From approximately the earlier years of the 1770s separate parts of a vessel such as spouts or lids were stamped out using a drop-hammer. The piece of Sheffield plate would be placed upon a striking block which had a die sunk with a model of the required shape. Then the hammer, the face of which was raised with the same shape as the sunken die, was manipulated from above by a rope between two vertical rods and, as it struck the block, the Sheffield plate was stamped into shape. The parts would then be soldered to the vessel. The introduction of harder steels made possible more sharply-defined pieces and during the Regency period entire units were produced in this manner. Die-stamping was a very important technique, advances in it contributing greatly to mass-production methods in both silver and Sheffield plate. By the last decade of the eighteenth century larger, flat pieces such as trays were being produced in this manner, suitably ornamented as already described. (more…)

At Nailsea in Somerset, as you pass in the train from Bristol to Weston-super-Mare, you can still see few creeper-covered stumps of buildings on the site of the famous glassworks, which once employed several hundred men.

Nowadays “Nailsea” is a legend, and the word has come to be applied to several different kinds of fancy or coloured glass which were made at other places besides Nailsea, and often long after the factory closed.

First there are all those bottles, jugs, rolling pins, decanters, cups and mugs which are made of dark bottle glass with coloured flecks. Sometimes these flecks are white, sometimes they are in other colours like red, yellow, and pale blue. (more…)