lardner later spoke of the
success of the Frenchmen Saint Amans
and Desprez and of the Englishman
Apsley Pellatt in cameo incrustation. The
most successful of Apsley Pellatt’s methods
involved the use of a mixture of china clay
and supersilicate of potash for his cameos.
These were slightly baked, and then
heated to redness in a muffle furnace,
ready for use with the glass.
Thomas  Sons. Knyiland. 1SX7
Diam. 152 mm (h in.)
A cylindrical flint glass pocket attached to
the end of a hollow iron rod was prepared.
The hot cameo was inserted into this and
the end of the cylinder was closed. Air was
then sucked out of the hollow iron rod,
causing the collapse of the glass on to the
cameo, so that glass and composition figure
became one homogeneous mass. Numer-
ous examples of cameo incrustation can be
found in tqth century glass from French,
Bohemian and English glass factories.
Objects made include plaques, pendants,
scent bottles, covered boxes, tumblers,
goblets, \ ases, and of course paperweights.
Both clear and colourless glass and col-
oured glasses were used in their manufac-
ture. The bowl illustrated is a rarity, since
the cameo incrustation is used in conjunc-
tion with Satinglass, though of course the
cameos are enclosed in clear glass and
applied to the sides of the bowl. Two
cameos of Queen Victoria of England are
attached to the front and back of the bowl,
which was made by Thomas Webb & Sons
in 1887, to commemorate Victoria’s Dia-
mond Jubilee.
doorstop (paperweight in green bottle glass
with ei.ower decoration enclosed
Norlh of Kngland, late igih century
Ml 127 mm (5 in.)
Towards the later part of the 19th century
popular glassware items were the heavy,
clear green glass doorstops or rough
paperweights produced in some factories
in England. These made decorative but
useful glass objects available to working
people. They were made of green bottle
glass, and were of a tall beehive shape, very
often containing the airy pattern of a
flower, as in the example illustrated, or
else enclosing an arrangement of spaced
bubbles. It has been discovered that a few
of these glass doorstops bear the same
stamp that can be found on the base of
bottles made at the Kilner factory in
Wakefield. It is also known that a specially
designed doorstop of this type, enclosing
a ceramic bust—presumably of Queen
Victoria—was made for the 1887 Jubilee
in a glass-works at Knottingley in the
West Riding of Yorkshire.
‘graal’ glass
Simon Gate, Orrefors, Sweden, 1917
When the factory of Orrefors, Sweden,
engaged the two artists, Simon Gate and
Edward Hald to design glass, one of the
major objects of the director and manager
of the factory was that they might be able
to improve on the factory’s production of
cascd-glass vases done in the manner of
Galle since 1914. In 1916 Albert Ahlin, the
manager, Knut Bergqvist, master glass-
blower at the factory from 1914, and Simon
Gate worked out their improvements.
They called their new technique ‘Graal
glass’. In Galle’s cased-glass the process of
cutting and etching the ornamental pattern
from two or three or more layers of glass
was all-important. In ‘Graal glass’ this was
just an intermediate stage, after which the
vessel was subjected to working in the
furnace, where the ornaments acquired
that fluidity which is their greatest fascin-
ation. Gate liked designs in many colours,
with figures in vivid movement.

The Regency style of cutting can be
regarded as the classical standard of
British cut glass. It was not long to survive,
however, for in the new designs of 1825-30
there was a change from mitre-cutting to
flat-cutting or surface slicing in a vertical
pattern, as opposed to the horizontal
patterns of previous years. Horizontal
bands of diamonds were replaced as
decoration by a vertical arrangement of
broad hollow flutes, ‘pillared’ flutes, or flat
vertical facets. The essentials of this new
style can be seen in the pattern drawings
of about 1830 of Samuel Miller, foreman
cutter at the Watcrford glass-works in
Ireland. The style may have started in the
cutting shops of Birmingham. Apsley
Pellatt at the Falcon Glasshouse in South-
wark, London, was producing vessels with
vertical arrangements of fine diamond
panels about 1820. The decanter illus-
trated shows pillar-cutting of about the
toco’s.
The broad-fluted style of cutting was
international, with overtones of the early
18th century, and was especially associated
with the Budermeter glass of Central
Europe. About the same time as this style
of cutting appeared in England, the shape
of glass became more angular and straight-
sided, which was suitable for the new form
of decoration. Decanters, particularly,
changed from the barrel shape to a
cylindrical shape with vertical sides. This
remained the characteristic style of the
1830’s and the early 1840’s. Some elabora-
tion on the style took place on the better
pieces so that flutes would have multiple
profiles and would alternate with panels of
mitre-cutting. Arched patterns became
fashionable around 1840; often complex
in detail, they still retained the strongly
vertical tendency of style. The decanter
illustrated is a good example of the arched
decoration of the 1840’s, with mitre-
cutting enclosed by the arches.
CUT-GLASS DECANTER
By Apsley Pellatl, England, 1851
Ht. 311 mm (12-25 11,1
During the 1830’sand 1840’s glass-makers
in England began to appreciate once more
the curves and rounded shapes one could
attain with glass. Water carafes and
decanters began to have spherical bodies,
and champagne glasses with the new-
hemispherical bowl were introduced.
Wine-glasses now had ogee-shaped and
bill-shaped bowls, and cutting consisted
of plain facets running through from the
bowl to the stem. The spherical carafes and
decanters were often cut with ‘printies’ or
rows of large shallow facets. The decanter
illustrated, made by Apsley Pellatt in
London in 1851, has these rounded
hollows on the body of the vessel. Occas-
ionally heavy mitrc-cutting was used, but
the tendency was to decorate these boldly
curving shapes with engraving as opposed
to cutting. The period of common use for
these shapes in England coincided with the
eclipse of the technique of cutting in the
1860’s and 1870’s.
CUT-GLASS DECANTER
England, about 1850. lit. 381 mm (15 in.)
The Glass Excise in England was removed,
after much agitation, in 1845. Glass could
now be made to any thickness without fear
of taxation. One result was a revival in
interest in deep mitre-cutting, where the
glass was thicker and the cutting deeper
than ever before. The decanter illustrated
is a good example of this. Large-scale
mitre-cutting was to be a feature of this
mid-ioth century work. Intricate curvi-
linear designs became more common, and
the actual shapes of the vessels were freer
and had more variety. Contemporary
engravings illustrated much of the intri-
cately cut glass on display at the Great
Exhibition of 1851. Objects that have
survived to the present day show that the
glasses were not quite the ‘prickly mon-
strosities’ they appeared to be in 19th-
century engravings. Mention should be
made of the firm of F. & C. Osier of
Birmingham, who produced enormous
cut-glass centrepieces for this and other
exhibitions, and for eastern potentates
CUT-GLASS BOWL.
Decorated by E. Hammond, Stevens & Williams,
England, about 1895. Diam. 419 mm (16-5 in.)
After the 1851 Exhibition, cut glass was
largely disregarded for many years in
England. During the later 1850’s, 1860’s
and 1870’s, spherical vessels with en-
graved decoration were the fashion. Some
cut glass was always made in this period,
but without any great originality of
thought so far as the design was concerned.
Pressed glass imitations of cut glass also
spurred the reaction against real cut glass.
The intellectual set were against it on
aesthetic grounds from the middle of the
century. In John Ruskin’s words ‘all cut
glass is barbaric’ (Stones of Venice Vol. II
(1853)). Glass fashions at this period were
more or less international, so the eclipse of
cut glass also took place in Central Europe,
France and the U.S.A. at the same time.
However, it came internationally to the
fore again in the 1880’s and 1890’s. In the
pattern books of British manufacturers for
that period the new designs show cutting
as elaborate as was technically possible.
CUT-GLASS BASKET
Stevens & Williams, England, about 1880
Ht. 175 mm (688 in.)
Glass-cutters in England in the 1880’s and
1890’s aimed at a mathematical precision
in their work. Technical improvements
helped them to achieve this, so that even
shapes that were difficult to decorate with
cutting, such as the cut-glass basket
illustrated, became a commercial proposi-
tion. Cut-glass objects that aspired to lesser
heights were square-section toilet bottles
and whisky decanters with ball stoppers,
which were decorated all over with dia-
mond mitre-cutting. Cut glass was looked
upon as the ‘old legitimate trade’ by glass-
makers, and tended to a conservatism in
design, yet the variety of new shapes in
these years was in line with the freedom
of the fancy-coloured glassware that was
being produced, This decoration became
once more the symbol of social and
material success, and was much patronised
by the middle and upper classes. Pressed
glass imitations were no longer the threat
they had been.
DECANTER IN CLEAR COLOURLESS GLASS WITH CUT
DECORATION
Bakewell, Page & Bakewell, Piltsburgh, U.S.A., 1825
The earliest known specimens of American
cut glass date from 1824, although evi-
dence does exist to indicate that cutting
may have been practised even earlier than
this date. Motifs that were used exten-
sively were flutes, panels, stars and plain
geometric bands. The cut decoration was
hand-polished on wooden wheels, which
gave it a softer lustre than that given by the
later high-speed wheel polishing or acid
bath. North American glass factories that
produced cut glass in the early 19th
century were the Bakewell (Company of
Pittsburgh, the New England Glass Com-
pany, and the Boston and Sandwich Glass
Company. By 1830, the American glass
factories were producing enough glass to
encourage the government to stop foreign
imports, and in that year a high Federal
tariff was levied against imports from
Europe. The Baldwin Bill severely limited
imports, resulting in a boom in the
American glass industry.
COVERED VASE IN CLEAR COLOURLESS GLASS WITH RED
FLASHING AND CUT DECORATION
Probably the New England Glass Company, U.S.A.,
about 1845. Ht. 756 mm (2975 in.)
The new tariff laws of 1830 made the
manufacture of fine tableware in America
especially profitable, and by 1840 at least
81 glass-houses were in operation. In West
Virginia, in 1864, a new glass metal was
developed. Instead of the expensive and
brilliant lead glass, a less costly soda-lime
glass was developed, which although it did
not have the ring or rich appearance of lead
glass, was admirably suited to the great
variety demanded by the American public.
With the introduction of this new metal,
American cut glass was even more threat-
ened by cheaper pressed glass imitations.
Cut glass manufacturers were driven to
using the pressed techniques, or else to
producing cut-glass items that could not
be duplicated on the pressing machine. In
this middle period of American glass-
making (1830-80) cutting continued the
use of the flute, cross-hatching, fan, and
diamond motifs, though with a greater
profusion than in the earlier period. All the
glass, however, subordinated decoration
to the shape of the glass.
SEGMENT OE PI-ATE IN CLEAR COLOURLESS GLASS
WITH CUT DECORATION
T. G. Hawkes& Co., U.S.A.
The ‘brilliant’ period of American glass-
making (c. 1880-1915) was so called be-
cause of the fashion for brilliant cut glass,
which became a symbol of social prestige,
its opulence admirably suited to the
formality of the age. The deep-cut patterns
favoured motifs such as the mitre, the fan,
the notched prism, the single star and the
‘hob-star’. A very brilliant lead glass was
used which, in conjunction with the deep
cutting, produced an effect of extreme
richness and crackling brightness which
has to be seen to be fully appreciated. From
the beginning the glass-cutters tended to
cover most of the’surface of the piece with
their decoration. After the turn of the
century the embellishment became even
more elaborate, and the many firms vied
with each other in creating complicated
patterns, completely subjugating form to
ornament. Social and economic factors led
to the manufacturers pricing themselves
out of existence after World War I.
VASE WITH CUT DECORATION IN BLUE-GREEN GLASS
CASED WITH COLOURLESS GLASS
Use Schargc-Ncbel, Germany, 1064
Ht. 208 mm (82 in.)
The heavy, clear colourless glass that was
created in the Bohemian-Silesian area in
the late 17th century provided the stimulus
for a spectacular development in the art of
cutting as well as engraving. Glass so
decorated was soon being produced in all
the German-speaking countries, and by
the 18th century was being exported all
over the world. In the 19th century the
Bohemian factories adopted the English
style of heavy cutting with great success,
and even today cut wares form a large part
of their export wares. Bohemia has pro-
vided the finest cutters and engravers for
countries which have a less firm tradition
in glass-making. Modern German glass
shows the same quest for simplicity which
is noticeable in Finland, Sweden and
Denmark, and the glass-makers have
returned to the basic qualities of glass and
glass-blowing. This is reflected in the
simple lines and sensitive cutting of the
vase illustrated. It is in bluish-green glass
with a clear, colourless casing, the cut
decoration forming a window-like pattern.
VASE WITH  DECORATION
By Pavel lllava, Czechoslovakia, 1959
A fresh stylistic impulse reached the glass
factories of Bohemia in the first decade of
the twentieth century, which was to change
their traditional attitudes to decoration.
The impulse came from Vienna, where the
architect and designer Josef Hoffmann
(born 1870) had become a powerful influ-
ence. He was an early pioneer of a Func-
tionalist style in decoration and advocated
the use of basic geometric figures like the
square and circle for designs. Through his
work at the Wiener Kunstgewerbeschule
(Viennese School for Applied Arts) where
he taught, he popularised heavy, angular
forms. His style of purely geometric
ornament was transmitted to the Bohemian
glass industry by way of the schools for
glass-making and decoration in Haida and
Steinschonau. After the political revolu-
tion in 1948 the tradition for Bohemian cut
crystal continued, though softer patterns
were favoured over the old rigid cut-glass
designs. Pavel Hlava (born 1924) is best
known for his cut and engraved glass.
The Techniques of Taking Away
DISH WITH FACET-CUTTING AND ‘DIAMOND-POINT-
ENGRAVING
Germany (exported from Egypt ?), 2nd century A.D.
Ht. 6t mm (25 in.)
Dxamnnd-Potnl Engraving: Kngraving
glass with a diamond point was a technique
practised in Italy from before the middle
of the 16th century. Centuries earlier than
this, during the period of the Roman
Empire, engraving in the same style was
being produced. Some sharp instrument
not unlike a diamond point must have been
used; the results arc rather rougher, but
the similarities in technique cannot be
denied. ‘The first instance of this type of
engraved bowl was found in a grave of the
late 1st century A.D. on Siphnos in the
Aegean. However, it is not until the later
2nd century A.D. that a school of such
work can be recognised. The pieces are
colourless, clear glass bowls bearing myth-
ological and genre scenes in facet-cutting
with ‘diamond-point’ engraving for the
details. Many of the bowls have Greek
inscriptions giving the names of the
persons depicted, and all have a curvilinear
engraved band, usually just below the rim.
SEGMENT OE PLATE ENGRAVED IN DIAMOND-POINT
Willi GILDED AND FILIGREE DECORATION
Venice, mid-ihthcentury, Diam. 275 mm(10s in.)
Venetian cristallo glass, with its brittle
soda-lime constitution, was particularly
suited to the technique of diamond-point
engraving. When the diamond point was
pressed against the glass, this took the
impress with precision, yet still allowed
much treedom of movement to the en-
graver. However, although the technique
was practised in Italy, it was never as
popular there as on the glass of Venetian
type (Jacon de Vemse) found in other
European countries, notably in Holland
and also Hall-in-the-Tyrol. The diamond-
point engraving was usually used in con-
junction with gilded decoration. Dishes
with fantastic birds and long-tailed mon-
sters, as in the dish illustrated, were
produced, as well as those with coiled
foliage and coats of arms. The dish shown
is in clear, colourless glass with granular
gilding and a filigree network, as well as
diamond-point engraving. Dragons, birds
confronting a mask and crossed Papal
Keys form part of the engraved decoration.
GOBI II WITH DIAMOND-POINT INGKWING
Attributed to Jacopo Verzelini, Km/land, 1581
iii 210 mm (8-ag in.)
A group ol diamond-point-engraved glas-
ses has commonly been attributed to
Jacopo Verzelini (1522-1606), a Venetian
who came to England from Antwerp in
1571. In 1575 he obtained a privilege from
Queen Elizabeth I for a period of twenty-
one years which gave him the sole right to
make glasses after the Venetian style in
England, and forbade the importation of
foreign glass. In 1592, when he was
seventy, he gave up glass-making and
retired to Downe in Kent, where he died
at the age of 84. All the glasses ascribed to
him are large goblets of various proportions
with hollow moulded or gadrooned knops
on the stems. The goblet illustrated is in
clear, colourless glass with a slight greenish
tinge and diamond-point engraving on the
straight-sided bowl. The engraving on
Verzelini glasses has been attributed to
Anthony de Lysle, an engraver of pewter
and glass who is thought to have come
from France.
BOUQUET  IN DARK BLUE GLASS ENGRAVED WITH
11II DIAMOND POINT AND GILDED
Hall-in-the-Tyrol,
Ht. 202 mm (7-95 in.)
Diamond-point engraving was a charac-
teristic form of decoration at an important
glass-house at Hall-in-the-Tyrol. This
was started in 1534 and flourished in the
third quarter of the 16th century. It was
under the direction of Sebastian Hoch-
stetter, an Augsburg merchant, and event-
ually came under the patronage of the
Archduke Ferdinand. The articles pro-
duced by this works were in blue, green,
and clear and colourless glass, with dia-
mond-point engraving and (often dam-
aged) lacquer painting and lacquer gilding.
In the last third of the 16th century most
European glass-making countries were
producing glasses similarly decorated and
diamond-point engraved. Scrolled arab-
esque foliage, borders of chain or guilloche
pattern, hatched ‘ladder-borders’, and
borders of single formal leaves or of crest-
ing are usually found on all these glasses.
Obviously, these could not all be the work
of the same hand, but more probably the
work of a craftsman from Hall and his
pupils.
‘ROYAL OAK GOBLET’, ENGRAVED IN DIAMOND POINT
England, 1663. Ht. 143 mm (5-63 in.)
Few glasses survive from the period when
the Duke of Buckingham (1628-87) to°k
over from Sir Robert Mansell the making
of fine glass in the Venetian style in
England. The most important glass to
survive is this goblet, engraved in diamond
point with a portrait of Charles II
surrounded by engraved oak branches
with the inscription ‘Royal Oak’. There
are also portraits of Charles and his wife,
Catherine of Braganza and the Royal Coat
of Arms on the reverse, with the date 1663.
The metal is greenish-brown and the style
is facon de Venise. The glass was probably
made to commemorate the marriage of
Charles and Catherine in 1663. Another
famous glass of the same period is the
‘Exeter Flute’, probably made for the
coronation of Charles II. It stands 17
inches high, with a portrait of Charles II,
a sprouting oak stump and the inscription
‘God Bless King Charles the Second’ in
diamond point on the fluted bowl.
HOWL, DIAMOND-POINT-ENGRAED
Probably Savoy Glass-house, England, c. 1676
Hi. 98 mm (1-85 in.)
GOBI.r.T ENGRAVED IN DIAMOND POINT, SIGNED
‘WM. VAN HEEMSKERK’
Netherlands, 1686. Ht. 200 mm (788 in.)
(See alio colour photograph 22)
The bowl illustrated is one of a pair found
in 1037 aI Tring. They are known as the
‘Buggins’ Bowls’, since they depict the
arms of Butler Buggin of North Cray,
Kent, and his wife Winifred Burnett of
Leys, Aberdeen. They were married in
1676, the year that George Ravenscroft of
the Savoy Glass-house in London estab-
lished his glass-of-lead. However, it was
not until the following year that the Glass
Sellers’ Company allowed him to seal his
glasses with a raven’s head seal, so the
Buggins’ Bowls must have been made
prior to this. These heavy lead-glass bowls
have an almost modern look to them, due
to the absence of the intricate cutting that
was to become so characteristic of later
English lead glass. The diamond engrav-
ing on the bowls belongs to the tradition of
the past, since the technique is more
suited to the earlier thin-walled vessels of
the soda-lime type of glass.
In 17th-century Holland diamond-point
engraving was especially fashionable as a
pastime amongst amateurs, many of whom
became very skilled. Two famous names
are Anna Roemcrs Visschcr (1583-1651)
who decorated green glass Romers with
(lowers, fruit and insects, calligraphy and
inscriptions in Roman capital and Greek
letters, and Willcm Jacobsz van Hecms-
kerk (1613-92), a cloth merchant, poet and
dramatist of Leiden, who practised calli-
graphy on glass, mainly bottles, usuall\
adding his signature and the date. Exam-
ples of his work date from between 1648
and 1690. It is thought that much of the
diamond-point engraving found on Eng-
lish glasses of this period is probably
Dutch work. Up to this time Holland had
been producing Venetian-type cristallo
glass, but towards the end of the 17th
century she began to make ‘flint glass
ranglaise’. Possibly as a result, by the
1690’s wheel-engraving replaced diamond-
point engraving as the popular form of
decoration.
WINE-GLASS, ENGRAVED IN DIAMOND
POINT
England, mid-i8ih century
The group of vessels engraved in diamond
point known as ‘Amen’ glasses forms a
sub-division of the type called Jacobite
glasses. These were used to toast ‘The
Cause’ by the clubs and societies which
fostered Jacobite sentiments in England in
the 18th century. ‘Amen’ glasses arc
engraved in diamond point with a royal
crown, the cipher IR and RI entwined, and
the figure 8, together with either two or
four verses of the Jacobite anthem, ending
with the word ‘Amen’. They are essentially
private glasses, used for expressions of
loyalty to James and Prince Charles
Edward, and occasionally Prince Henry.
Some arc dated, like the Dunvegan Castle
glass, 1747, and the Mesham and the
Drummond Castle glasses, 1749. In the
1930’s some good forgeries of ‘Amen’
glasses were put on the market. Jacobite
glasses have been in such demand that all
the various types have been reproduced by
forgers.
GOBLET, STIPPLE-ENGRAVED BY FRAN.N GREENWOOD
Glass, English; engraving, Dutch, dated 1728
Ht. 210 mm (8-25 in.)
Stipple Engraving: For the technique of
stippling, grouped and graded dots were
engraved with a diamond point on the
surface of a glass object, the dots repre-
senting the highlights of the design. The
diamond point was set in a handle which
may have been gently struck with a small
hammer to produce a single dot on the
glass. In the better examples of stippling
the decoration can be compared to a deli-
cate film breathed upon the glass. Frans
Greenwood, a native of Rotterdam,
brought the art of stippling to its greatest
heights in the first half of the 18th century.
Born in 1680, he died in 1762, and was
apparently of English descent. He was
actually an amateur glass-engraver, who
from 1726 held an official post in Dor-
drecht. Nevertheless, he produced a quan-
tity of stippled glasses, often signed and
dated, and usually copying prints after
contemporary paintings. A typical example
is the light baluster glass illustrated, which
depicts a man holding a Rotner signed
‘F. Greenwood 1728′.
Glass, Knglish; engraving, Dutch, about 1790
Laurence Whistler, England, H15-;
Olhcr artists contemporary with Green-
wood also practised the art of stippling.
The best-known names are Aert Schou-
man, G. H. Hoolart and J. van den Blijk.
In the last forty years of the 18th century
stipple-engraving was done by numerous
artists, the most famous of them being
David Wolff in Holland, whose name has
become synonymous with the technique.
He was born in 1732 at ’s-Hcrtogcnbosch
and married in 1762 at The Hague, living
there until his death in 1708. The glass
illustrated shows the portraits of William
V of Orange and his wife, Fredcrica
Wilhelmina Sophia of Prussia. In the 19th
century Andries Melort of Holland (1779-
1849) copied in stipple on to Hat sheets of
glass the work of Dutch painters. D. H. de
Castro (d.1863), a chemist of Amsterdam,
revived the technique of stippling in the
Wolff manner in the mid-19th century,
and more recently E. Voet and others in
I lolland have used the technique.
Since the last World War Laurence Whist-
ler (b.1912) of England has concentrated
upon the art of stippling glass. His designs
are highly personal and imaginative. I le
started his engraving in an unusual way,
for during the 1930’s he used to amuse his
friends and himself by scratching lines of
poetry on windows in the Elizabethan
manner. Later he developed his skill to
engrave wine-glasses, each design being
specially made for a rich and aristocratic
person. At this stage he was employing
diamond-point engraving, frequently us-
ing genuine eighteenth-century wine-
glasses on which to practise his art. His
designs were of the Baroque tradition,
with emblems and allegorical allusions as
favourite themes. In his later work Whis-
tler has also designed the glasses them-
selves, which he decorates so that form and
decor become as one. Most of these glasses
are made for him at Whitefriars.

covered goblet with engraved portrait ok carl
Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, by Franz Gondelaeh,
Germany, c. 1700.
Spillcr’s contemporary and pupil was
Jager, an outstanding glass-
engraver. He was born at Reichenberg in
Bohemia, appeared in Berlin in 1606 and
was made a member of the Berlin glass-
cutters’ guild in 1606. Both Spiller’s and
Jager’s glasses often show crisselling (a
network of tiny cracks in the glass), a
defect found in the Potsdam glass used at
the Berlin workshop. The third engraving
workshop to be set up for a German court
was that of Franz Gondelaeh (or Gunde-
lach) for the Court of the Landgrave Carl
of Hesse Cassel. Gondelaeh, sometimes
called the greatest German master of the
art, was born at Gross-Almerode in Hesse
in 1663 and becameJiirstlicheGIasschneider
to Carl in 1695. It is not known when he
died, but he was still described as Hof-
glasschneider at Cassel in 1716. He some-
times used Potsdam glass for his work,
occasionally marking his pieces with an
eight-rayed star.
It is only towards the end of the 17th
century that a genuine distinction between
glass-cutting and glass-engraving can be
made. For the first time it is obvious that
different types of equipment were being
developed for cutting and for engraving.
The glass-engraver’s equipment was light
enough at this period to be carried, where-
as the glass-cutter’s equipment, used for
facetting, intaglio (deep cutting) or rough-
ing out for finer engraving, was hardly
portable. The large interchangeable
wheels for cutting were rotated on a heavy
hand-turned cutting machine, a form of
equipment which survived until the
modern period. By the end of the 17th
century, water power was in use for turn-
ing the wheels, and was probably used to
do the all-over facetting as an obligatory
prelude to the engraving on glasses of
Bohemia and Silesia in the 18th century.
Intaglio or Hochschnitt cutting would not
have been possible without this extra
power.
The Bohcmian-Silcsiart glass-engraving
industry produced glasses that were event-
ually exported as far as Persia and the East,
as well as all over Europe. The Bohemian
workshops were predominant in the late
17th and early 18th centuries, but after
1725 Silesia overtook them in importance.
There were workshops in Schreiberhau,
Hermsdorf, Kynast, Warmbrunn, Peters-
dorf and Breslau, as well as other places in
the Hirschberger Tal. The finest Silesian
work occurs partly in the Rococo period,
when characteristic forms appear, such as
shell-shaped, lobed and scrolled cups,
which were frequently gilded as well. Most
of the work remains anonymous, but some
of the finest work is known to have been
done by an artist of Warmbrunn, Christian
Gottfried Schneider (1710-73). All other
German centres remained subordinate to
the Bohemian-Silesian workshops, but the
name of Anton Wilhelm Mauerl (1672-
¦737) of Nuremberg should be mentioned
for his work with its accent on Chinoiserie.
By the beginning of the 18th centur;
wheel-engraving as a decoration on glass
(often of English manufacture) was be-
coming established in popularity in Hol-
land. The chief exponent of the art there
was Jacob Sang, a Saxon who worked in
Amsterdam. Dutch wheel-engraving was
very German in style, and certainly at first
was the work of German craftsmen resi-
dent in Holland. Jacob Sang engraved and
signed a number of glasses with dates
between 1752 and 1769 during his stay at
Amsterdam. He was probably related to
Andreas Friedrich Sang, the Thuringian
glass-engraver. In 1738 A. F. Sang was
recorded at Weimar, as Hoch/iirstlich
sdchsiscke Glasschneider. His son was the
Brunswick Court glass-engraver, Johann
Heinrich Balthasar Sang. Wheel-engrav-
ing had already been practised in Holland
in the first half of the 18th century,
possibly by another member of the Sang
family.
WINE-GLASS ENGRAVED 165 mm (6-5 in.)
DRINKING GLASS IN COLOURLESS GlASS WITH
ENGRAVED DECORATION
John Frederick AmelungGlassworks, L.S.A. 1703
III. 220 mm (805 in)
A group of engraved glasses thai enjoys
great popularity with collectors comprises
the so-called Jacobite glasses, all engraved
with symbols of the Jacobite cause in
England. The various emblems include the
star, oak-leaf, butterfly, caterpillar, grub,
carnation, forget-me-not, lily-ot-the-val-
ley, daffodil, honeysuckle and sunflower.
The most important symbol, however, is
undoubtedly the Jacobite Heraldic Rose,
which may have six, seven or eight petals,
representing, it is thought, the Crown of
England. Other glasses have actual por-
traits of Prince Charles Edward, the Young
Pretender, engraved (not very skilfully) on
their bowls. The words FIAT, AUDEN-
TIOR UK) and REDEAT are often found
on these glasses. The exact significance of
each symbol, including buds in relation to
the roses, is the subject of much discussion,
bin no one yet knows all the answers. The
majority of the glasses have air-twist
stems, but baluster stems and opaque
twists are also lound.
Some of the most noteworthy engraved
glass of North America was produced at
John Frederick Amelung’s glass-works
which was established at New Bremen
near Frederick, Maryland, in 1784. Efforts
to establish a glass industry had been made
during the 17th century, notably at James-
town in Virginia, where the first attempt
was made around 1608. However, the first
successes in the business were scored
mainly by Germans and Englishmen in the
18th century, when several important
glass manufactories were started, the
Amelung glass-house being the most
successful. It operated for only one decade,
but its clear glass decanters, glasses and
goblets set a high standard. The glass
illustrated is European in style, showing a
sturdy form and restrained engraving,
with foliage and a finely drawn inscription
‘George Trisler’ and the date 170.!, en-
closed in the foliage. The shallow wheel-
engraving found on these glasses often
features commemorative inscriptions and
dales
The period of prosperity after the Napo-
leonic wars known in Germany as the
Biedermeierzeil brought about the revival
of the art of glass-engraving, particularly
in Bohemia. Massive feet and bold poly-
gonal facetting are characteristic of these
heavy engraved pieces. The commoner
examples arc somewhat clumsily engraved,
but the finer pieces are equal to anything
from the previous periods. Glass-engravers
tended to work independently and to move
about; thus Dominik Bimann (1800-57)
worked at Prague, but went to Franzens-
bad during the season, and August Bohm
(1812-90) visited England and America.
Romantic landscapes and hunting scenes
showing faithful perspective were popular.
The Pelikan family of Meistersdorf near
Kamnitz and the Simms of Jablonec were
also notable engravers in this style.
Engraving through a silver stained surface
to clear colourless glass was popular, as in
the goblet illustrated, which has engraved
panels flashed with clear yellow glass.
It is worth while taking a close look at 19th
century English wheel-engraving, since so
much of it is still to be seen. As Hugh
Wakefield points out, the early years of the
century could truthfully be called the
heyday of cut glass, and engraving was
only used where cutting could not reason-
ably be used on a glass vessel. Simple
wheel-engraved motifs appeared often
enough on wine-glasses, and larger vessels
might have lettering in the form of mottoes
and inscriptions. Floral and other plant
motifs were used effectively as in the loving
cup illustrated. On the other hand, repre-
sentatives of figures were unusual, and
appeared only on the more special pieces.
Difficult subject matters were avoided, and
it could be said that engraving in the early
years of the 19th century was considered
suitable only for commemorative pieces
and for the bowls of wine-glasses, where
cutting could not be used.
Kngraved by a member of the Wood family of
Brettell I ..me, Kngland, 1840-50
Hi. 209 mm (117; in.)
JUG WITH  DECORATION
Shown ai the 1851 exhibition by J. Ci. Green,
Kngland. Ht. 337 mm (13*25 in.)
In the early 1840’s surface stains were
being used in the Stourbridge area on
glassware, broad flute cutting being added.
The stain was normally ruby-red, derived
from copper rather than the yellowish-
brown given by silver. The bottle illus-
trated is ruby-red stained and was en-
graved by a member of the Wood family of
Brcttell Lane, near Stourbridge. The
bottle forms part of the movement in the
1830*1 and 1840’s, when the scope of
engraved work seems to have widened in
England. The Wood family had an im-
portant engraving shop in Stourbridge
around the 1840’s, and Thomas Wood was
established enough to produce an inde-
pendent display for the 1851 exhibition.
\i the firm of Thomas I lawkes in Dudley,
near Stourbridge, William Herbert and
the rest of his family were becoming noted
during the 1830’s for the engravings they
produced for the firm. It was soon to
become apparent that wheel-engraving
was a technique well suited to Victorian
taste.
Shapes popular for wheel-engraving in
Victorian times included globular decan-
ters and water carafes. These forms were
developed in the early years of Victoria’s
reign, and proved so suitable to the
technique of wheel-engraving that they
probably helped to popularise it. The
hemispherical champagne glass introduced
about this time could only be whccl-
engraved and not deep-cut. At the 1851
Exhibition the most significant engraved
glass was that exhibited by the London
dealers, particularly by the firm of J. G.
Green. Their ‘Neptune’ jug, a large Greek
oinochoe shape elaborately engraved, was
much illustrated at the time and is
illustrated here. The oinochoe shape be-
came very popular in the later part of tlu-
cent ury, but the most usual shapes for
engraving for the late 1850’s, 1860’s and
1870’s were footed ovoid shapes used lor
decanters, claret jugs and vases. These
were blown thinly, and offered a large ana
By Frederick E. Kny, Thomas Webb & Sons,
England, probably later 1870’s
Ht. 308 mm (12-13 in.)
The decanter illustrated was engraved by
the Bohemian Frederick E. Kny, one of
the most distinguished engravers in Eng-
land in the 1860’s, who remained prom-
inent for the rest of the century. He had a
separate workshop on the premises of
Thomas Webb & Sons at Stourbridge.
He, like other artists, favoured the well-
known three-lipped decanter shape for
engraving. This shape, as seen in the
illustration, with its high shoulder and
spherical stopper, often with a tiny ball
finial, was a result of the current admira-
tion for Greek pottery forms. It looked
best when blown thin, and called for the
lighter work of wheel-engraving for decor-
ation. The shape came into its fullest
popularity in the early 1870’s, appearing
in the Stevens & Williams pattern books in
January, 1871, and in the Thomas Webb
and Richardson firms at roughly the same
time. By the last decade of the century it
was one of the best-known international
shapes.
The Techniques of Taking Away
JIG WITH ENGRAVED FERN PATTERN
John Eord, Scotland, about the i88o’s
Hi. 247 mm (075 in.)
Another shape that was most popular for
wheel-engraving in England in the 1860’s
was the tankard-shaped water jug, with
straight, slightly tapering sides. This style
of jug was used for fine engraving until
near the end of the 19th century, but since
then the shape has become too common-
place for such elaborate treatment. Motifs
for engraving in the 1860’s were Renais-
sance arabesques and Greek-inspired de-
signs, while in the later 1860’s and 1870’s
naturalistic designs of flowers, birds and
hunting scenes became more common.
The fern patterns on the jug illustrated
originated with the Scottish firm of John
Ford of the Holyrood glass-works. To-
wards the end of the 1850’s an emigrant
Bohemian, J. H. B. Millar, set up a work-
shop for engraving glass in Edinburgh,
closely connected with the firm of John
Ford. He introduced the fern patterns at
the London exhibition of 1862 and they
remained very popular for a long period.
VASE WITH ‘ROCK CRYSTAL.’ ENGRAVING
by Frederick K. Kny, Thomas Webb & Sons,
Kngland, abou” 1880. Hi. 235 mm (0/25 in.)
WINE-GLASS WITH INTAGLIO FLORAL ENGRAVING
Slcvcns & Williams, Kngland, about 1000
Hi. 159 mm (625 in.)
A new style of decoration appeared in
England towards the beginning of the
1880’s, which was called ‘rock crystal’
engraving. What differentiated the new
technique from normal wheel-engraving
was that all parts of the work were
polished, instead of the engraving being
kept unpolished to contrast with the
surrounding surface. This uniformly
bright appearance led to a new approach
in the design of the engraving. Instead of
the engraving being a pattern on the glass,
it took over the whole surface of the vessel
and became deeper cut, and more in the
character of carving. The effect was an
even more sumptuous method of decorat-
ing English lead glass, in line with the
international trend for brilliant cut glass,
and it was also in keeping with the
simultaneous development of carved cam-
eo glass. The workshops of F. E. Kny
(see illustration) and of William Fritsche,
which were attached to Thomas Webb &
Sons, produced ‘rock crystal’ glass
throughout the 1880’s and 1890’s.
‘Rock crystal’ glass was produced in
France in this period, and possibly Thomas
Webb’s work was inspired by the work of
the French glass-makers. Stevens & Wil-
liams at Brierley Hill near Stourbridge
also produced ‘rock crystal’. In the early
1880’s there was a phase when ‘rock
crystal’ pieces were made to imitate
Chinese jades. The final fling for Victorian
engraving came with Stevens & Williams
intaglio work of the 1890’s, as in the wine-
glass illustrated. Intaglio is deep engraving
carried out on wheels that would normally
be used for cutting, a technique some-
where between cutting and engraving. The
names of John Northwood and Joshua
Hodgetts are particularly associated with
the development of this method. The
technique was worked out at the beginning
of the 1890’s, and was an established part
of the Stevens & Williams output by the
later 1890’s. It was also being used by
American firms, such as T. G. Hawkes of
Corning, New York.
Intaglio work was produced notably by the
firm of L. C. Tiffany at the factory at
Corona, Long Island, in the U.S.A.
towards the end of the ioth century and
the beginning of the present century.
Their ‘intaglio’ glass differed from English
intaglio, since besides referring to the
cutting and engraving of glass, the term
also referred to the practice of applying
contrasting coloured glass in the engraved
parts and re-cutting so that engraved work
appears on decorative inlays. The flower
and leaves on the vase illustrated have been
treated in this manner, being in contrast-
ing colours to the base glass. Glass that
had been cut or engraved either in intaglio
or in cameo relief by the Tiffany factory
was always referred to as ‘Carved’ in their
brochures and catalogues. The glass fac-
tory also produced simpler relief-cut
objects without colour contrasts and used
coppcr-wheel-cngraving on many of their
vases, bowls, lampshades and tablewares.
The finest achievement of Wilhelm v. Eiff
(1890-1943) was his work in high relief
(Hochschnitt) on glass. He raised it from a
miniature art, giving the technique the
dignity of sculpture. Von Eiff was the son
of a craftsman at the Goppingen branch
of the Wiirttembergische Metallwaren-
fabrik, and at a very early age mastered the
techniques of engraving both metal and
glass. He worked for a time in Lalique’s
jeweller’s studio, and also with the famous
glass-engraver Charles Michel in Paris. In
1913 he paid a short visit to the Art School
in Stuttgart, and in 1921 he worked for a
while with the glass designer Stephan
Rath. In 1922 he was appointed professor
in cutting and engraving on glass and
precious stones at the school in Stuttgart.
He had a great influence on his pupils, who
now can be found from Scotland to Japan,
doing work in many different ways, from
each other’s products as well as from v.
‘GIRLS PLAYING BALI-’
engraving by Edward Hald, Orrefors, Sweden, 1019
BOWL IN PALE BILE GLASS ENGRAVED WITH ANGEL
AND DANCING MAIDENS
By Simon Gale, Orrefors, Sweden. 1927
Hi. 160 mm (63 in.)
Of great importance to the history of art
glass were the appointments in 1916 and
1917 respectively of Simon Gate and
Edward Hald as designers to the glass-
works at Orrefors. Edward Hald (b. 1883)
was a painter who had studied with
Matisse in Paris, and had already designed
pottery for the factory at Rorstrand.
Orrefors, founded in 1898, is situated in
Smaland, the main glass-producing dis-
trict in Sweden. Here, Hald had to learn
the very basics of glass-making from K nut
Bergqvist, master glass-blower at the
factory from 1914. It was the engraved
glass produced at Orrefors which won the
factory its first international fame. There
was already an engravers’ shop at Orre-
fors, with Gustaf Abels at its head, before
Gate and Hald were appointed. As soon
as they settled in, they began to experi-
ment with this technique. Hald preferred
a more delicate approach to engraving
than Gate’s style, producing exquisite
objects like the vessel illustrated, directly
inspired by the art of Matisse.
Simon Gate (1883-1945) the first glass-
designer employed by the Orrefors glass-
works, was the son of a prosperous farmer
and trained as an artist in the grand
classical manner at the Academy in Stock-
holm. Like his contemporary Hald, he had
to learn glass-making from the beginning
when he joined Orrefors, and he concen-
trated first on the art of engraving. The
style of the early engraved work of the
Orrefors glass-works reflects the taste for
luxury products in prosperous post-war
Stockholm —an elegant nec—classicism.
Within this tradition both Gate and Hald
developed their own styles. Gate’s work is
noted for the heaviness and large dimen-
sions of the vessels, decorated in deep
carving with figure subjects from the
Bible, classical mythology and like sources.
It is claimed of Orrefors that no other
glass-works has had such an international
influence over glass-production. For the
first three decades of this century the
attention of the glass-works was directed
to the art of engraving glass.
Jarosla Horejc (b. 1886) is a glass designer
of Hungarian origin. One of Drahoftov-
sky’s pupils, he produced for the Paris
Exhibition in 1925 four vases with en-
graved decoration, one illustrated here,
decorated in magnificent classical style
with figures cut in very high relief
(Hochschnitt). The well-known Viennese
glass firm, J. & L, I.obmeyr was estab-
lished in 1823; since that date three
generations of Lobmcyrs had worked as
dealers in and refiners of glass in Vienna.
In 1918 Stephen Rath, a nephew of
Ludwig Lobmcyr, established a branch
cil the firm called ‘J. & L. Lobmeyrs Neffc
Stephan Rath’ in the North Bohemian
town of Steinschonau (or Kamcnicky
Seno). Here glass was made to Rath’s
specifications and decorated to the design
of artists by the finest engravers of the
district. Horejc’s work is a direct result of
this; in 1962 he was still continuing his
classical tradition of engraving with richly
varied figure subjects from the Lobmeyr
Studio.
John 1 lutton was born in New Zealand in
1906. He is probably best known for his
work in England, at Guildford, and for the
engraved panels he produced for Coventry
Cathedral. The freencss of his style of
engraving owes much to his equipment, a
movable wheel driven through a sheathed
flexible shaft by an electric motor. Water
is fed to the wheel by a wet piece of cloth
held in a bracket attached to the hand grip.
Instead of applying the glass to a stationary
wheel in the conventional manner of
engraving, Hutton is able to move his
wheel at will over the whole surface of the
glass. The result is a fine, shallow, light
engraving with rather a rough finish.
Hutton has translated some of the Coven-
try figures on to large vessels produced by
Whitefriars, one of which is illustrated.
His art is forceful and dramatic, and
reveals a new facet to the technique of
engraving glass.
Steuben Glass Works, U.S.A., 1045-50
Hi. 1525 mm (6 in.)
Frederick Carder (1863-1963) of the
Steuben Glass Works at Corning, New
York, developed the ancient cire perdue
(lost wax) process for the production of
Diatreta. In this process a wax model of
the object was made from a gelatin mould
taken from a plaster of Paris replica of the
object. The wax model was covered with a
ceramic mould. After a drying period of
twenty-four hours the mould was placed
over boiling water which melted the wax,
leaving the moulded impression in reverse
of the original model. Cold glass in the
form of rods or lumps was placed in the
mould, which was then fired in a kiln until
the glass had run into every part of the
mould. The mould and glass were next
slowly annealed, and finally the mould was
broken away, leaving a glass casting of the
original model. The Diatretum pieces
made between 1945 and 1959 show how
Carder had perfected this method of
glass-casting.
ENGRAVED BY Ј. JANE WEBSTER
England, 1963
One of the more successful modern free-
lance wheel-engravers of Britain is Jane
Webster, a former student of Stourbridge
College and Royal College, where she
gained the Princess of Wales scholarship.
Her chief concern, as it also is with her
contemporaries Laurence Whistler and
David Peace, is the satisfactory relation-
ship between the design on one side of the
glass and the part that shows through from
the other. Her husband, Cyril P. Aron,
designed her copper wheel-engraving
lathe. She specialises in commemorative
presentation pieces such as the one pre-
sented to Princess Anne on the occasion of
her visit to Pilkington Brothers’ St. Asaph
factory in Wales in 1972. She has also
engraved a set of twelve windows in a
synagogue at Stanmore, and an overdoor
panel for the Edinburgh Weavers’ show-
room in London. The chalice and paten
illustrated were commissioned by the
architect, Harry M. Fairhurst to be pre-
sented by the academic staff for the chapel
of the St. Anselm University Hall of
Residence at Manchester.

THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS
Nevers, Prance, 1777. Hi. 210 mm (8-25 in.)
Verre de Nevers: This technique origin-
ated in Nevers in the late 16th century, and
it is more closely allied to lamp-working
than to the normal techniques used for
creating glass objects, such as blowing and
moulding. It flourished in Europe for
some two centuries. This delightful group,
depicting the judgment of Paris, was made
in Nevers in the heyday of the glass
figurine, between the late 17th and early
18th centuries. The figures were made by
softening rods of glass of different colours
and winding them over a metal armature.
Every fold of the garments on this group
has a metal base below the glass. When the
glass was sufficiently thick, and after
repeated reheating, it was modelled to
shape with the aid of prods and pinchers. I n
Verre de Nevers groups, decorative details
such as leaves are made entirely of glass,
with no supporting core, while such forms
as birds might be blown.
WINE-GLASS WITH LAMP-WORKED DECORATION
Saxony? early 18th century. 111. 140 mm (55 in.)
Lamp-working is a technique used by
glass-makers to make objects by using only
a single flame as a source of heat. Glass
rods are normally used, held over the
flame and melted or softened to the
desired shape. In modern times, the most
popular lamp-worked objects are small
animals made out of coloured glass rods
melted down, bent and joined to the
required form. Details like eyes are made
by putting a small drop of molten glass on
the object, with possibly another centred
on the first drop to form the pupil. The
ornate stem-work on Venetian and /aeon
de Venise wine-glasses is closely allied to
this technique. One of the rare instances of
true lamp-working on a blown glass is the
wine-glass illustrated, which is one of a
series that have a band of lamp-worked
decoration round the centre of the bowl.
The work stands out in three dimensions
from the bowl, the small Cupid being
almost free-standing; he holds a garnet in
his hand. The provenance of these vessels
is not certain.
TULIP-SHAPED JUG
Karl Kopping, Berlin, c. 1900
I It. .120 mm (126 in.)
Karl Kopping (1848-1914) was a painter
and etcher in Berlin. Between 1892 and
1900 he designed some tall decanters and
goblets made at the lamp from tube glass.
At that time Germany had lor some ten
years been under the influence of the style
for naturalism created by Emile Galle of
France. It became known in Germany as
the Jugendsttl, and Karl Kopping’s exag-
gerated Art Nouveau glass vessels form a
part of this movement. The starting point
for his designs was the flower on its stalk,
and the colours he used could be both bold
and delicate. The stem of the glass
illustrated is in blue, the leaves are in
copper-green glass and the tulip-shaped
bowl has a metallic finish. The piece is
signed on the foot: ‘C. Kopping’. 1 lis work
became popular, and several museums
bought examples of it, but today they are
regarded more as period pieces.
BIRD FOUNTAIN
England, it»th century. III. 4H9 mm (1925 in.)
(See also colour photograph 16))
It has always been the custom for glass-
blowers to amuse themselves in spare
moments by creating fantasies in glass.
These are known in the trade as ‘friggcrs’
—a word which possibly derives from the
Old English ‘Jrician’, to dance. In Scotland
they are called ‘whigmelccrics’. In the
19th and early 20th centuries friggcrs
included elaborate fountains surrounded
by birds with tails of glass fibres and fully
rigged sailing ships on spun glass seas, as
well as the objects mentioned on page 100.
The more elaborate friggcrs are usually
protected by a large glass dome. Friggers
were made for amusement, for family
presents, as an extra source of money, or
even for fully mercantile reasons. Travel-
ling glass-makers who visited fairs and
private houses produced many of these
novelties, having as their kit a bundle of
multi-coloured glass canes and a little
furnace heated by a tallow flame.
The ‘taking away’ or abrasive techniques of
glass-making have as long a history as glass
itself Even earlier, hieroglyphic inscriptions
had been engraved on hard stone vessels, and
we definitely know that as early as the 16th
century B.C. glass was being engraved in
Egypt. Most of this engraving was probably
done with pointed instruments or possibly
with a rotary wheel. Wheel-culling and
wheel-engraving are the two terms most
commonly encountered, and though they are
thought of as almost separate methods,
basically the techniques are the same. In
both, a rotating abrasive wheel cuts into the
glass surface. The mam distinction is that
large wheels are used for cutting, where the
worker holds the glass on lop oj the wheel,
between himself and his tool; and small ones
for engraving, where he holds it below the
wheel, so that he can see what he is doing.
Culling is characterised by large-scale,
geometric designs, usually relatively deeply
incised, and engraving by jine, detailed,
usually pictorial work.
Grinding and Cutting from a Raw Block of
Glass: This was the only ‘taking away’
technique that was used to produce a com-
plete vessel or other object. The method,
which was covered in the first chapter,
dealing with techniques before blowing
was invented, continued in use for a short
time after the 1st century B.C. The ring
illustrated is a good example of the method
used to produce a single decorative object.
One might imagine that a gem or even a
glass cameo was once set in the concavity
left by the glass-cutter at the front of the
ring. (lasting glass in moulds and blowing
glass were so much easier, that this tech-
nique, using rotary abrasion to shape an
object, fell into disfavour. It was con-
tinued primarily as a means of finishing off
already made glass forms, or as a means of
embellishment.
GOBLET BEARING THE NAME OF TUTHMOSIS III
(1504 1450 B.C.)
Egypt III. 130 mm (5-1 in.)
Early Wheel Engraving: The goblet illus-
trated, made of turquoise-blue opaque
glass with a gold ring at the rim and base,
is a famous example of early incised work.
Some glass vessels from the 18th Dynasty
in Egypt are decorated with incised
inscriptions such as that found by Sir
flinders Petrie at Tell el Amarna. A frag-
ment of a bowl at The Corning Museum of
C1 hiss bears a fragmentary inscription
relating to the wife of Amcnhotep III
(1412 1375 B.C.), and is said to reveal ‘the
characteristic tapering ends of wheel cuts’.
Whether the engraving on these early
vessels was done with a point or by means
of a rotating instrument has been tho-
roughly discussed by R. J. Charleston (see
Bibliography). For the most part it seems
that just a pointed instrument was used,
and it was only in the later Egyptian
period that there is evidence of wheel-
engraving on the glass, probably by the use
of a bow-lathe.
SHALLOW BOWL WITH PETAL DESIGN
Roman Empire, 7ih 5th century B.C.
Hi. 39 mm (155 in), diam. 174 mm (685 in.)
In the general Mesopotamia-Assyria-Asia-
Minor region, rotary abrasion was used to
sharpen up decorative motifs, which were
first produced by moulding processes.
There is a large family of bowls with
radiating petal motifs—one being illus-
trated here—the earliest of which is known
to date from not later than 700 B.C. These
were produced by being cast into moulds,
and finished by grinding and cutting. As
abrasive powder on the wheels, emery was
probably used; this was apparently known
in Egypt at least as early as the 18th
Dynasty. The known use by the Egyptians
of tubular metal drills in cutting granite
was probably paralleled further East in the
first millenium B.C. Some such means
must have been employed in the hollowing
out of vessels like the famous ‘Sargon vase’
(see first chapter).
It is not known what type of abrading
equipment was used in Roman times to
decorate glass. It has been suggested that
an all-purpose tool could have been used,
which could be adapted as lathe, drill or
engraving wheel as needed. The Romans
definitely used abrasives such as emery for
cutting, and pumice stone for polishing the
cuts. Probably from Egypt came a group
of facet-cut and ‘diamond’-point engraved
bowls from the ist and 2nd century A.D.
(See Diamond-Point Engraving.) These
are the parent group from which are
descended all late Roman cut and engraved
glasses with figured scenes. The quality of
Alexandrian engraved work deteriorated
during the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D.
However, in the west, from some time in
the 3rd century A.D. onwards, a great
quantity of figured cut or engraved glass
began to be produced in Italy and the
neighbouring provinces, of which the dish
illustrated above is an example.
Figured decoration in engraved work was
not altogether abandoned by workers in
the eastern workshops, as is seen in some
later exports to the west from the east.
However, in general they began to con-
centrate on easier designs, suited to less
skilful engravers, and presumably for more
speedy production. The jug illustrated,
with geometric decoration in friezes, is an
example of the rather rough designs the
West Syrian/Egyptian workshops fav-
oured. It is in dark yellowish-green glass,
which is of rather poor quality, being
bubbly and streaky with impurities. The
fine linear and facet cutting of the earlier
period is not in evidence. Wheel-engraving
was now used to imitate facet cutting, with
designs of curved lines, circles and ovals.
The style took particular root in Egypt,
and probably in Syria also. Many of the
vessels of this type found in the west must
have been imports from these areas.
Diatreta are the most extraordinary and
most outstanding examples of the tech-
nique of abrasion ever made. From experi-
ments carried out by Fritz W. Schafer in
Germany and Barbini and Fuga in Italy it
has been proved with almost complete
certainty that these delicate cage cups were
produced by lapidary means, and not by
any other technique (see Bibliography). A
small battery of wheels and readily avail-
able abrasives, plus the skill of the en-
graver, are all that is needed to make a
diairelum from a solid, carefully annealed
blank. Diatreta are the finest product of
the Cologne and Trier glass-makers in the
4th century A.D. They have been found
in the Rhineland, on the Danube, in
Northern Italy and in Greece. The three
most beautiful, all with inscriptions, came
to light in Cologne. The inscription on the
one illustrated is in Greek, and conveys an
exhortation to drink.
With the decline of the Roman Empire in
the West, glass engraving died out. This
was largely because there was no (ine-
quality glass made after this time that was
suitable for engraving. In the East the
technique never ceased, and glasses with
cut decoration can be traced in unbroken
continuity through Sassanian to Islamic
times. Baghdad and Basra were noted for
cut glass in the 9th century A.D. and later.
In the 9th and ioth cerfturies, after a
renaissance under the dynasty of the
Samanids, a school of relief-cutting flour-
ished in Persia and probably in Meso-
potamia, which in Europe was not rivalled
until the end of the 17th century. The flask
illustrated is an early example of a shape
that was to remain popular throughout the
Islamic period. The scrolling engraved
design was to exert a great influence on the
mind of the Islamic artist.
Hedwigsglas in light brown clear glass, the
gilt-copper foot a later addition
So-called Hedwigsgldser represent the last
wheel-cut glass vessels to be produced in
the Orient, and are recognised as master-
pieces of Egyptian skill. Their origin is by
no means absolutely certain. These thick-
walled glasses carved in hochschnitl (deep
cutting) are maintained by B. Shelkov-
nikov to be the work of a 12th-century
White Russian workshop in Novogrudok,
which was presumably under the influence
of Byzantium. They are certainly a con-
tinuation of the art of rock-crystal cutting,
and more probably originated in Egypt.
The motifs used include stylised lions
and griffins between palm branches, as in
the illustrated example. Two of these
glasses reputedly belonged at one time to
St. Hedwig (1174-1243), wife of the Duke
of Silesia, and it is from her that the glasses
take their name. (Legend has it that the
saint caused water to change into wine in
one of these glasses.) Her niece, St.
Elizabeth (1207-31) also had a Hedwigs-
glas, reputed to give strength to women in
labour, which eventually came into Martin
Luther’s possession.
clp with facet-cltting
Barnwell, Cambridgeshire, England, lasi quarter of
1st century or early 2nd century A.D.
Ht. 90 mm (355 in.)
Facet-Culting is a form of decoration that
goes back certainly to the early Roman
period. Large, broad wheels were needed
to make the facets in the glass. R. J.
Charleston points out that Pliny mentions
some of the abrasives used for grinding in
Roman times, such as ’sand of Naxos’ for
emery, ’sands’ from India, Egypt and
Nubia, and certain stones from Armenia
and Cyprus. He also points out that
Theophrastus mentions pumice and also
emery in his History of Stones. Pliny
mentions Thebaic stone from Egypt and
pumice for the final polishing of marbles.
A wheel with a broad cutting or grinding
edge was certainly used to produce the
facet-cutting on this cup, which is in clear
glass with a greenish tint. Cups like this
found in England and Cyprus are thought
to originate from Western Syria or Egypt
and, in the later 2nd century A.D., from
East Syria.
During the 2nd century A.D. the East
Syrian glass-makers and decorators devel-
oped their knowledge of the art of glass-
engraving including facet-cutting. The
art lived on through Sassanian to Islamic
times. The flask illustrated, in clear glass
with a slight blue tinge, is a typical example
of the continued tradition of wheel-cut
decoration. Oval concave facets cover the
body of the flask, and the neck also has a
ring of facets. Previous to this, in Sassanian
times, wheel-cutting, particularly facet-
cutting, resulted in some striking glass-
ware. Most of the surviving examples from
this period arc cither facet- or linear-cut,
including characteristic shapes such as the
hemispherical bowls with concave cut
facets which were exported to the West
and East, even as far as Japan.
Facet-cutting, particularly for stem-work,
became popular in the second half of the
18th century. Facetted tumblers and
bottles were current in Bohemia, and in
Germany facet-cut knops appear on wine-
glasses from the Laucnstein and other
Hessian glass-houses in the first half of the
18th century. In England at the same time
glass-grinders were facetting the edges of
mirrors, and simple diamond-facetting
was beginning to appear on some glasses.
Scent bottles of opaque white glass and
blue glass, and snuff bottles dating from
about 1770, had all-over facetting and
were often enamelled and gilt. Once
thought to have originated from Bristol,
they more probably came from the Birm-
ingham, South Staffordshire or even Lon-
don area. From the middle of the 18th
century, facet-cutting became an estab-
lished form of decoration in England,
appearing particularly on wine-glass stems,
between c. 1760 to f.1810. Examples can be
found through to the modern period.
VASE WITH FACET CUTTING
By Keith Murray. Stevens & Williams, England,
1939. Ht. 206 mm (8-13 in.)
The architect Keith Murray (b.1893) first
began to take an interest in glass after the
Exhibition in Paris in 1925. He asked
himself why he found the conventional cut
crystal of England so unsatisfactory. After
analysing old English glass, he decided the
glass was better if left plain, or when it was
cut, if the cutting was in a ‘well organised
decoration’, flat cutting being particularly
appealing. The idea of an artist designing
for industry was beginning to be accepted
in England, and in 1932 it was arranged
that Murray should act as designer for
glass for Stevens & Williams at Brierley
Hill, near Stourbridge. During the seven
years he worked in glass he produced
designs for simple unornamented table
services and for some larger pieces. His
most important works are the large vases
and dishes in heavy metal decorated with
facet-cutting reminiscent of early Georgi-
an work. They powerfully express his
architectural feeling, and the decoration
matches the material superbly.
BOWL WITH  FACETTING
By Miluse Roubiekova, Borske sklo, Czechoslovakia,
1958. Diam. 450 mm (17-7 in.)
After the political revolution in Czecho-
slovakia in 1948 the glass industry was
nationalised. The Creative Glass Centre in
Prague was set up in 1952, in order to
establish contact between the glass-works
and the artists and designers, and to
encourage research into new methods of
decorating glass. Czechoslovakian glass
has long been known for its great tradition
in lead crystal cutting, and like its British
counterpart, Bohemian crystal still enjoys
a large public all over the world. The
tradition continues, but finds new expres-
sion in less rigid cut-glass patterns, softer
patterns of a gently formalised character
being increasingly favoured. A good exam-
ple of the new trend is the free irregular
facet-cutting on this bowl designed by
Miluse Roubiekova made at the Borske
sklo, Novy Bor. The usual diamond or
star motifs are no longer in evidence, but
the unsymmetrical lines of the bowl still
enhance the brilliance of the glass.
Later Wheel Engraving: In gem-cutting,
wheels of various materials were certainly
being used by the 15th century to engrave
and polish. By the 16th century, the prin-
ciple of continuous rotary movement had
been established. Engraving equipment
driven by a foot treadle was in use by glass
engravers in the early 17th century. Caspar
I.ehmann, the greatest name in the revival
of glass-engraving in Europe in the late 16th
century, was an engraver of hard-stones
before he was a glass-engraver, and one-
can assume his equipment was more or less
the same for both crafts. Lehmann was
‘Imperial gem-engraver’ to the Emperor
Rudolph II at Prague in 1601, and in 1608
was described as ‘Imperial gem-engraver
and glass-engraver’. From the very begin-
ning, then, the glass-cutter undoubtedly
borrowed his ideas from the gem-cutter,
whose art was so closely allied to his own.
This was a tradition that was to continue
into relatively modern times.
Caspar Lehmann’s engraving is shallow—
because of the thinness of the glass—two-
dimensional and unpolished. Prague was
one of the centres for rock crystal cutting,
and this is reflected in the style of the
engraving, which is flatly cut and gains its
effect from the contrast between the white
engraved lines and the’dark background of
the clear glass. In 1600 I.ehmann obtained
an Imperial Privilege conferring on him
alone the right to practise the art of glass-
engraving in the Imperial domains I le
bequeathed his privilege to his pupil
Gcorg Schwanhardt the Elder, born in
Nuremberg, who worked with him at
Prague. In 1622 Schwanhardt returned to
Nuremberg, where he founded a brilliant
school of wheel-engraving which flourished
to the 18th century. The new potash-lime
glass developed in Bohemia and Germany
in the early 17th century was eminently
suitable for the technique of wheel-
engraving.
COVERED GOBLET IN GREEN GLASS WITH CLEAR GLASS
STEM (DETAIL)
Probably engraved by Hermann Schwinger,
Nuremberg, Germany, about 1665- 80
Hi. 394 mm (15-5 in.)
Schwanhardt’s work in rock crystal and in
glass shows a complete mastery of the
technique of wheel-engraving. His work
was both polished and unpolished, and he
often used as motifs landscapes with
figures, with formal baroque scroll work.
He sometimes added delicate diamond-
point work to his glasses. Among his
pupils were members of his own family,
his sons, Georg the younger and Hcinrich,
and three of his daughters. Other notable
artists among the Nuremberg engravers
were Hermann Schwinger (1640-83) and
Georg Friedrich Killinger (first recorded
1694, died 1726). They all engraved the
same characteristic type of tall goblet,
with hollow knopped stem. The family
of Johann Hess at Frankfort-on-Main
engraved similar glasses in the second half
of the 17th century. Johann Heel (1637-
1709) glass-engraver, silversmith, faience-
painter and engraver of prints in Nurem-
berg also engraved glass in a somewhat
different style, following the motifs he
used in faience painting.
COVERED GOBLET WITH HOCHSCHNITT CUTTING
By Friedrich Winter, Silesia, end of 171I1 century
Ht. 280 mm (11 in.)
{See also colour photograph iH)
During its most flourishing period (c. 1685-
1775) German glass-engraving was done
mainly by unknown artisans working for
themselves in north-eastern Bohemia and
Silesia. However, the best-known work
was done by the engravers to three German
courts. Friedrich Winter set up the first of
these workshops in 1687, with permission
from Count Christoph Leopold von Schaff-
gotsch, at Petersdorf in the Hirschbcrger
Tal. He used water power, and produced
many glasses in the Hochschnitt technique.
Under the patronage of Friedrich Wilhelm,
Elector of Brandenburg, Friedrich Win-
ter’s brother Martin (died 1702) set up an
engraving workshop in Potsdam near
Berlin in 1687. This was also run by a
water-power mill specifically to produce
works in Hochschnitt (deep cutting) and
Tiefschnitt (intaglio work). Martin Win-
ter’s highly gifted nephew Gottfried Spiller
worked here, becoming a partner in 1683.
His engraving included flowers, allegories,
portraits, coats of arms, sometimes in
Hochschnitt, and occasionally he used the
ruby glass of the Potsdam glass-house.

BOWL IN DARK RED GLASS, ENAMELLED AND GILT
Byzantine, i ith-t2th century A.D.Ht. 79 mm (3*13 in.)
Theophilus, describing ‘how the Greeks
embellish with Gold and Silver’, said ‘they
take the white, red and green glass, whicb
are used for enamels, and carefully grind
each one separately with water on a
porphyry stone. With them they paint
small flowers and scrolls . . .’. He went on
to describe the furnace in which they fired
window glass, including painted glass, and
specified that the glass be bedded down on
quick-lime. Vasari, who wrote an account
of the stained glass technique of Gugliel-
imo de Marcillat (d.1529) stressed that
‘this burning in of the colours requires the
greatest caution, for if the heat be too great
it will cause the glass to crack, and if
insufficient it will not fix the colours’. To
test the enamel, Theophilus suggested
that you should ’see if you can scratch off
the colour with your nail’. Glasses of the
type described by Theophilus are known,
dating from the 1 ith to the 12th centuries;
one of them is illustrated.
VASE WITH ENAMELLING AND GILDING
Syria, Ј.1320-30 A.D. Ht. 302 mm (11 88 in.)
(See also colour photograph 11)
Not until the 13th and 14th centuries was
the next high point in the history of
enamelling reached, with the great Islamic
mosque lamps and other vessels produced
in the near East, particularly in Syria.
Besides the weli-known lamps which
adorned Moslem holy places, the Syrian
enamellers decorated such objects as
footed bowls, sprinklers, globes, beakers
and long-necked bottles. The vase illus-
trated is decorated with golden arabesques
and fish motifs finely outlined in red. The
inscription round the widest point of the
vessel repeats the words ‘The Wise’
(referring to the God of Mohammed). The
medallions around the neck of the vase
probably contain the armorial symbol of
the nobleman who commissioned the
object. The glass itself is not clear and
colourless, for most of the Islamic glass of
that time is of a brownish or greenish tint,
often clouded with bubbles.
Adding: The Skill of the Decorator
In Islam the art of enamelling came to
maturity from the 13th century, the finest
work being done in Syria. The lamps in
Egyptian mosques exported from Syria
are the most famous examples of all the
Islamic enamelled glass. Strictly speaking,
these objects are lamp-holders or lanterns
rather than lamps, for they enclosed an
oil-vessel which provided the illumination.
They were suspended from the roof of the
mosque by chains which, when the roof
was high, passed through a glass globe or
ball, from where the chains radiated to the
handles of the lamp. Enamelled glass was
used for these lamps, not only for its
obvious decorative effect, but because the
Koran said, ‘God is the light of the
Heavens and the Earth: His light is as a
niche in which is a lamp, the lamp in a
glass, the glass as it were a glittering star’.
Many reproductions of mosque lamps
were made at the end of the 19th century.
Unfortunately, like the Romans, the Is-
lamic glass-making artists left no written
record of the craft which they practised
with such very great skill. It is not until
the 15th century that a contemporary
record of enamelling techniques is found,
but from that time, especially with the
advent of printing, there is no lack of
written evidence. Enamelling on glass was
a speciality of the Venetian glass-makers,
a technique which they developed during
the 15th century, probably reaching tech-
nical maturity by the middle of the
century. In all essentials their enamelling
technique was similar to that of the
Islamic artists, yet it would appear that the
Venetians independently re-invented en-
amelling on glass—possibly borrowing the
idea from the Italian worker in metal. By-
tradition the invention has been ascribed
to the glass-maker Angelo Baroviero.
Throughout the 15th century the coloured
glass the Venetians had invented—blue,
green, white, purple and turquoise—was
richly enamelled and gilded.
GOBLET IN  COLOURED GLASS
ENAMELLED DECORATION
Venice. Italy, late 15th 10 early 16th century
By the beginning of the 16th century the
fashion in Venice for coloured glass had
given way to a desire for clear colourless
glass. Enamelling, along with other forms
of decoration, was usually found on clear
glass specimens from this time, although
the clear metal was far less suited to the
technique. The pictorial work which had
been used so much on coloured glass soon
disappeared, and enamelling was restricted
to a few simple motifs. A favourite of these
was a form of scale pattern in bead-like
dots of enamelling and light gilding,
through which lines were scratched, al-
though simple bands of coloured dots were
sometimes the sole decoration of the piece.
Another familiar motif of the late 15th-
and early 16th-century glasses resembled
a lily-of-the-vallcy or a small fruit with a
calyx attached, as on the goblet illustrated.
This goblet also helps to show how the
Venetians combined their coloured and
clear glass in one vessel.
Although representational painting was no
longer the fashion by the beginning of the
16th century, a transitional phase is
represented by a series of glasses enamelled
with grotesque ornamentation built up
from patterns of flowers, leaves, animal
and human-like forms. Armorial glasses
were probably among the latest Venetian
work in the technique of enamelling. A
shield of arms or an emblem would be
added to the few simple decorative motifs
that were now in use on clear colourless
glass, and at their best, these were very
well drawn, as in the dish illustrated.
However, in some cases there is reason to
suspect that the shields were later addi-
tions. Venetian taste, now inclining to-
wards the new, clear colourless metal,
began to appreciate glass for its own sake
and to be interested more in its quality and
beauty of shape than in its added decora-
tion. By the middle of the 16th century the
technique of enamelling, apart from wares
made for export, had virtually passed out
of fashion in Italy.
beaker with enamelled decoration
Made in Venice for the German market, 1603
Ht. 267 mm (105 in.)
Reuhsadlerhumpen, pale green glass with
enamelled decoration
Bohemia, 1654. Ht. 200 mm (11-4 in.)
Although enamelling became unfashion-
able in Italy, it remained a favourite form
of decoration in Germany until the second
half of the 18th century. The earliest
enamelled glasses thai might have a claim
to being German are some cylindrical
beakers commonly bearing German arms,
but it is now thought that these were
ordered from Venice by German buyers.
The beaker illustrated, inscribed ‘Roccho
Grasl’, is a typical late example of the type.
The most productive enamelling work-
shops in the late 16th and early 17th
centuries were situated in Bohemia,
whence the craft was carried to Germany
by emigrant workmen. German enamel-
ling, with its bold colours, has the attrac-
tiveness of a peasant art, but the enamels
used were not of fine quality nor were the
drawings of any distinction. The glass
itself was relatively poor, and only a few
shapes were attempted: the tall Stangen-
glas, the cylindrical Humpen, jugs, beakers,
and screw-topped spirit flasks.
The subjects used by the German enam-
ellers for the most part belong to peasant
art. Gonventional portraits, simplified
landscapes, scenes of artisans at work,
guild processions, satirical subjects, alle-
gories and inscriptions, usually illiterate
and sometimes obscene, are common.
Biblical subjects, the Emperor and the
Seven Electors and the Reichsadler are also
depicted on these glasses. The Reichsadler
is the Imperial double-eagle, bearing on
its wings the arms with names of a fanciful
hierarchy of the Holy Roman Empire; the
arms are arranged in groups of four in the
so-called Quaternion system derived from
Schedel’s Wellkronik of 1483. They begin
with those of Rome and the three spiritual
Electors (Treves, Cologne, Mayence),
balanced by the four temporal ones
(Bavaria, Brandenburg, Saxony, Palatin-
ate), ending with four ‘Dorffer’ and four
‘Birg’. The Reichsadlerhumpen may have
had some contemporary significance, since
they originated during the strife of the
Thirty Years’ War. The Retchsadler and
the ‘Elector’ glasses remained popular for
a long period.
Adding: The Skill of the Decorator
In the guild regulations of the glass-
makers of Krcibitz in Bohemia (1669) one
of the tasks set the aspiring craftsman was
to ‘prepare with colours an Imperial
Eagle, with all its members, in one and a
half days’. This referred to the Reich-
sadlerhumpen, which most likely had to be
fired more than once, those enamels which
required a higher temperature being fired
before the ones which fluxed at a lower
heat In all essentials the contemporary
descriptions of enamelling agree with each
other, the cakes or beads of enamel being
pounded on marble or porphyry, [he
powder thus resulting being washed and
applied to the already annealed glass vessel
and the glass being carefully reheated so
that the enamels fused to it successfully. It
would seem that enamelled vessel-glass
began to be fired in special ‘muffle kilns’
rather than in the glass furnace itself by
the end of the 17th century. As in ordinary
coloured glass, metal oxides were used to
give the enamels their various colours.
‘SchwarzloT, or black enamelling on glass
was a Dutch invention originally used lor
the decoration of windows; it spread into
Northern Germany, and was developed b\
Johann Schaper in the third quarter ol the
17th century. Schaper was born at Ham-
burg in 1621, was at Nuremberg from
1655, at Ratisbon in 1664 and died in 1670.
Originally a painter of stained window-
glass, he was the first of the South German
llausmaler or independent artists, obtain-
ing undecorated glass and pottery and
decorating it to Ins own invention. I le used
copper oxide mixed with black enamel
pigment, painting this on to the glass ahd
then scratching his design through it with
a needle in the manner of the stained-glass
painter. He painted mainly in black, with
slight touches of red and gold. In the
beaker illustrated he used for inspiration
an engraving of a gypsy procession by
Jacques Callot (1592-1635; Callot’s work,
depicting scenes of Italian life with fan-
tastic caricature, was very popular in the
17th and 18th centuries).
Adding: The Skill of the Decorator
Johann Schaper gained some followers,
one of whom, like himself, was a window-
glass painter. This was Johann Ludwig
Paber, who also painted faience. Herman
Benckcrtt of Frankfort-on-Main was an-
other of Schapers known followers. The
Humpen illustrated is a remarkably fine
example of the Schwarzlot technique,
probably the work of one of Schaper’s
imitators. The scene shows a man being
pushed into a pigsty by a laughing and
gesticulating crowd—presumably for
drunkenness, for the Latin inscription on
the reverse is a diatribe against drinking.
After 1700 the Schwarzlot technique was
carried on in Bohemia and Silesia by
independent decorators. Though they
were using the same medium, in style and
subject their work was very different.
They concentrated on landscapes, hunting
scenes, warriors and scenes from peasant
life, then replaced these by scroll-and-
strap-work, Chinese figures, putti and
fantastic animals.
In Spain a distinct style of enamelling
glass emerged in the late 15th, 16th and
early 17th centuries. It originated in
Barcelona, where glass-makers were in
considerable rivalry with Venice towards
the end of the 15th century. The most
important product of the Barcelona crafts-
men was their enamelled ware, which
surprisingly showed a complete inde-
pendence of Venetian models. The colours
they used for their enamels were notably a
light yellowish-green, in combination with
yellow, white and lavender blue, and
occasionally they used touches of black,
red and brown. Their style of enamelling
has been described as primitive, but also
as powerful in design. The motifs they
used were Near-Eastern in feeling, such as
stylised trees, arabesque foliage, running
animals and pairs of birds. Occasionally,
figures in 16th-century European costume
were used. The vase illustrated was a
favourite shape, showing a typical motif
resembling a small fruit with calyx attached
which was also found on Venetian glass.
Enamelled decoration on glass, though
familiar on the Continent from the 15th
century onwards, was apparently never
attempted in England until the middle of
the 18th century. Two types of enamelling
emerged in the third quarter of the 18th
century, one practised by the Beilby
family of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and the
other practised on the opaque white glass
of the period (see Opaque White Glass).
William Beilby (1740-1819) and his sister
Mary (1749-97) were recorded by Thomas
Bewick, the wood-engraver, to have ‘had
constant employment of enamel-painting
of glass’. William had learned the art of
enamelling in Birmingham, and proceeded
to enamel glasses from about 1762. At
what point Mary joined him in his work is
not known, for their glasses are signed
simply ‘Beilby’. Their brother Ralph
Beilby (1743—1817), to whom Thomas
Bewick was apprenticed, may have had
some influence on their work through his
knowledge of heraldic engraving.
The first Beilby enamelled work was of an
heraldic nature, in both white and coloured
enamel on glasses or goblets with ogee or
bucket-shaped bowls. The Beilbys’ style
changed about 1774, and subjects such as
scenes of hunting, fishing and shooting,
pastoral scenes including ruins, and Chin-
ese subjects appeared, the shapes of the
glasses becoming more diverse. Colours
were not always used on these glasses, and
the subjects were often rendered in white
monochrome, sometimes with a faint tint
of blue or pink. Occasionally they followed
the motifs found on engraved glasses of the
period, such as hops, barley and the flower-
ing vine. Beilby glasses more often than
not have an opaque white enamel-twist
stem. Thomas Bewick became attached to
Mary Beilby, who unfortunately in her
early twenties suffered a paralytic stroke.
The brother and sister left Newcastle-on-
Tyne after the death of their mother in
1778, and went to Fife in Scotland, where
apparently they did not continue their
work.
Hi. 105 mm (4-15 in.)
BEAKER WITH CUTTING, GILDING AND
ENAMEL PAINTING
By Anton kothgasser, Vienna, Austria, r.1825
Hi. 115 mm (4-5 in.)
Many drinking and souvenir glasses with
translucent enamelling still exist which
were decorated by Samuel Mohn (horn
1762 in Weissenfels, died 1815 in Dresden)
and his son, Gottlob Samuel Mohn (born
1789 in Weissenfels and died 1825 in
Vienna). Their chief technical innovation
was the preparation of transparent enam-
els, in contrast with the heavy opaque
enamels used particularly in the 16th and
17th centuries. Samuel Mohn had pre-
viously been a painter of silhouettes on
porcelain. His son, who secured the
patronage of the Emperor, painted sil-
houettes on glass tumblers, as well as views
and allegorical figure-subjects. The Mohns
were among the first to cater for the market
for mementoes caused by the revival of
travel for its own sake, after the finish of
the Napoleonic wars. They worked on a
large scale, helped by apprentices, and
using transfer printing for outlines to
speed up the process, but the delicacy of
their paintings, usually on glasses in the
Ranfthecher form, makes these a worthy
item for collectors.
The Mohns’ discovery of transparent
enamels was further improved by a Vien-
nese porcelain and glass decorator, Anton
Kothgasser (1769-1851). He was a painter
from the Imperial Porcelain Factory, who
started working on stained glass with
Gottlob Mohn. He managed to make his
colours more brilliant than the Mohns’,
and made full use of yellow stain, or the
stain made from a compound of silver, as
used on stained glass windows. His glasses
are usually waistcd, with a heavy cut base
and sometimes lavishly gilt, as in the one
illustrated. Views of towns, portraits,
genre scenes and flowers, sometimes
copied, are featured in his work. His
glasses have been described as the finest
examples of the Viennese Biedermewr
style. Kothgasser and the Mohns had
many pupils and many imitators. In the-
same movement was Franz Anton Siebel
(1777-1842) of Lichtenfels in Upper
Franconia.
PERFUME BOTTLE IN COLOURLESS GLASS,
ENAMELLED AND GILT
Emile Galle, France, dated 1880
I li 157 mm (613 in.)
‘CROWN MILANO’ EWER WITH ROPE HANDLE
Ml. Washington Glass Company, U.S.A.
Ht. 254 mm (10 in.)
Emile Galle (1846 1904) the great French
glass-maker, is less well-known for his
enamelled work than for his work in the
field of cameo glass. Yet he was an expert
in the art of enamelling, and showed this
gift in his first major exhibition in Paris in
1878. It was there that he established his
reputation as an inventive and original
glass artist, using—among other tech-
niques—enamelled decoration on triple-
cased glass with gold leaf insertions. At the
exhibition in Paris in 1884 he showed
examples of clear colourless glass decorated
with enamelling, cutting and engraving.
At the 1889 Exhibition in Paris he showed
his finest works. His colours had taken on
a new softness, and a fresh note of lyricism
could be sensed in his work. The decisive
factor in his work seems to have been
Japanese art, and after 1889 he developed
to maturity the ‘nature-style’ that was to
epitomise his thoughts and ideas and was
to bring him his greatest fame. The
singular lyricism ol his work can be seen in
the enamelled perfume bottle illustrated.
An elegant painted and enamelled glass-
ware was produced by the Mt. Washington
Glass Company, New Bedford, Mass.,
towards the end of the 19th century. It was
first called ‘Albertine’, though a ware that
was the same in texture, shape and
decoration was advertised more cxotically
as ‘Crown Milano’ in about 1890. Unless
the perishable paper label survives, ‘Al-
bertine’ cannot be differentiated from
unmarked ‘Crown Milano’. Frederick S.
Shirley and Albert Steffin of that firm were
issued with a patent in 1886 for a means of
decorating an opal glassware. The articles,
which had a convex ribbed body, were
treated as follows: a perforated corrugated
stencil was laid against them; pulverised
carbon was dusted against this, which left
a design for the enameller to follow when
the stencil was taken away, so that there
was no distortion in the finished product.
When ‘Crown Milano’ was made, a blank
in white opal glass was shaped by free-
blowing, moulding or press-moulding.

JUG  DARK GREEN BOTTLE GLASS Willi
c OMBED OPAQUE WHITE THREADED DECORA I KIN
England, laic iSth early 19thcentury
Hi. 105 mm (4-13 in.)
PIPE IN (TEAR COLOURLESS GLASS WITH OPAQUE
WHITE STRIPED DECORATION
Probably Sowerby’s Ellison Glassworks, England,
about 1X60. I.englh 367 mm (145 in.)
Vessels made from bottle glass, and later
clear glass, with applied glass threads,
usually opaque white in colour, marvered
and combed to the surface of the glass,
have come to be known as ‘Nailsea’ glass.
The tradition that associates this type of
glassware with the Nailsea glass-house,
near Bristol, England, is a strong one, but
since this factory made crown window
glass, the earlier bottle glass wares arc
unlikely to have been made there. Because
most of these vessels were made as a
sideline, little documentary evidence re-
mains to show exactly when and where
they were produced. The few dated
examples come from the early part of the
ioth century. It is known that clear glass
‘Nailsea’ type wares were made at a glass-
house in Warrington in Lancashire. ‘Alloa’
glass is the Scottish term for a ‘Nailsea’
style glass. Though there is little direct
e\ idence, there is no reason why the Alloa
Glass-house in Scotland should not have
produced this glassware.
Many other simple wares in a style akin to
‘Nailsea’ glass were produced in the first
half of the 19th century. Among these were
the friggcrs, or glass fantasies—unlikely
objects such as fantastic tobacco pipes,
rolling pins, walking sticks, shepherds’
crooks, bells, witchballs and musical in-
struments represented in glass. Many of
the rolling pins and most of the tobacco
pipes have applied glass threads in opaque-
white or coloured glass, in true ‘Nailsea’
tradition. It is impossible to say where
most friggcrs were made, and they should
be considered as individual pieces of glass-
makers’ skill made both for amusement
and for commercial purposes. They were
produced as private sidelines in the largest
window glass concerns such as Pilkington
Brothers of St. Helens. Probably triggers
were made throughout the 10th century
but a new interest in them appeared at the
end of the century, when small factories
started to produce ruby pipes and bells,
spun glass ships and birds and walking
sticks in quantity.
JUG IN AMBER GLASS WITH WHITE BLOBBED
DECORATION
Found in one of the Aegean islands, mid-tst
century A.D. Ht. 238 mm (9*35 in.)
Marvering small pieces ofglass into the body
of a vessel is a somewhat cruder form of
decoration than applied glass thread-work.
The Romans certainly favoured this mode
of decoration for their vessels. This jug, in
amber-coloured glass, has opaque white
blobbed decoration. The white blobs cover
the whole of the body and the neck of the
vessel, though only a few stray ones can be
found upon the base. Pieces of white
opaque glass would have been scattered on
a flat stone slab (marver) and caught up on
the hot gather of amber glass on the
Roman glass-worker’s blow-pipe. By work-
ing the gather of glass on the marver, he
would bring the white glass level with the
surface of the amber glass, so that a smooth
surface was achieved when the vessel was
eventually blown. This 1st century A.D.
decoration was probably produced in
Northern Italy.
Adding: The Glass-maker’s Skill
FLASK IN PALE BLUE GLASS WITH ‘PEBBLED’
DECORATION
France, 17th century. Ht. 157 mm (6-13 in.)
Though the technique was never wholly
forgotten, the next notable instance of
small pieces of glass being used as a
decoration on the surface of the vessel
came in France in the second half of the
16th century. The technique had been
practised by the Venetians, and was copied
from them by the French glass-makers.
Their multi-coloured ‘marbled’ or ‘peb-
bled’ glass usually consisted of bright
opaque colours splashed on a light blue
glass ground. Shapes favoured by the
French glass-house which produced this
glass were the characteristically French
pilgrim-bottle and barrel-shaped vessels.
There are ample records that Venetian and
Altarist glass-makers worked in France
from the late 15th century onwards,
though few examples of their work have
been recognised. This ‘pebbled’ glass is a
genuine example of French glass a la
fag on de Venise, but remains distinctly
French in style.
Adding: The Glass-maker’s Skill
JUG IN GREEN BOTTLE GLASS WITH FLECKED
DECORA! IDS
England, 18th century. Ht. 181 mm (7-13 in.)
Glasses with flecked decoration, consisting
of fragmented coloured glasses marvered
into the surface of the glass, have often
been brought under the general heading of
‘Nailsea’ glass. This was indeed a charac-
teristic form of decoration for ‘Nailsea’
glass, besides the bold looped and striped
decoration described in the previous sec-
tion. As already mentioned, ‘Nailsea’
glass must be regarded as a style rather
than as a product of any specific glass-
house. Generally speaking, ‘Nailsea’ glas-
ses were made in green bottle glass,
which was used for its cheapness, as it
avoided the Glass Excise Acts of England
(repealed in 1845). Clear glass with striped
and flecked decoration is sometimes also
ascribed to Nailsea and Wrockwardine
Wood, though it was probably produced at
many of the other centres that made this
type of glassware. Products notably in-
cluded jugs, bottles and flasks in the flecked
ware, though more fanciful examples can
be found, such as top hats.
Hobhs, Brockunier& Company, U.S.A., 1884
Ht. 152 mm (6 in.)
In 1884 a patent was issued to William
Leighton, Jr, of Hobbs, Brockunier &
Company of Wheeling, West Virginia, for
his method of producing ‘Spangled Glass-
ware’. His process was a simple one. Flakes
of biotite or mica were laid on a marver and
picked up on a gather of opaque white or
transparent coloured glass. The gather
with the flakes adhering was then dipped
into a pot of clear colourless glass, which
locked in the ’spangles’. The gather could
then be blown and shaped into the desired
article. Spangled glass became one of the
most popular products in both art and
table glassware produced by the Wheeling
company. Sowerby’s, of Newcastle-upon-
Tyne, England, produced a similar ware,
usually with a deep blue base called ‘Blue
Nugget’. ‘Spatterglass’ is similar to Span-
gled glass, except that instead of metallic
flakes, variously coloured fragments of
glass were marvered into the opaque white
or coloured glass base.
About 1884. Ht. 127 mm (5 in.)
In the same style as the foregoing were the
so-called ‘Vasa Murrhina’ glass products.
Coloured glass and mica flakes were em-
bedded in the opaque base, with an overall
transparent casing. John Charles De Voy
of the Vasa Murrhina Art Glass Company
of Sandwich, Mass., and Hartford, Conn.,
registered a patent for this type of glass-
ware in 1884. Sheets or particles of mica
were coated with gold, silver, copper or
nickel. The coated mica was then incor-
porated on to a gather of glass, which was
subjected to heat. This caused the glass to
flow over and adhere to the mica. The
gather could then be blown into the article
required. Shards of ‘Vasa Murrhina’ type
glass have been found on the site of the
company’s factory in Sandwich, also on
the old factory site of the Boston &
Sandwich Works. Patents for this type of
glassware were registered in England
between 1878 and 1882.
WINE-GLASS INCORPORATING rHREADS Of OPAQUI
WHITE GLASS
Venice, Italy, 16th century. Ht. 131 mm (5-13 in.)
Incorporating threads of opaque white glass
into the body of a vessel was a development
of the Venetian glass-makers. Thin rods
of opaque white glass (lattirno) were
probably set at exact intervals round the
inside of a heat-resistant open container.
A gather of clear, colourless glass would be
blown into the centre of the container, and
the rods of glass caught and worked very
gently into the gather of glass. The bubble,
now containing the white threads, could
then be blown to the desired shape.
Another method that might have been
used by the Venetians was to lay alternate
rods of opaque white and clear, colourless
glass side by side on a tray, and then to fuse
them together in a kiln. These could then
be caught up on a gather of clear, colour-
less glass and blown to the shape required.
In both these processes, in order to make
the ends of the rods meet, the end of the
bubble would have to be pinched together
and the unwanted glass cut away.
The influence of Venetian glass-making
spread all over Europe, notably to Spain,
Germany, France, the Netherlands and
England, during the 16th and 17th cen-
turies. Thus the technique of incorporat-
ing threads of lattimo glass into the body
of a vessel appears in other glass-making
centres besides Venice. Each of the Euro-
pean countries mentioned developed its
own version in the facon de Venise, the
influence of the local glass-blowers making
itself felt, so that pure Venetian inspiration
vanished and strong regional characteris-
tics began to prevail in the glassware. The
jug illustrated—a remarkable example of
the use of broad vertical bands of lattimo
glass between very narrow lines of clear,
colourless glass—is, in shape, a vessel of
typical late mediaeval form in the Southern
Netherlands. The contemporary value of
the piece is reflected in the use of silver-
gilt mounts on rim, handle and base. A
similar glass is listed in the 1559 Inven-
tory of Queen Elizabeth I of England.
In Roman times glass-makers sometimes
decorated the edge of vessels with a rope-
pattern, where an opaque white thread was
twisted and embedded in clear, colourless
or coloured glass. This is the only early
parallel to the Venetian technique of
incorporating threads of white glass into a
vessel. The Italian glass-makers who
migrated to other countries, and their
pupils, certainly had full command of the
technique. As well as the illustrated flute
glass, which has made delicate use of the
technique in the long bowl, handsome-
tankards employing the technique were
produced at Liege or in the Netherlands.
In Germany, the popular tall cylindrical
glass, or ‘Stangenglas’, was not only made
of cristallo glass, but was often decorated
with these bands of lattimo glass incor-
porated into the vessel. Rarely, coloured
as well as opaque white threads were used,
in colours like yellow, purple and blue.
Adding: The Glass-maker’s Skill
A superb sophistication of” the technique
just described is shown in the plate
illustrated. It is in fact made up of two
plates, with opposing white radiating
thread decoration, which were fused to-
gether to form one piece. Tiny air bubbles
were caught between the threads, giving
the plate a rich and delicate appearance—a
wonderful example of the Venetian glass-
maker’s versatility. The essentials of the
technique have been copied successfully
by the American glass artist and tech-
nologist, Dominick Labino, of Grand
Rapids, Ohio. He placed 12 opaque white
threads in a metal container at even dist-
ances and worked these into a gather of
glass, as already described. He then blew
the gather into a bubble, catching the end
of it and twisting the glass one way so that
the threads spiralled to the left. After
forming a bowl shape, he put this into a
specially prepared crucible and placed it in
the annealing kiln to keep warm.
The next stage in the production of
Labino’s vetro di trina was to repeat the
procedure with another gather of glass.
this time with the 12 threads spiralling to
the right. The first bowl shape was then
taken out of the annealing kiln in its
container, and the second partially-blown
gather dropped into it, so that the two were
joined when further blowing was em-
ployed. The two joined paraisons were
then reheated, and a further gather of glass
taken over them, to give the finished object
added strength. From this Labino formed
in the usual way a dish which had opposing
white radiating thread decoration in the
Venetian tradition. The Italian name for
this type of glass means iace glass’; in
German it is known as ‘Netzglas’. Apsley
Pellatt in his book Curiosities of Glass-
making (London, 1849) describes basically
the same technique, whereby two cup-like
formations, one with milk-white canes
spirally applied inside the cup, the other
with milk-white canes spirally applied
outside, were combined, the former over
the latter, to produce a vessel in vetro di
trina. The technique was used in England
and on the Continent in the 19th century.
In the mid-iqth century, Bohemian,
French and English glass factories all
imitated Venetian techniques of glass
manufacture. This included the incor-
poration of opaque white or coloured
threads of glass into the body of a vessel.
So-called 19th-century ’striped’ glass fol-
lowed this technique. Coloured and clear,
colourless glass rods would line a mould.
A bubble of glass blown into the mould
picked up the rods, and they became as one
with the body glass. When the bubble of
glass was deftly twisted, the embedded
rods could be made to spiral around the
body of the finished vessel. To produce
the fine effect seen on the ewer illustrated
demanded a considerable amount of skill
on the part of the glass-maker. A patent
for ‘Improvements In Decorating Glass
With Stripes’ was taken out in 1885 by
V\ illiam Webb Boulton of Bonbon &
Mills, who had the Audnam Bank glass-
house in England.
Ice Glass: The Venetians decorated some
clear glass by plunging a bubble of hot
glass for a moment in water and then
reheating it. This produced a roughened,
fro/en or crackled appearance, given the
name ‘Ice Glass’. A further means of
producing a frosted effect upon glass is to
roll a bubble of glass over a marver that
has previously been covered with frag-
ments of broken glass. The fragments
adhere to the hot bubble, and when the
whole is slightly reheated, form an ‘icy’
effect. The bubble can then be worked to
form the desired article. The beaker
illustrated is a handsome example of the
Venetians’ work. The frosted texture is
only on the outer surface of the glass, the
interior surface remaining smooth to the
touch. Visually, these pieces appear to be
covered with cracks, but the reheating
makes them perfectly whole and quite sale
for use. Once the technique had been
invented by the Venetians, it spread
quickly throughout the Continent.
Apsley Pellatt (1791-1863), the 19th-
century glassmakcr of the Falcon Glass-
house in Southwark, London, continued
to make his mark on his trade by the
publication of two books on glass-making,
published respectively in 1821 and 1849.
In his Curiosities ofGlassmaking, published
in 1849, he described several of the
Venetian techniques, including the pro-
duction of ‘Ice Glass’ or frosted glass. At
the 1851 exhibition his firm made a special
display of the technique, which he called
‘Anglo-Venetian’. In his explanation he
shows how a gather of glass was slightly
inflated, then plunged at nearly white heat
into cold water; it was then immediately
reheated, giving a crackled effect on its
outer surface. The bottom of the bubble
was flattened and a pontil rod attached;
the blow-pipe was removed and the article
finished on the pontil rod. Great care had
to be taken not to overheat the article, as
this would melt out the frosting.
Apsley Pellatt claimed that the technique
of ‘Ice Glass’ was known and practised
only by the Venetians until he revived it in
the mid-i9th century. This would seem to
be incorrect, since several examples of the
technique are to be found from the
Continent between these dates. At first,
only clear colourless ‘Ice Glass’ was pro-
duced, to simulate real ice, but mid-igth
century fashion soon desired it to be
coloured. Usually the base glass was
coloured in ruby, rose, yellow, blue or
green, the fragments picked up being clear
and colourless. Occasionally the reverse
happened, the fragments being coloured
and the base glass clear and colourless. Ice
Glass known as ‘Craquelle’ and ‘Overshot’
was produced by the Boston & Sandwich
Works, and possibly by some other
American factories. It was advertised in
1883 by Hobbs, Brockunier & Company in
‘Rose, Sapphire, Old Gold and Marine
Green’ colourings.

In the first years of the loth century dress
fashions did not change drastically, and
cluster and small pendent earrings
characteristic of the last decade of the 19th century continued to be popular. The few drop earrings produced were of moderate size and in ‘garland’ style, that is, characterized by very delicate garland and fluttering bow motifs, usually mounted with diamonds in millegrain settings. The source of inspiration lay in i 8th-century France, especially decorative and architectural details such as ormolu furniture fittings and cornices and stucco mouldings. Cartier in particular encouraged his designers to wander through the streets of Paris studying and sketching architectural details. Typical of earrings in this style was the pear-shaped drop, with a coloured gemstone or a diamond briolette, mounted as a swing centre within a garland of small, delicate leaf and flower motifs on a ribbon bow surmount. Other fashionable earrings assumed the form of diamond or coloured stone briolettes on fine articulated chains of millegrain-set diamonds.
Before the First World War
The delicacy of these jewels was enhanced by extensive use of platinum, a white, untarnishable precious metal which was heavy, hard to work and difficult to solder but of great structural strength so that only a little of it was required to produce a sturdy mount.
The desire to set diamonds in a mount whose colour did not alter their whiteness had been felt as early as the 18th century, and since then the traditional metal for diamond setting had been silver. The relative softness of silver, though, required a large amount of metal for the mount and had the great disadvantage of staining the skin and clothing. To overcome the problem, 19th-century jewellers devised a new kind of setting consisting of a laminate of silver and gold: silver at the front so as to set off the colour of the stone to best effect, and gold at the back for extra strength and to prevent the silver from tarnishing. Although platinum had been known as early as the 16th century in Colombia, it had not been extensively used in jewellery before the turn of the century because of the difficulties involved in working it, but from then on it became the favourite metal of the jeweller, and earrings set mainly in platinum were produced until the 1940s.
Around 1915 one can discern a change in the design of earrings from the garland
126 type to a form that anticipates features of 192os earrings. They tend to become longer
and their typical form is that of an elongated baton-shaped motif usually set with dia-
monds, supporting a drop, often a pearl or a larger millegrain-set diamond. Of
course the majority of these earrings continue to possess features typical of earlier
periods: they are entirely white, set with diamonds and pearls, in accordance with the
general preference for monochromatic and pale coloured jewels in vogue since the
late 19th century, and furthermore they continue to display the characteristic delicate
A pair of diamond pendent earrings in the garland style, circa i goo.
millegrain settings and fine foliate details. On the other hand the pronounced elongation and geometrical details foreshadow the designs of the following decade. They also well suited the female silhouette as recently redesigned by the Parisian couturier Paul Poiret, who liberated women from corsets with the introduction of fluid, high-waisted dresses. The emphasis in fashion was on straight, vertical lines which were counterbalanced by long sautoirs and long pendent earrings. An example of earrings where old and new features coexist is a pair of French platinum and diamond pendent earrings. The overall design and the millegrain settings conform to the garland style, while the size and length of the drop, and the geometrical mitre-shaped surmount anticipate earrings of the 1920S. Another interesting example is the elaborate pair of chandelier-design earrings, where the floral and foliate design is typical of the garland style but the size and tassel motifs are already Art Deco in spirit.
It was during these years that the screw fitting to clamp the earring to the lobe, which had first been developed in the last years of the i 9th century, gained popularity. Its advantage over traditional types of fitting was that it avoided the necessity of piercing the lobe, a practice which had begun to be regarded as barbaric. This was symptomatic of the general move towards liberating women from traditional constraints, exemplified in the field of fashion by the rejection of harmful items of clothing such as tightly laced corsets, and in social and political life by the movement to establish votes for women.
Decade by decade: the 1920s
The outbreak of the First World War in 191 ¢ brought a sudden end to the frivolous period of the Belle Epoque. Jewellery production ceased: precious metals and gemstones became scarce; platinum, an important material for the manufacture of nitric acid for explosives and for engine magnetos, disappeared from jewellery workshops; craftsmen turned their skills from jewellery to the armament industry, and women were forced to take up the jobs left vacant by men called to the front. By the end of the war in 1918, the newly emancipated women had adopted an androgynous look: they had shortened their dresses and cut their hair ‘d la garconne’ thus dispensing for the first time in history with what St Paul called their ‘crowning glory.’ Consequently earrings, more than ever, came to play a role of paramount importance by filling the gap between the bob and the shoulders, echoing the simple vertical line of the dress while adding a touch of frivolity and femininity to the new masculine look. During the 192os earrings undoubtedly became the most important form of jewellery, as can be seen in contemporary portraiture, photographs, advertisements, theatre and fashion designs, such as those by Jeanne Lanvin. Furthermore, the great number of surviving 192os earrings indicates both their popularity and copious production.
The common characteristic of all earrings of the early and mid-192os was their very pronounced vertical and geometrical line and the use of enamels and gemstones realized by the combination of precious gemstones such as emeralds, rubies, sapph-

ires and diamonds with semiprecious stones such as onyx, coral, jade, rock crystal,
turquof striking and contrasting colours. These daring new juxtapositions of colours wereoise and lapis lazuli, the latter frequently carved into cylinders, circles, oblong
P. 158 panels and drops. Good examples are the coral and onyx pendent earrings where the
bright red coral drop carved in a floral design is suspended from a long chain of black
onyx baton motifs. The interest in such vivid colours derived from Diaghilev’s Bal-
lets Russes which made such an impact on Paris and London society around 1910:
their bright juxtapositions of colours both in the costumes and stage sets shocked and
Left: a pencil and
gouache theatrical
design by Jeanne
Lanvin, October 1922. Note the long torpedo-shaped pendent
earrings.
Below: a pencil and gouache fashion design by Jeanne Lanvin, March 1924• Note the elongated carved coral torped-shaped pendent
earrings.fascinated audiences and at the same time set the tone for the jewellery and fashion of the following decade.
Besides novel and striking combinations of colour, there were innovative features in the setting and cut of stones. The favourite new style of setting gems was the `pave’, in which the gems paved the whole surface of the mount. This was often achieved by cutting the stones to fit the required shape of the mount and of the decorative pattern. It is clearly visible in the long pendent earrings designed by Boucheron, where emeralds, rubies and sapphires are cut with domed surfaces to fit into the stylized floral design on a diamond ground. It is interesting to note that besides the interest in contrasting colours emphasis was also placed on the difference between matt and polished surfaces, something that can be seen once again in the illustrated earrings by Boucheron; diamonds provide a sparkling surface while the coloured gemstones provide the matt.
It is not surprising that earrings such as these, possessing most of the novel features of the time (the pronounced elongated line, the stylized, almost geometrical, floral pattern and the juxtaposition of colour and texture) were selected for the Exposition International des Arts D6coratifs et Industrielles Modernes in 1925, an exhibition held in Paris with the purpose of presenting to the public novel and modern design. It is from the abbreviated title of the exhibition, ‘Art Deco’, that the popular name for the style of the mid- i 92os and early 193os derives.
Although jewellers working in this style found sources of inspiration in the artistic traditions of countries as exotic and far apart as Egypt and China, Persia and India or Japan, the most influential eastern tradition for earrings was that of China. Chinese jade plaques carved and pierced in traditional Chinese motifs of gourds, leaves and peonies, and symbolic Chinese ‘Bl’ were imported directly from the East and mounted by famous western jewellers as long earring pendants. The great popularity of this type of earring is demonstrated by its appearance in numerous variations in the pages of earring designs of the time by Cartier London. Green jade combined with stones such as onyx and diamonds suited the striking colour schemes of Art Deco —green, black and white — and offered an interesting combination of matt and polished surfaces. Besides exploiting Chinese-crafted materials, jewellers also frequently included in their earrings imitative Chinese motifs such as stylized pagodas and lanterns. The latter is clearly recognizable in the design of a pair of French emerald and diamond pendent earrings of the mid- 19 2os reproduced here.
Another feature typical of pendent earrings of this time is that they are always mounted in platinum and, unlike some earlier types of earrings, are provided with stud rather than screw fittings. These consist of a prong soldered at the back of the earring, which is inserted into the pierced earlobe and secured by a small, usually hexagonal, plate. It is released by a spring mechanism triggered by pressing a little metal tongue projecting from the edge of the plate. This new type of fitting was more secure, and was desirable for several reasons. Firstly, women now led a much more active and dynamic life, and precious earrings might be worn at night while dancing to the frenetic rhythms of the Charleston; secondly, they were very fragile: as has been mentioned, a great number of earrings were set with long thin plaques carved in semiprecious stones such as jade, which could crack if dropped; and thirdly, it was unobtrusive, a most important feature now that the back of the ear was visible with the newly cropped bob. All Cartier’s examples seem to have been attached in this way.
In the late 1920S long pendent earrings continued in favour, but they can be distinguished from their earlier counterparts by their fuller, usually triangular or lozenge-shaped outline reminiscent of a chandelier, hence the name ‘chandelier
P. 153 earrings’. This tendency is clearly visible in the magnificent pair of pearl and diamond earrings made by Cartier in London in 1928. Their shape is undoubtedly inspired by a crystal chandelier with central drop, stylized sconces and candles. A
P. 16o, second development is the gradual submergence of colours, to be replaced by the
r61 whiteness of pearl and diamonds. Contrast was achieved by combining in the setting a variety of diamonds of different cuts: baguettes, marquise, trapeze, crescent-, triangular-, pear-shaped, and brilliant-cut diamond, all of which reflect light in different ways. Coloured gemstones did not entirely disappear; a beautiful example is the bell-shaped pair of earrings set with diamonds and Indian ruby beads, by Dray-son of London. It is interesting to note how the choice of the gemstone influences the design of the earring, reminiscent of a bell-shaped Jaipur enamel ear pendant.
Towards the end of the decade the decorative arts were inspired by motifs deriving from industry and mechanical instruments: stylized motifs of nuts and bolts set with diamonds appear in earrings. Versatility became appreciated and jewels were constructed to be worn in different ways: a pair of bracelets could be combined to form a fashionable bandeau or sautoir and earrings could be combined together on a brooch mount, as in the last example shown on p. 159•
The 1930s
The 193os are characterized by a revolutionary innovation in the history of earrings:
the clip fitting. From Antiquity to the beginning of the loth century, the only way of
wearing an earring was to insert it or its suspension hook in a hole pierced in the lobe.
As we have already seen, in the early loth century the practice of piercing ears came
to be considered barbaric, and this prompted the use of the screw fitting as an altern-
ative. But although this did avoid piercing the lobe, it was not adequate to support
heavy earrings. The clip fitting of the 193os finally allowed women to wear heavy
earrings without piercing their ears, and moreover, by securely clasping the lobe,
enabled the earring for the first time to expand upward to decorate the upper part of
64, the ear. Rosettes, stylized flowerheads, shells, cornucopias, ribbons, spirals, comets,
165 stylized wings and curled leaves decorating the upper lobe were among the favourite
earclips. In many cases, the upward curl of the design following the natural line of
the ear meant designing one earclip for the right ear and another for the left, so that A pair of stained blue chalcedony, sapphire and diamond earclips, probably by Belperron, circa 1935, each designed as a foliate motif, from the collection of jewellery of the Duchess of Windsor.
they were not interchangeable. The advertisement for Boucheron in the magazine Femina of March 1934 underlines the elegance of the new compact diamond earrings; they were well suited to the hairstyles of the time, which could either be short or long but had the hair gathered at the top or back in a bun and brushed away from the ears in fluid waves.
The ever fashionable hoop earring was also adapted to the new fitting: an open circle securely clipped to the lobe, giving the impression of passing through a nonexistent hole. These clips, continuing the late 1920S trend, were set with variously cut diamonds in white metal mounts: white monochromatic jewels were still all the rage, coloured precious and semiprecious stones being used only sparingly to pick out the design. They often came as a set with the most characteristic jewel of the 1930s, the double-clip brooch the design of which they repeated on a reduced scale.
Although compact earclips were most popular at the time, the fashion for pendent earrings never completely died out and sometimes these 193os earclips were provided with a pendant, a tassel, a drop, or a cascade of ribbons which could be attached to the lower part of the clip to make it more suitable for formal occasions, thus continuing the use of ‘versatile’ jewellery.
For evening wear during this period, long pendent earrings, again set with multicoloured gemstones, were in favour, their voluminous shapes distinguishing them quite clearly from 192os examples. They tend to expand along the horizontal axis and lose the typical vertical character of the previous decade. Different and unusual cuts for the stones continued to be exploited for coloured stones as well as for diamonds, a good example being the two pairs of pendent earrings by Cartier London, 1931-32, set with aquamarines. By the late 193os established firms were already anticipating motifs and designs which were to gain importance in the following decade. This is well exemplified by the pair of citrine and diamond pendent earrings made in 1937 by Cartier London, which are long and voluminous in form, set in yellow gold with diamonds and citrines of various shades of russet and golden yellow, something which heralds the use in I 940s jewellery of attractive coloured gemstones of comparatively low intrinsic value — citrine, aquamarines, amethysts.
The 1940s
By 194o earclips were predominant everywhere. They had large gold surfaces, replacing those set with diamonds, and more sculptural shapes such as fluttering ribbon bows, bouquets of flowers and fan-shaped motifs in contrast to the geometrical lines of the 193os. After forty years of the supremacy of platinum in jewellery, gold came back on a large scale, and it is interesting to look at major jewellers’ archives, where the transition from platinum to gold coincides with the new decade. This is very clear in the records of Boucheron Paris, where earrings produced until August 1938 are mounted in platinum, but from then on always in yellow gold. The preference for gold in jewellery also had an economic reason: at the outbreak of the war platinum was again requisitioned by the armaments industry and the jeweller had to make the most of the scarce gold on the market. The regulations controlling the use of precious metals were extremely strict, especially in France. Anyone who wished to commission a piece of jewellery in gold had to supply the raw material of which twenty per cent would go to the state. Consequently jewellery was made of very thin gold, frequently of low carat. At the same time, the irregular supply of precious gemstones, such as diamonds from South Africa and rubies and sapphires from Burma and Siam, caused a scarcity on the market. This prompted the resetting of gemstones mounted in older pieces of jewellery and the widespread use of synthetic rubies and sapphires. When precious stones were used they were either small and inexpensive or (in the case of sapphires and rubies) synthetic. Semiprecious gemstones were favoured — topaz, aquamarine, amethyst and citrine being relatively cheap yet often large in size and highly effective. In spite of the great difficulties in the turmoil of war, jewellery remained a valuable source of portable capital, and therefore went on being designed, produced and sold. The angular geometrical designs of the late 1930s were not entirely discontinued. This may be seen in mitre-shaped earclips, where the accentuated geometrical design corresponds with 193o earclips, but the choice of stones, usually citrines and small rubies, heralds the new style. As in all periods of transition one finds old and new elements merging together.
The change is clearly visible if one looks at a page of Boucheron’s archival records.
P 171 Among the designs registered for 193 8 one finds earclips characterized by rigid and geometric forms (such as no. 11.306 and no. 35.354216) and a severe linear inverted U-shaped earclip, set with calibre-cut rubies. From 1940 onwards all the designs are naturalistic, and the success and popularity of the curled leaf earclip in polished gold is attested by its consecutive orders. According to the records this model was repeated and sold 14 times from December 1941 to September 1945. Another motif was an attractive gem-set flower spray held together by fluttering rib-
p. 167 bon ties. All the naturalistic earclips are fairly compact in form, filling the lobe or following the contour of the ear. Characteristically they continue to present rather stiff features lacking movement and fluidity: the ribbon ties knotted in bows are always realized in wide surfaces of polished gold which contribute to a bold and static impression. Other favoured motifs displaying similar characteristics are rosettes and plain ribbon bows such as in the design by Mauboussin, rosette and ribbons combined together, and scrolled drape motifs. A particularly striking example of the lat-
e. 166 ter type was produced by Hoeffer & Trabert, the American branch of Mauboussin; they are typically asymmetrical and rigid in design with a scrolled surface of polished white gold and a large step-cut aquamarine at the centre, the border set with small rubies and diamonds. They are accompanied by a large brooch of identical design set with an extremely large central aquamarine, which reflects an American preference for large and flamboyant jewels. The set of earclips and matching brooch or clip is a typical feature of this period. Such heavy brooches, worn on the lapel of tailored suits, had completely supplanted the double clip brooch which had been so popular in the 1930s.
Though compact earclips were the favourite type of ear ornament, pendent earrings were not completely dismissed. The extant examples and records in archives indicate that the pendent element is often very flimsy compared to the bold surmount often consisting of two chains with various terminations such as a cone or gold beads. One sees this, for instance, in earclip with a gold scrolled surmount supporting fine chain drops, which have to be regarded more as minor decorative elements than as pendants in their own right since they are not at all in proportion with the volume of the surmount. Again this is visible in earrings by Mellerio, both those made in 1946, set with a large topaz held by two chains tied in a knot which hang down as pendants, and those of stylized cornucopia design of 1947 which suspend five bead chains. Further evidence may be found in Boucheron’s archive designs of 1943, where tubular chains of articulated links form the pendent element of entwined ribbon surmounts. Besides earrings, necklaces and bracelets were often decorated with chain tassels similar to those found on pendent earrings. A few earrings with more voluminous pendants were also created, such as those formed of two chains of gold graduated disc motifs by Boucheron, or the ‘Ferroniere’ earrings of 1944 by Mellerio, designed as a graduated line of curled gold wire. Although attractive, these long earrings did not gain the same popularity as the compact earclips.
In the mid-194os there was a vogue for light-hearted earrings, amusing and frivolous designs like the small pendent watches with the dial in a border of calibre-cut sapphires designed by Van Cleef & Arpels, or miniature buckle and belt motifs commonly known asj’arretieres.
As the 194os decade was coming to its close, earclips began to show greater movement and lightness, with gold surfaces being broken up in woven patterns or worked into twisted rope motifs combined with coloured gemstones such as turquoises and amethysts; naturalistic patterns of flowers characterized by a greater sense of movement began to prevail over scrolled drape motifs, heralding the design of the new decade made between 1945 and 1950., the 195os.
Four designs from a catalogue by Van Cleef & Arpels, Part of a page of earring design of the 1950s from Boucheron Archives, showing the variety of shapes fashionable at the time.
The 1950s
The hairstyles of the i 95os gave women complete freedom to wear their hair piled on the top of the head, knotted on the nape in a tight chignon or in short or medium-length coiffures brushed away from the ears-, all these styles were appropriate for displaying both long pendent earrings and compact clips. After a decade in which large surfaces of yellow or red gold and clips of bold, stiff and sculptural design had reigned supreme, long pendent earrings set with opulent rainfalls of diamonds in white metal mounts returned triumphantly.
The economic boom which followed the deprived war years, coupled with the desire to celebrate a return to a more relaxed and uninhibited life-style, led to the development of an aesthetic in design which aimed at free, light and functional lines. Jewellery abandoned the straight, angular lines of Art Deco, and the large bulky forms of the I 94os, and evolved new, light, curvy, aerodynamic shapes which conveyed a sense of movement. The sources of inspiration were extremely varied, as were the ways they were interpreted; naturalism, abstraction, exoticism and conventionalism happily coexisted to suit the different tastes of women, who were free to choose whatever style they preferred after the many years of uniformity of fashion during the war.
The feminine ‘new look’ launched by Dior in 1947 remained, with slight variations, in fashion for a decade, and the exuberant lines of his evening gowns characterized by narrow waists, frothy and puffy ample skirts, and above all the generous d6collet6 and pointed, heart-shaped necklines, prompted the production of a vast selection of pendent earrings of curvy, free and informal line. Diamonds were, without any doubt, the gemstone par excellence for these important creations and maintained their supremacy throughout the 195os. They suited the rich brocades, embroidered silks and precious laces of evening dresses, and were an ideal companion to the mink coat, then at the height of its popularity, by adding a touch of glitter to the face surrounded by the dark gleam of a fur collar.
The great variety of forms included all sorts of curved and fluid shaped surmounts, supporting long and voluminous articulated tassels or cascades of similarly cut diamonds. The design of the surmount was extremely varied, sometimes ngthe clip reviv-
I 1 inspiration, sometimes opting fora more naturalistic form, and
P of 1930s i
sometimes choosing abstract shapes inspired by contemporary experiments in the visual arts. Rosettes, entwined ribbons, curved leaves, flowerheads, scrolls and question marks, turbans, shooting stars and fans are just a few of the motifs for surmounts, while below would hang articulated drops reminiscent of waterfalls, cascades of leaves, festoons, waterdrops, tassels and clusters of flowers. Glittering earrings drew attention to eyes made languid and feminine by heavy lines of eyeliner pointing up at the sides. A magnificent example is that designed by Van Cleef & Arpels with a I 930s inspired rosette surmount above a rich and fluid cascade of baguette and pear-shaped diamond drops. Pearls were as much a favourite as diamonds, and earrings designed as a scrolled surmount with a pearl drop or a pearl suspended from a chain of baguette diamonds were produced in many variations. Although overshadowed by the popularity of diamonds, coloured stones such as emeralds, rubies and sapphires often added a touch of colour to otherwise monochromatic evening creations.
The metal used for these important creations de grande soir was invariably white. Platinum returned, white gold was widely used, and palladium, the lightest metal of the platinum group, made its appearance: lightness of the mount was an essential factor in the creation of these long and voluminous pendent earrings which otherwise for lightness is the practice, in the early 195os, of channel-setting small baguette diamonds in rail-like mounts, while towards the end of the decade the stones were held in place by minute claws. It was a pride of the great jewellers to create mounts where the metal was so reduced that it was practically invisible.
Although pendent earrings were the most fashionable form of ear ornament for evening wear, compact earclips were also popular, and many of the examples described above were designed so that the long drop (up to 6 or 8cms) could be detached and the surmount worn by itself. Other diamond-set short earrings assumed the shape of turbans, helixes or flowerhead clusters. A favourite design, simple yet very successful, consisted of a single pearl or mabe pearl surrounded by a foliate border of variously cut diamonds, while more elaborate examples assumed the shapes of exotic diamond flowers such as fuchsias and orchids, with a short pearl drop. A particularly
P. 174 successful model was designed by Van Cleef & Arpels in the late i 94os as a stylized fuchsia with diamond petals and short pearl drop: it gained great favour in the 1950s and its popularity continues today with slight alteration. The same may be said of the diamond-set turban supporting an acorn drop mounted with pearls often of different
P. 175 colours, designed by Verdura in 1953.
The great majority of these earrings, both long and short, were provided with a clip or, less frequently, with a screw fitting. Pierced ears were definitely out of fashion in the fifties, probably not because they were thought to be wrong in any way, as in the early part of the century, but because of the unsightly effect of a pierced earlobe when earrings were not worn. Indeed they came to be considered socially improper for the well-to-do lady and confined to the lower classes. Women who had already had their ears pierced concealed the holes with clip on earrings.
Four designs in pencil and gouache by Boucheron, March—September 195 5. The first has a rosette
surmount suspended with a cascade of baguette and brilliant-cut
diamonds, the second is designed as a stylized leaf supporting a cascade of baguette diamonds; the third and fourth are also cascades set with baguette and brilliant-cut diamonds, the last supporting a larger brilliant-cut diamond drop.
Yellow gold was the favourite material for daywear earrings which were usually short, in the shape of rosettes, fans, hoops of Creole inspiration, leaves of stylized or naturalist form, spirals, turbans, florets, helixes and clusters, at times decorated with drops and tassels. The ribbons and bows of the i 94os continued in lighter and often informally sketched forms, often combined with leaves and sprays of flowers. Typical of these earrings of the 195os was the varied and imaginative use of the metal, worked into corded wires, pleats, passementeries, woven or fretted patterns and tubular or plated chains sparingly set with small diamonds or coloured stones such as turquoises, sapphires, rubies and emeralds, combined in interesting chromatic contrasts, as seen in the examples designed by Mellerio and Van Cleef & Arpels.
Among the most typical earclips of the time is that designed as a ‘boule’ of gold wire, set with different combinations of gemstones such as rubies and turquoises (the favourite semiprecious stone of the fifties), or rubies and sapphires with diamonds.

THE TRIUMPH OF THE GIRANDOLE
The other most characteristic form of earring of the i 8th century was the girandole, which was fashionable throughout the whole of Europe. In the early
j 8th century it tended to have a horizontal shape, the three drops more or less of the same size and at the same level, and the central motif clearly defined and simple in design. Later it became more vertical in emphasis with a longer and larger central drop and a more elaborate central motif.
Above and opposite right: Late i 8th-century girandole earrings from Spain, set with emeralds and diamonds, a characteristic feature of Spanish jewellery. The elaborate central motif combines leaves and spray of flowers.
Centre top: French, circa I 76os, set with foiled rubies and diamonds, the drops and the central motif articulated. The combination of rubies and diamonds and the elaborate bow motif place it in the second half of the century.
Middle: English, second half of the T 8th century, set with foiled garnets. Note the rather stiff design and the clearly defined ribbon motif. The colour of the garnets is enhanced by bright pink foiling.
Bottom: Portuguese, circa 1750, set with foiled topazes. The choice of the gemstones — topazes from Brazil, then a colony of Portugal — and the linear and flat design are typical of Portuguese jewellery.
THE ELEGANT PENDELOQUE
A collection of late i 8th-century silver and diamond pendeloque earrings. These examples show some of the many variations of the pendeloque design, from the cluster, ribbon bow and pear-shaped drop (right and opposite above) to the articulated and elaborate swing centre (centre and opposite below). Note the use of silver as setting metal to complement the whiteness of diamonds. As is normal at this time, all gemstones are mounted in closed settings.
IBERIAN STYLE
Right: A gold and hessonite garnet earring, Catalan, probably early i 9th century. The striking design is a development of the traditional pendeloque design with a cluster surmount, an elaborate floral spray centre and an elongated pear-shaped drop. Many examples are extremely long and heavy, requiring special mounts to support their weight.
Opposite right: A collection of i 8th- and i 9th-century gold earrings, Portuguese and Spanish. These earrings exemplify the persistence, in the Iberian peninsula, of the pendeloque motif based on
surmount, ribbon bow and elongated drop. The great variety of design includes the traditional pendeloque conceived as a cluster surmount set with emeralds or rose diamonds supporting a bow and a pear-shaped drop; the ‘Brincos a Rainha’ with its wide, almost circular, drop with swing centre, entirely pierced in high carat gold; the elongated spindle-shaped earrings chased in gold with scroll motifs known as ‘Fuso’, and the bow pendants (centre of page).
Detail of a portrait of Mary, Countess of Macclesfield, by Francis Coates, exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1763 and much admired by Horace Walpole. The Countess is wearing fashionable diamond girandole earrings.
REFINEMENTS OF THE 18TH CENTURY
Opposite far left: A Portuguese silver and white topaz earring of girandole design, first half of the i 8th century, and (below) front and back view of a diamond girandole earring mounted in silver. The back view shows three typical features of the girandole: the closed setting of the stones; the articulated and detachable drops that allow the earring to be worn in a reduced form; and the additional hoop, through which a ribbon was threaded and secured to the hair.
This page:
Illustrations from 18th-century literature on earrings. Top: An extract from the ‘Discours Preliminaire’ of the Recueil des Dessins by A. Duflos, 1744, where the author expresses his concern about the excessive weight and elaborate design of girandole earrings. Above, left to right: French engraved designs of two girandole earrings and one pendeloque earring by F. LeFebvre (active circa 1635-57); a page of French engraved designs for six girandoles by Pouget, 1762; six engraved designs for pendeloques and girandoles by J. Quien, 1710, published posthumously in London in 1762; and two designs for a two-stone or double-cluster earring, by Duflos, 1744, a fashionable form that cannot be classified as either girandole or pendeloque.
Centre left: A page of French designs by Maria,
175 1-70, engraved by Babel, illustrating fashionable pendeloques and girandoles.
Below left: Four engraved designs for pendeloque and girandole earrings, by an anonymous Italian, circa 1770.
THE PENDELOQUE: Centre right: An unusual and colourful pair of earrings, late T 8th century, set with
THEME AND VARIATIONS cornelian plaques within diamond borders.
Right: A pair of diamond pendent earrings, Russian, mid-i 8th century. The interest in large cushion-shaped brilliant-cut diamonds mounted in closed silver settings is a typical i 8th-century feature.
Opposite: Four pairs of pendeloque earrings mounted in silver or gold and silver with colourless gemstones such as white topazes and rock crystal.
Opposite far right: A pair of diamond pendeloque earrings, English, late i 8th century. Note the large rose diamonds in silver closed settings and the rather severe design typical of many English creations of the time. And (bottom far right) a pair of topaz pendeloque earrings and a matching devant de corsage, Portuguese, mid-i 8th century, interesting for its combination of light yellow and foiled orange stones.
Below: A collection of English diamond jewellery, late i 8th century, comprising typical pendeloque earrings and a flowerhead dress ornament.
OUT OF THE MAINSTREAM
Below: A mid i 9th-century portrait by Joaquin Argasot y Juan of a Spanish lady wearing a pair of large gold and gem-set earrings of girandole inspiration, proving how long earrings of this type continued to be popular in the Iberian Peninsula. Their size explains why additional fittings were required.
Right: Silver and rose diamond pendeloque earrings, probably Flemish; and gold Iberian earrings set with topazes, of modified girandole design, similar to those in the portrait above.
Opposite, top left to bottom right: Gold and gem-set Spanish earrings, a variation of the Catalan type but with a much more slender outline; Catalan earrings; gold Iberian earrings set with emeralds; and garnet Catalan earrings. All on this page late i 8th/early i 9th century.
PEARLS, GEMS AND GLASS
Below: A pair of seed pearl and ruby girandole earrings, Southern Italian, mid-18th century. The use of minute seed pearls threaded on a filigree structure is a typical feature of many Southern Italian and Adriatic jewels of low intrinsic value. Even so the design presents the most typical features of the girandole: cluster surmount, bow and detachable drops.
Opposite: A pair of gilt-metal and glass girandole earrings, probably Italian mid- i 8th century, using copper coloured aventurine glass with gold spangles cut and faceted as if it were a precious stone. Glass paste of various colours was frequently cut and set in i 8th= centuryday jewellery, and even aristocratic ladies who owned precious jewels did not disdain to wear it. The smaller pictures show two pairs of Iberian earrings set respectively with rose diamonds and emeralds, late i 8th century. One is modelled on the traditional girandole, the other on the pendeloque form, which in this region retained their popularity well into the 19th century.
A pair of spectacular Southern Italian gold and seed pearl pendent earrings, late i 8th century. Although this particular type seems to be confined to Southern Italy and the Adriatic regions, its structure conforms to the contemporary pendeloque design. The use of seed pearls had been a typical feature of jewels of this area since the I 7th century, providing an extremely successful and decorative alternative to jewels set with precious gemstones.

By the beginning of the 18th century earrings had become an essential form The girandole of adornment.
The girandole, first seen around the middle of the 17th century, remained the most popular type of earring. As we have seen, it consisted of a surmount, usually a bow motif, with three pear-shaped drops, the larger one at the centre, suspended from a hook. The hook allowed the drops to be detached, so that the surmount could be worn on its own when occasion required it.
There are several explanations for the popularity of the girandole. The first has to do with fashion in clothes and hair. During the 18th century hair was worn gathered up on the head away from the face, leaving the ears uncovered; and the low cut of dresses for formal occasions left the area around the neck and ears perfectly suited for adornment with earrings. Secondly, earrings and particularly girandoles exploited the qualities of faceted stones, especially diamonds, which had become plentiful after their discovery in Brazil in 1723; before that the supply had been limited to the mines of Golconda in India. Also significant was the improvement in techniques for cutting diamonds: around 1700 it is thought that the Venetian Vincenzo Peruzzi devised the brilliant-cut, a cut that enhanced the optical properties of diamonds, enabling the stone to reflect light and sparkle at its best. The new brilliant-cut diamonds were particularly successful when mounted on girandole earrings with the stones hanging freely on both sides of the face and catching the light. Thirdly, improved domestic candles meant that more social occasions could be held at night, and in these circumstances sparkling diamond-set jewels and especially girandoles were particularly effective. Until the mid-18th century, jewellery was set solely with diamonds. For formal evening occasions, diamond girandole earrings were all the rage, while during the day girandoles set with more sober semiprecious stones such as garnets, cornelians, pearls, aventurine glass and pastes were preferred. For the first time in the history of jewellery a differentiation was made between day-time and night-time jewels, a distinction which remains to this day.
The girandole remained the favoured type of earring throughout the 18th century and in general terms its basic elements — the bow surmount and drops, the emphasis on width rather than length and the practice of wearing matching bodice ornaments called sevignes — are features which had been common since the 17th century. There are, however, certain small differences. The early 18th-century girandole may be distinguished from its 17th-century counterpart mainly by its emphasis on the faceted stones rather than on the setting and enamel-work; in the 17th century the setting was decorated at the front and back with polychrome enamels and engravings, but towards the end of that century enamel-work and engraving were confined to the back and disappeared completely at the beginning of the 18th.
Elements remaining from the 17th century include the rather stiff design with the clearly defined bow and drops as separate units, and the pronounced horizontal de-Engraved design of the ‘Principes de Girandoles’ by L. Van der Cruycen, 1770, showing the proportions of a girandole earring.
Engraved designs for three pearl girandole earrings by L. Van der Cruycen, 177o. The central motifs are flower sprays.
velopment, stressing width rather than length. Such features are clearly visible in the designs engraved by Quien dated 1710 and published posthumously in London in 1762, especially the stiffness of the design, the drops treated as separate elements, the horizontality and the interest in the faceted stone.
Girandoles were popular throughout Europe at the beginning of the i 8th century, but there are small differences which betray their country of origin. In France they were set entirely with diamonds and were characterized by a sense of movement and sculptural quality. In Spain they were sturdier and set typically with a combination of emeralds and diamonds, a fact explained by the relatively easy supply of emeralds from mines in Colombia, which belonged to Spain. Portuguese girandoles were characterized by simple and flat lines and were usually set with topazes and chrysoberyls from Brazil, then a Portuguese colony. In the Adriatic regions and especially Southern Italy girandoles were given bold outlines and were frequently set with seed pearls as opposed to gemstones.
Girandoles of the second half of the 18th century show some slight changes. In France, particularly, they were no longer set only with diamonds but with a combination of diamonds and coloured gemstones such as rubies. Secondly, they gradually develop a more vertical outline with a more elongated central drop, noticeable in the Italian designs of circa 177o and exemplified by the proportions set out in the Principes de Giraindoles designed and engraved by Van der Cruycen in 1770. And thirdly, the basic bow surmount is frequently replaced by a more complex arrangement, for example the combination of ribbon bow and flower spray motif seen in the ruby and diamond girandoles and in Pouget’s designs for girandoles, dated 1762. One of his pages, for instance, shows six different designs for girandoles. The four set with pearls display intricate motifs in the centre other than bows: a floral motif, two hearts, paired doves and a trophy of love with two hearts and arrows. The characteristic intricacy of the central element is evident also in the emerald and diamond examples from Spain; the centre in the form of a flowerhead cluster is set with a large emerald in a border of rose diamonds framed by diamond-set foliate spray motifs. The other typical feature of late i 8th-century girandoles is the working together of the surmount and drops into much more of an ensemble, compared to the early girandoles where they are treated as separate units.
Most girandoles were quite large, and weight was an important aspect which should not be overlooked. It depended on two features, the size of the earring and the setting of the stones. Gemstones were commonly mounted in closed settings with collets closed at the back, which were lined with coloured foils to enhance the colour of the stones and improve the evenness of colour; in the case of diamonds, foils gave a subtle hue to the stones. Gold was used to set coloured stones while silver was normally used to set diamonds, as it suited their whiteness. So much metal was used in the setting that the earrings were inevitably very heavy, something which is stressed by the designer and engraver Augustin Duflos in the ‘Discours Preliminere’ to his
P 56 Recueil des Dessins, published in 1744. The need to alleviate the weight of girandole earrings led to the introduction of a special fitting, consisting of penannular wire hinged on one side to be inserted from back to front into the pierced earlobe. An additional loop soldered off-centre at the top held a ribbon secured to the hair, taking some of the weight off the ears. The Spanish emerald and diamond girandoles illustrated here are approximately 39 grams; today an average of about 22 grams per earring is reckoned to be as heavy as a woman can comfortably wear.
Tolerance of heavy earrings depends, of course, on how long they are worn, how much movement is involved and how the weight is distributed. When the weight of a long earring is concentrated in a small area, it will feel much heavier than when the
P 57 same weight is spread over a larger surface, as in the case of a disc. Duflos mentions this problem of weight. ‘Ladies’, he says, ‘are the principal objects of the Jeweller’s Art, who mainly devotes his work to them. If this work, by chance, falls under their hands, it might perhaps bring them back to noble and simple taste, better suited in differentiating them and in showing their natural graces than the glittering display that has been favoured for some time. Then they will reduce, by their own accord, the enormous size of Flowers and Girandole Earrings, which tires the ears and they will prefer beautiful diamonds, although smaller in size, to a disorderly cluster of small stones which add up to a lot of weight and are ill suited.’
The pendeloque
Another type of earring which became popular in the second half of the i 8th century,
P. 52, 53 although it was well established fifty years earlier, was the pendeloque. Its design is
characterized by a marquise-shaped surmount supporting a central ribbon bow motif
and an elongated drop of a design similar to the surmount, frequently decorated with
P. 57 a swing centre. Variations include one model which has a more elaborate central sec-
tion with a combination of bow and floral spray motifs, and pear-shaped drops. The
pendeloque seems to have come into fashion because its elongated outline counter-balanced the extreme height of hairstyles around the 1770s. This style reached its peak among the upper classes in 1778. A pad made of wool, hemp and wire was placed on the head and either natural or horse hair with pomade and powder was stretched over. They must have been extremely uncomfortable and unhygienic, since they were often kept in place for weeks at a time, becoming breeding grounds for lice and fleas; furthermore, they were highly impractical, obstructing one’s view and making it difficult to fit into a coach. Caricaturists showed servants employed to hold up the weight of the hair, or attending to their mistress’s hair from ladders, and ladies travelling in carriages with the roof opened up for the high coiffures to stick out. But comfort was not the main concern of the fashionable lady; she delighted in the way the sweeping high line of her hair was perfectly counterbalanced by the elongated drops of her pendeloque earrings.
Most of the pendeloques were set with diamonds but few have survived, since the settings were melted down and the stones reset. The great majority of extant examples are set with colourless pastes or crystals such as white topazes and rock crystal imitating diamonds. The interest in imitation diamonds is typical of the 18th century; and paste jewellery of this period can be considered the forerunner of modern luxury costume jewellery. Another favourite type of pendeloque besides those set with dia-P 49 monds or pastes is the one with a pear-shaped pearl drop usually set as a swing centre in a diamond-set frame. In design books one frequently finds variations of girandoles
P 57 and pendeloques illustrated together. In those of Quien (dated 1710) and Saint (dated 1759), there are engravings of three variations of girandoles and six slightly differing pendeloques all on the same page. Similarly, in the designs of Maria, active 1751-70, eight variations of girandoles and three pendeloques are depicted.
Pendeloques were set in much the same way as girandoles with the stones mounted in closed collets, but they were lighter, having a single drop from the bow surmount instead of three. This explains why one frequently finds a different fitting; instead of the hook with additional loop to alleviate the weight, there is a plain long S-shaped wire hook soldered to the surmount of the earrings. This is clearly depicted in some coloured designs of pendeloques (1760-70) by an anonymous Italian jeweller, in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
The ‘two-stone’ earring
Another popular mid to late 18th-century earring is the type known as the ‘two-stone’ earring. This consists of two large oval faceted gemstones, the larger one on top, with the plane joining the two embellished with various decorative motifs. The simplest version of this decoration comprises just two small lozenge-shaped stones filling in the gaps at the sides where the two larger stones meet; the more elaborate type, as seen in Duflos’ engraved designs of 1744, presents lateral floral and foliate spray motifs. This type of earring was suited for the display of large and important stones, especially diamonds, but hardly any examples have survived, because such large and important stones tend inevitably to be reset in more up-to-date settings. The extant examples mostly contain pastes and garnets and have survived because there was no advantage in melting them down and resetting the gemstones. Nevertheless even the low value ‘two-stone’ earrings are very attractive: a pair set with translucent blue opaline paste may be seen in the Museum of London; it is also interesting to note how sometimes the simple ‘two-stone’ motif is repeated to form a necklace usually worn en suite with the earrings.
From the 18th century onwards, girandoles and pendoloques continued in favour, though modified as one could expect to meet changing tastes. One finds a variation of the girandole in the I 83os and again in the late 1920s, while the pendeloque enjoyed particular favour in the 18 2os and 18 8os.
A lasting tradition
In certain peripheral areas, however, fashion evolves more slowly than in courtly and
international circles, and the form of the girandole and the pendeloque has remained
p. 63 virtually unchanged from the 18th century to modern times. This can clearly be seen
in provincial jewellery of the Iberian peninsula where one finds a recurring girandole
design: a central stylized bow motif with three pear-shaped drops, pierced in gold
Engraved designs by J. D. Saint, for three girandoles and two pendeloque earrings, 1759.
Two types of earring dominate the i 8th century: the pendeloque and the ,irandole. pendeloque earrings had been ;n favour since the early part of the century, but their greatest popularity came in the 177os. Their basic design consisted of a circular or oval surmount supporting an elongated drop which counterbalanced the excessively high hairstyles of that time. The pair shown here represent one of the commonest of ,he many variants. A diamond and pearl cluster supports a diamond ribbon bow motif suspended with a pear-shaped diamond drop with a pearl swing centre.
decorated with small rose diamonds. Dating these earrings can be problematic. Earlier examples have engraved scrolling on the back, while later ones are stamped out from a die and are coarser in appearance. They are frequently accompanied by a bodice ornament of ribbon bow known as a ‘lava’ which derives from the traditional s6vign6. These Iberian examples are not particularly heavy, having pierced mounts and being set with fewer stones; this explains the fitting which, unlike the conventional i 8th-century girandole, consists of a gold hinged hook which is inserted into the ear from back to front without any additional supporting device.
Other pendeloques follow closely the traditional i 8th-century prototypes. Some have a ribbon bow and pear-shaped drop, others a much more elongated pendant, as long as 8 cms. A typical Portuguese earring derived from the pendeloque is the Brincos a Rainha’, ‘Queen’s earring’. It has a bow surmount and a swing centre, but the drop is usually wider and stones are replaced by faceted gold bead motifs. All our examples are made from a sheet of high carat gold (usually 20 carat) from which the design has been cut out by means of a saw and file, producing a lace-like effect. Inlays were skilfully chiselled by hand and the collets that were placed round the stones, usually rose diamonds, were made separately and embellished by the burin. Later examples in the 19th century were frequently cast in the chosen shape and then finished with the chisel and burin.
In another area of the Iberian peninsula centred around Catalonia, during the late i 8th century, the girandole was the inspiration for the design of the extremely popular ‘Catalan earring’, which remained in vogue virtually unmodified up to the end of the 19th century. Unlike the Portuguese examples, Catalan earrings are extremely long and resemble later 8th-century Spanish girandoles. They are mounted with an abundance of gemstones in closed settings and chased mounts. The stones are never diamonds but semiprecious stones such as hessonite garnets and amethysts. The central ribbon bow motif is greatly stylized, the emphasis being on length rather than width, and all the elements are integrated into the overall design. Some examples have a very large central drop flanked by two smaller ones, thus retaining the structure of the girandole, while others have only a single large drop and are closer in conception to the pendeloque. The long popularity of this type of earring in Catalonia is demonstrated by numerous surviving examples and by its frequent appearance even in i 9th-century portraits, e.g. , the Flower Woman from Valencia by Joaquim Argasot y Juan. The sitter is wearing typical Catalan earrings mounted in gold with dark green gemstones, the usual stylized ribbon bow surmount suspending three drops-, they are so long that they nearly rest on the shawl draped over the woman’s shoulders. Indeed, these Catalan earrings could measure up to 14 cms and were often so heavy that they had to be supported by an additional hook placed over the ear. Sidney Churchill, in an article on ‘Peasant Jewellery’ published in The Studio, mentions the practice of alleviating the weight of a heavy earring by means of a ribbon tied round the ear, which he saw in Nicosia as late as 19 12.

Wall, Long Case and Table Clocks
Early domestic clocks—the development of the “grandfather” or long case clock—characteristics of case design—some famous makers —telling the age by dial and hands—introduction of white dials—effects of the Industrial Revolution—provincial clockmakers and cottage craftsmen.
The domestic clock was an exceptionally rare possession in the 16th century. It would be reasonable to say that before the Tudor monarchy it was unheard of in the English house. In the painting of Sir Thomas More’s family by Holbein, referred to earlier in the book, there is a clock to be seen hanging on the wall next to the dressoir. It is a Gothic clock of probably German origin and was the forerunner of the smaller brass lantern clock which was made only rarely in the British Isles towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth 1.
These early clocks were always weight driven, never went for more than 30 hours and were made to hang upon the wall. They were provided with a wrought-iron ring for suspending from a hook and two spurs at the lower part of the back of the clock to keep it in an upright position. The movements, sometimes referred to as the “works”, were governed by a balance wheel escapement, as the principle of the pendulum was not applied to clock mechanism until the middle of the 17th century.
Another type of clock which was produced in early times was the brass table clock and this also was an importation from the continent. It was constructed in the form of a square or round box, standing on small feet, the dial situated on the top in a horizontal position like a sun-dial. Consequently it was not possible to ascertain the time from a distance. The table clock was spring driven and while a few English examples were made during the 17th and 18th centuries, production ceased around 1770, apart from those later developed as chronometers.
Clocks in wooden cases, which are really the only kind to be included under the heading of furniture, did not appear until the Restoration, either as mantel clocks or in the form usually referred to as “grandfather”. Hitherto, clocks had not been very accurate time-keepers and were often as much as an hour fast or slow in a day. It was the adaptation for clockwork of Galileo’s invention of the pendulum by a Dutch scientist named Huygens in 1657 which allowed a considerable improvement in time recording to be made. This coincided with the introduction of wooden clock cases.
A young Londoner, John Fromanteel, had been apprenticed to a Dutch clockmaker at The Hague about this time. He learned the secret of making pendulum clocks and brought it back to England in 1658. The new controlling mechanism was known as a verge escapement and the pendulum used was quite short, being about 7 inches in length.
It was shortly after 1660 that the first grandfather clocks appeared in this country. The term “grandfather” is really of late Victorian origin and they were always referred to during the 17th and 18th centuries as long case clocks. Some writers on British horology have attempted to trace the development of the long case clock from the brass lantern type. It is true that after 1660 many lantern clocks were covered over with a wooden hood which had a glazed front. This hood was fitted to a bracket upon which the clock stood and the driving weight hung down on a rope below the movement. Presumably the hood was introduced to keep dust away from the mechanism.
The possibility of damage to the clock by clumsy servants, children or domestic animals interfering with the hanging weight would have been a good reason for its enclosure in a long wooden case. In this way the shape of the long case clock could have been developed. However, it is now well known that hooded and long case clocks both appeared at about the same time and, including the lantern clock, all three types continued in production until quite late in the 18th century. Long case clocks, of course, were made until the middle of Victoria’s reign and a few are still produced at the present day.
Mantel clocks appeared on the scene very shortly after the long case type. They were first known as table or bracket clocks, being designed to stand on a side table or wall bracket. It is seldom that a clock is found today with its original wall bracket. When people acquire these early table clocks they often stand them on a mantelpiece where they look far too big and out of place. It was only after the middle of the 18th century that smaller models were made expressly for the mantelshelf. Early table clocks had square brass dials and were housed in ebony veneered cases while those of the early 18th century had the arch dials of the period and walnut and mahogany were used for the cases.
The first long case clocks were of a very attractive size being quite small compared with those produced 150 years later. Because the pendulum was short and did not extend down into the case, the latter could be made comparatively narrow, often as little as 9 inches in width and very seldom over 6 feet in height. The more expensive clocks had ebony veneered cases and the hoods were designed in a pleasingly plain architectural style, usually with some gilded brass ornaments attached to the pediment and hood framework. The base was surrounded by a simple plinth. These very early long case clocks are exceedingly rare and when they do appear on sale the price is usually in the neighbourhood of £1,000.
During the next 30 years some important changes took place in long case design. Around 1670 a longer pendulum was introduced with a beat of one second. This was a purely English invention and was to revolutionise methods of accurate time-keeping. As the new 39-inch pendulum had an extended swing a slightly wider and taller case became necessary. By 1690 long case clocks had an average height of just under 7 feet and the width varied between 10 and 11 inches. The ebony veneered or ebonised pine cases of the earlier period must have appeared rather sombre when the clocks increased in size because the more colourful burr walnut veneer and flower marquetry cases had displaced them by the end of the century. The pediment on the clock hood was replaced with a carved cresting, pegged into the front edge of the flat top. This is rarely present nowadays as, being easily detached, it was liable to be mislaid during a removal of furniture. The hood, which hitherto had been constructed with a glass panel in front and which had to be lifted upwards when access to the hands was required, now had a glazed door fitted instead.
It also became the practice at this time to insert a little circular or oval window, known as a lenticle, in the door of the long case at the height of the pendulum bob. This was intended to show to an observer across the room that the clock was in motion. The gleam of the brass bob as it swung backwards and forwards could be seen clearly from a distance. Originally the lenticle was made of plain glass but in many cases this has been replaced with a piece of thick green glass commonly known as a bull’s eye.
Other features of long case clocks at the end of the Restoration were spiral twist pillars fitted to the edges of the hood door and a wide ovolo moulding placed immedia-tely below the hood. By 1710 this had been altered to a cavetto shape and the use of the ovolo moulding was never revived. Except in a few instances of country manufacture the small bull’s eye windows also became obsolete at about the same time.
Around 1720 long case clocks began to appear with dials surmounted by an arch. This necessitated a taller hood and the case was made higher still by the addition of a moulded or cushion top. The arch of the hood door was matched by a rounded top similar to the trunk door which hitherto had always been rectangular in shape. Cases were also becoming wider and 12 or 13 inches was not an uncommon size. Pillars were still attached to the hood doors but were no longer in the form of spiral twists, being usually plain or fluted columns with brass bases and capitals. During the next 80 years pillars ceased to be placed on the doors but remained free-standing on either side of the hood. A characteristic of Scottish clocks was the retention of the spiral twist pillars in a rather attenuated form until nearly the end of the century.
By 1765 clock cases had reached a height of 7 feet 6 inches or thereabout and had an average width of 14 inches. Mahogany was in general use and the long veneered case doors were often finely figured. While simple wainscot oak versions of the more elaborately veneered London clocks had always been made in the provinces many were now being made in the counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire which were cross-banded with mahogany.
London clocks still maintained a pre-eminence in good design during the latter half of the 18th century but many of the more northerly types were becoming very large indeed. Along with the other pieces of furniture whose design was affected by architectural influences, the broken pediment on the hood was introduced and this in turn developed into the swan-neck pediment. In some cases towards the end of the century the swan-necks became so debased in shape as to appear just like a pair of horns or ears protruding from the top of the hood.
During the early years of the 19th century some rather clumsy long case clocks were being made in the industrial north. Sometimes double sets of pillars appeared on either side of the hood and these on occasion lost any semblance of their architectural origin, becoming merely uninteresting turned spindles. The trunk door had gradually dwindled in size to a small, almost square trap, looking for all the world like the door of a small food larder. As a matter of fact, I have seen very attractive looking small cocktail cabinets, made to hang on the wall, which had been produced from the centre part of the trunks of these large clocks. The craftsmanship of early 19th-century cases was of the highest order but the overall design, generally speaking, was in very poor taste. Such clocks were portents of those monstrosities in furniture design which the Victorians, on occasion, were later to perpetrate.
One of the many interesting characteristics of the long case clocks was that in nearly every instance the name of the maker and place of manufacture were engraved upon the dial. Only in very few examples are clocks found to be anonymous. The earliest of the British clockmakers of whom records are known were probably Nicholas Vallin and Bartholomew Newsam who worked in London towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth 1. When James I came from Scotland to become king of England he brought with him a Scottish clockmaker, David Ramsay. The latter was a great clockmaker and became the first Master of the Clockmakers Company which was founded in 1631, during the reign of Charles I. The Stuart kings were all clock lovers and it was largely due to the enthusiasm of Charles II and his great interest in scientific matters that clock-making in England by the end of the 17th century had become pre-eminent in all Europe. All the makers already mentioned, however, were producers of metal clocks and preceded the era of the clocks in wooden cases.
Ahasuerus Fromanteel, a relation of that John who introduced the pendulum into British clockmaking, was one of the first names to appear on the dial of a long case clock. He was followed during the next 40 years by such famous makers as Edward East, Henry Jones, Thomas Tompion, Joseph Knibb, Daniel Quare and Joseph Windmills. The last I include in this list of the immortals for two reasons. In the first place, he is credited with the introduction of the arch dial in clock design during the first quarter of the 18th century and secondly, I am fortunate to possess a clock in a bird and flower marquetry case of around 1690 made by Joseph Windmills. He was made a member of the Clockmakers Company in 1671, the same year in which Tompion was elected, was Master in 1703 and retired or died in 1740.
There are several sources of information giving details of the early clockmakers such as G. H. Baillie’s Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World; F. J. Britten’s Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers (Revised 7th Edition); John Smith’s Old Scottish Clockmakers and Iorwith Peate’s Clock and Watch Makers in Wales. So far there has not been a book written on the Irish makers but many of their names are included in Baillie and Britten.
While the general shape of antique clock cases will give an approximate idea of the period in which they were made it must be remembered that, as with all the furniture styles, what was fashionable in London for a decade continued to be produced in the provinces for another 20 or 30 years in many instances. The details of clock dials and hands, however, give a much closer date approximation.
Early dials were seldom more than 9 inches square but by 1775, 14 inches was not an uncommon size. Until the last quarter of the 18th century all dials had a chapter ring, which bears the hour numerals, and ornamental corner spandrels attached to the dial as separate items. Roman numerals were always used for the hours until after 1800 and above them were engraved Arabic figures. In the 17th century the Arabic numerals were about -51th of the size of the Roman but they were gradually enlarged so that by 1770 they were often irds of the size of the latter.
The spandrels were cast in brass and in early clocks were finely chased and gilded. Between 1670 and 1680 a finely modelled but simple cupid’s head was fashionable. By 1690 further decorative motifs were added to this pattern and around 1700 the cupid head design was replaced by a bearded mask or a maiden’s head surrounded by still more elaborate decoration. A theme of flowers in a vase with seashells was popular about 1740 and during the 1770’s the spandrels evolved into an arrangement of rococo arabesques without any realistic representation. In the north about this time there was a revival of the cupid head spandrel but it was much larger than the 17th-century version and appears rather crude when compared with the much finer castings of a hundred years previously.
All domestic clocks before 1660 had only one hand which told the hours and the quarters. More detailed time recording was not considered necessary in those far off and less complicated days. A minute hand was added to some movements early in the Restoration period and a second hand, called a second minute hand, about 1675. In the provinces, nevertheless, country clocks of 30 hours going duration and with only one hand continued in production even as late as 1780 or thereabouts. There seems to have been a dislike for change among the country people who preferred the older and simpler method of time-keeping.
This fact has proved very misleading to many clock owners who think that because a clock has only one hand it must be of an earlier date than 1700 at least.
White dials for long case clocks did not appear before 1775. The earliest were made of fine enamel but these are rare and very soon they were being produced with a painted front. Apart from being much cheaper to manufacture than the engraved brass dial there was the important fact that it was much easier to tell the time from a white dial. The engraving of brass dials towards the end of the 18th century had tended to be much too elaborate and what with hour, minute, centre-second hands and often a calendar indicator all pivoted at the dial centre plus a mass of engraving and over-elaborate spandrels, it became virtually impossible to ascertain the time unless one was standing very close to the clock. White dials for bracket clocks were introduced at the same time as those for the long case variety. In fact, the characteristics of hands, spandrels, chapter rings, etc, followed the same pattern for both types of clock.
The early years of the Industrial Revolution had a considerable effect on the production of clock dials and movements. Although the distribution of goods was still a very slow and arduous matter in the late 18th century, the pack-horse was capable of transporting clock dials, trains of wheels and most of the parts which went to make up a clock movement, to the most out-of-the-way villages in the country. For this reason there exists a marked similarity between late Georgian clocks although they may have been made over quite a large area of the country. The country clockmaker had, in fact, become a mere assembler of parts and no longer constructed the entire clock by hand in his own workshop as he had done earlier in the century.
A feature of 18th-century clockmaking was the very considerable amount of repetition work which was per-formed in the cottage homes of specialist craftsmen such as the clock-hand maker. In many cases their wives and children assisted in the work. Chains for fusee movements, the filing and gilding of spandrels after casting, the engraving of dials and many other particular processes were performed on a small bench at home and taken weekly to the master-clockmaker, who with his assistants would asaemble the movement.
The wooden long cases and also those for the bracket clocks were not made by the clockmaker but by an outside craftsman who specialised in the work. Thus it is that in some instances clocks made by well-known contemporaries like Tompion, Quare, Knibb and Windmills are found in cases which have identical marquetry designs and other features which indicate that they must have originated in the same workshops. Cases for country clocks were usually made by local joiners and like other examples of country-made furniture exhibit a certain naivety in their appearance.