Old Glasses

( Originally Published 1924 )

In the autumn of 1907 there was a houseparty at Oxburgh Hall, the seat of Sir Henry Bedingfeld, and the writer whom we all knew as " Marmaduke " was amongst the party. He told me that one afternoon, searching for some long-lost vases, he discovered a quantity of curious-looking glass in one of the pantries, which had not been moved for a generation. All the party, in search of amusement, went down to have a look at it, and the result of the visit was to find eleven pieces of Jacobite glass, three of great rarity, one unique. The glasses were exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and since then fetched a price running into many hundreds of pounds.

In 1912 some things in an old manor house at Derby were to be sold. There was nothing of very special importance, as all the choice things had been removed, but in the kitchen was a box of old glasses, which a dealer agreed to take without counting them, at a shilling apiece. One was a splendid Jacobite glass, and later on it sold at Sotheby's for a hundred and eighty guineas.

In a small china-cupboard at Woking was discovered, in 1920, a Jacobite glass, for which the owner in ordinary times would gladly have taken a sovereign. It fetched two hundred at Sotheby's, and another one, very similar to it, a hundred and seventy-five.

A Mr. Cater, of Colchester, formed a collection of old glass. He said he only gave a few shillings apiece for what he had, but the little collection sold for fifteen hundred; and a still more remarkable thing was the sale of the Martin Gibbs collection in 1919, for Mr. Gibbs stated he had never paid more than half-a-crown a piece for a single specimen, and a wonderful pair of glasses fetched thirty-five pounds, another pair thirty-four pounds, a single glass fifty-two pounds, and the whole seventy-one lots nearly eight hundred pounds.For one of Mr.Hartshorne's greatest treasures in the way of Jacobite relics he gave a shilling at St. Leonards, in 1901. It is therefore worth while collecting old glass, but it is not particularly easy to do it just now, because so many people have taken up with this fascinating amusement and prices rule high, but let the collector be advised to go about the country into small shops and smaller houses, and not just at the moment frequent the auction rooms, if bargains are desired. Moreover, my advice would be to try to stick to one special section of glass. If it is wine glasses, Jacobite ones are what are particularly desired, or the beautiful ones with twists in their stems. Another man may collect liqueur glasses, or rummers, tumblers, ale glasses, coaching glasses that have no foot, or the little dumpy glasses that are so frequently to be found in eighteenth-century glass, and many another will go in for Irish, especially for Waterford glass.

Here a word of warning. Do not imagine that Waterford glass is distinguished by a pale blue tinge. There is some Waterford glass with that tinge, owing perhaps to an excess of lead, or even, possibly, to an accident in the pot. Do not fancy that all Cork glass has a pale yellowish tinge-that also may result from an accident. A great deal of the finest Waterford glass is clear white, but as a rule it has a ring that is almost unmistakable to a collector, and moreover, a brilliancy which is remarkable. The blue-tinged Waterford glass often has a curious bloom upon it, which can be wiped off, but which recurs, and it has a strange and unmistakable feel about it, quite different from modern glass, but quite impossible to convey in words. Many persons jump to the conclusion that because a piece has that beautiful blue tinge, it is an exceptional treasure. That may be so. Probably most of the blue-tinged glass was Waterford, or at least Irish, but by far the best Irish glass was not blue at all, and moreover, it is exceedingly difficult to determine what is Irish and what is English glass, and probably most critics, including Mr. Dudley Westropp, who certainly wrote the greatest book on the subject, will say that it is impossible to be quite certain except in a very few instances about many pieces. Waterford blue happens to be the rage, and it is certainly delightful in colour, but it is only a passing fancy, and Irish or English white glass is really more wonderful.

Many Irish lustres are of far greater beauty than any bit of Waterford blue can be, and decanters, bottles, and sweetmeat cups, jugs, dishes, bowls, posset cups, flower-vases, and even christening bowls and chalices that were made in Ireland have got the Irish characteristic of being heavy, of ringing with a wonderful sound, of having a special depth of tone, but very often have not a trace of the blue tinge or the yellowish tinge that less knowledgeable collectors are apt to think must distinguish Waterford or Cork glass.

Furthermore, some of the glass in Irish houses and Irish collections may not have been a home product, as the factories in Ireland were few and small, and did not begin till about 1780, and English glass was imported into Ireland in considerable quantities. A few of the pieces of authentic Waterford glass are absolutely pure white.

The joy of a collection of glass is that it can be used, and nothing sets off a dinner-table so splendidly ; and again, that one's sense of colour can be appealed to, as the beautiful purple, red and green glasses are very decorative. Look always for the pontil mark on the bottom; notice the turned-over flap on the foot; see that the spirals never run from right to left, and are always a little irregular; watch for lumps and irregularities in the make; look out for the brilliant clear colour; and, above all, take an expert's advice in the case of anything particularly precious, for glass is being forged in all directions, and hundreds of the items that are offered in the antique shops are absolutely modern, and are not worth looking at for a single minute.

I advise collectors to refer to Mr. Dudley Westropp's standard book and the volume by Mrs. Stannas on " Old Irish Glass, "Bates's" Old English Glass, "Wilmer's" Early English Glass, "to Yoxall's" Collecting Old Glass," and to Coenen's account of the Willet-Holthuysen Museum in Amsterdam, where some remarkably beautiful examples of wine glasses may be seen and admired.