The English Baluster Stem Glasses
Part 3. The English Baluster Stem Glasses, 1695 - 1725.
By around 1681, after Ravenscroft's patent had expired, general knowledge of how to make lead crystal had become well known, at least among the London glasshouses. Given the prevailing situation of a coal-fired furnace and saltpetre in the batch, mentioned in Part 2, it was not difficult for the local glassmakers to work out how to include lead in the batch once it had been shown possible. Nevertheless, the amount of lead used in the early glasses fluctuated wildly in these early pieces, going above 40% in some of them before the factories settled down to the traditional 30% - 32% in what we now call English full lead crystal.
The brilliant whiteness of Ravenscroft's original metal reflected the use by da Costa of highly purified materials for making false jewels and bijouterie. In particular, he used crushed flints which have a low iron content (the iron adheres only to the surface of the pebble which has low outside:inside ratio whereas sand is the reverse.) However, other glassmakers either never used crushed flints or they soon reverted to the more financially economical use of sand. This resulted in a glass with a slightly greyish tint, a feature greatly admired by today's collectors!
Inevitably, there was a move by glassmakers abroad to copy the new English metal and the Bonhomme family, who owned four glasshouses, are said to have attempted, in 1680, to work "in the English fashion" at their Liege factory. In 1680, six English glassworkers were given permission to emigrate to Hamburg. But ordinary glassworkers were not party to the secret of mixing the batch, held by the glasshouse master. Inevitably, in 1696, the Commissioners of the Glass Duties recorded that "some glassmakers have been abroad to see what encouragement the Dutch would give them, but have found it to be of no purpose and are accordingly come back again". (However it should be added that this comment may have also applied to the bottle makers who used ordinary glass but had been driven abroad by the punitive effect of a glass tax that ran from 1695-1699.)
Such evidence has led to the suggestion that some of the early lead glasses were made on the continent, but there is no continuity of manufacture there to support this contention as discussed in Glass Circle News no.93, 2002. Relatively few German parallels in chalk-potash glass do occur but seem to be dated 1725, or later, probably copies of the English style. Examples may be seen in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The manufacture of lead crystal, because of different working practices, and particularly by using saltpetre in the batch, essentially remained an unsolved mystery for the continental glassmakers until the middle of the 18th century. Only Belgian, Sebastian Zoude achieved its manufacture in c. 1763 and St Louis, in France, some 11 years later.
Perhaps more to the point is that while there is a tendancy to assume that all facon de Venise glasses were made on the Continent, many must have been made in London as well.
The Baluster Bowl and Stem
The bowl is blown so that a thickening is left at the tip of the bulb, the end nearer the blowing iron forming the rim of the glass. This thickening may be tooled to form the solid base of the bowl or drawn to form the top section of the stem. The common bowl shape is round funnel like that below right. The funnel may have flat, curved or flares sides. Early balusters are also found with a thistle-shaped bowl, reflecting continental influence where this shape was very popular.
A bubble in the base of the bowl indicates that a depression has been made in the glass with the pucellas before additions of more glass to form the stem. Further additions of glass are then tooled to form the knops. The presence of an air bubble in a knop indicates where a new blob of glass has been added during stem manufacture. A simple baluster may have only one addition; complex stems may have several.
The origin of the baluster style has been attributed by the great English glass historian, Francis Buckley, to German artists working in Bohemia. There are, indeed, similarities between some of their glasses, the use of the baluster, for example. Also in the production of massively thick blanks for cutting and engraving. But there were few such decorators in England around the turn of the century and the flowing rounded shapes of English balusters is a product of the specific characteristics of heavy lead glass. The Bohemian invention circa 1680 of chalk-potash glass was indeed an improvement on the earlier metal but its poor refractivity and the difficulty of eliminating small gas bubbles instantly distinguishes it from its superior English counterpart. It is, incidentally, why so many of them are cut as well as being reserved for more commemorative occasions. Conversely, the English baluster was a vessel of use.
The Treaty of Utrech (1713) is said to have facilitated the immigration of German glassmakers to England, presumably through the links between Queen Anne, the Netherlands and their gains in Austria. The prevailing Hapsburg policy at the time was to encourage the manufacture of windows and bottles and what tableware was made should be in their chalk glass. Overall the manufacture of tableware was supressed. This surely helped the development in England of useful tableware the emergence of the dominating baluster style.
Feet
The feet of English 18th century glasses are characteristically wider than the bowl although the domed foot may be smaller. Four types of English foot can be seen here. They are distinct from the Ventian style foot illustrated in Parts 1 and 2.
- Blown foot. A small bubble is blown, attached to the stem, opened and tooled to a cone shape, protecting the user from the sharp pontil beneath. The rim of the foot is nearly always folded inwards when the bulb is first opened and before being flared. Hence the fold ends up underneath the glass. Because Venetian soda glass is blown much thinner the folded foot on these glasses seems almost non-existent compared with the thick, sometimes ugly, fold in lead glass. Only in Venetian glass made by fusing rods of glass (see Part 2) do you find a wide fold to the foot because of the greater thickness of the glass. here the fold is often upwards rather than under the foot.
German style chalk glass may have thick folds, particularly if associated with cutting. - Blown domed foot. Derived from a continental feature; the blown foot is tooled into a dome. The result is generally more attractive than its continental counterpart. Such feet are nearly always folded in early glasses.
- Plain foot. A small gob of glass is added to the stem and tooled into shape. It is not possible to fold the rim of this type of foot but it can be shaped into a dome.
- Flat plain foot. This is a 19th century development used to speed up production. It is mentioned here because fake early glasses are often made in this way. A gob of glass is attached to the stem and then flattened by squeezing it between two hinged boards, one side cut with a slot to accommodate the stem. The rim of the foot is rounded, not cut.
In summary:
The feet of baluster glasses are mostly blown and folded. A folded foot gives great strength to the foot and resists chipping. A few have domed feet, which gives them a more prestigious appearance, and this enhances their value to collectors.
A plain foot occurs on some and decreases value as it tends to be a later and cheaper derivation. Plain feet frequently chip and collectors should be aware of such chips being ground out giving a rounded edge and sometimes an oval or mis-shapen foot, thus affecting the value of the glass.
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