Glass News from Angela, 10th September 2000

Hi,
Hope you are enjoying your weekend. Some people didn't receive the hot-links when I sent my email message, so here is a copy with the links working. Sorry about that.

1: We hear a lot about English pressed glass from Sowerby and Davidson and Greener/Joblings, all of them from the North East of England; but not nearly so much about that other great Victorian centre of the glass trade, Manchester. So this week I've put a piece on the Glass Encyclopedia about the Victoria glass factories from Manchester, which incidentally was my home-town when I was young. Most Victorian pressed glass from England carries a date lozenge (if it was registered before 1884) or a registration number, and these can be used to identify the maker as well as the date it was first made. There are some highly collectible Manchester patterns from as early as 1864, like the Molineux Webb "greek key" design pictured on our new page. None of these Manchester factories survived long into the 20th century, so it is easy to be sure a piece of their glass is genuinely old.

2: To accompany this page about Manchester glass, we have put a Burtles Tate opalescent glass posy vase, date-marked for 1885, for sale on ebay. Click here to see.

3: Somebody asked me if I could include something about Carnival Glass this week. I think I found something good. The Australian Carnival Enthusiasts Association has put up a site about Australian Carnival Glass that you may not have seen. It has an page about the history of carnival glass in Australia, lots of pictures, and a question and answer page. Click here to take a look. The 7th edition of Bill Edwards and Mark Carwile's Standard Encyclopedia of Carnival Glass, was published in April this year -click here if you need a copy. And I have noticed that the most popular carnival glass book recently is A Field Guide to Carnival Glass by Dave Doty.

4: DVD: I was asked where you can get the Dale Chihuly DVD, and I understand it is really spectacular. So if you would like to know more about it, - click here.

5: Things seem to be really slow on ebay at the moment. We have a whole bunch of great glass still waiting for a first bid. You can see a preview by clicking here.

6: New books: There's a new (5th) edition of The Complete Bead Resource Book by Patricia Abahusayn just out, and it comes well-recommended. I've also been hearing very good comments about Lesley Jackson's book 20th Century Factory Glass that was published a couple of months ago. "Factory glass" is interpreted broadly, and includes several art glass producers you wouldn't associate with the word factory, like Galle for instance.

7: And last but not least, I found a site where you can buy the very best of the best. Its called LuxuryFinder.com and although it doesn't have any glass yet (have to do something about that) you can rent a European castle or a 200ft luxury yacht, order some beluga caviar, or a Calvin Klein backpack, or maybe even a company jet (how about a Cessna Citation Excel)? I thought you'd like that.

Hope there was something interesting for you this week.

Very best wishes
Angela

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