It is no very difficult task for an enthusiast to find to-day excellent specimens of Bristol ware. Its characteristic features are an extraordinary fineness in colour and texture, coupled with a delicate taste both in hue and form. The ware, too, has a peculiar softness to the touch which is quite characteristic, and provides the amateur collector, once he has recognised it, with an excellent test as to the genuineness of the specimen under consideration. The smaller pieces are often beautifully decorated with painted or enamelled flowers, maidenhair fern, and the like.
The illustrations (Figs. [25]-[26]) give an excellent idea of the kind of decoration adopted by the master craftsmen of Bristol. The designs found upon Bristol glass were also, now and again, copies of those found on Venetian and French pieces. But, generally speaking, the decoration of Bristol glass was entirely English in conception and execution. This is particularly the case where the pieces were made for some special occasion or purpose, as, for example, the commemoration of some event of national importance.
Many examples from the Bristol factories are to be found in the various museums, especially at South Kensington, where in the famous Schrieber Collection are some of the finest examples extant. There is, for example, a “Venetian glass”—purely Bristol, of course, but on a Venetian model, which is reproduced as a frontispiece to this volume—and also a pair of candlesticks beautifully ornamented with butterflies, wild flowers, and leaves. They stand out as most admirable specimens from the Bristol factories.
It is a well-known fact that the Bristol product, so admirable was it in quality and appearance and so closely did it resemble the real Venetian glass, was often passed off as the product of the Venice glass-makers—the pastmasters of the art. Many a collection, ostensibly hailing from Venice, must, on a closer scrutiny, be attributed to a place of origin much nearer home. This form of substitution was particularly prevalent in the case of glass ornamented with white twisted threads and in the case of ruby-coloured glasses and mugs.
Many of the earliest specimens were left “raw” at the base, and if the finger be drawn across the ends the existence of sharp edges will become apparent. This is a test of reasonably good value, as I have found on more than one occasion when I have been in doubt. Also, and with the smaller pieces in particular, it was almost universal with the Bristol manufacturer to leave untouched the “mark” or place where the piece was nipped from the blower’s tube. Modern reproductions, whilst faithfully observing and imitating all the beauties of the model, have generally their bases perfectly smooth. Even where the “mark” has been imitated to give an added air of verisimilitude to the specimen, the thing has been overdone, and that so
A BRISTOL GLASS DECANTER DECORATED WITH OPAQUE WHITE ENAMEL. THE WORD “MOUNTAIN” BEING THE NAME OF A KIND OF SPANISH WINE USED IN THIS COUNTRY, CIRC. 1760.
EARLY SPECIMEN OF BRISTOL GLASS MUG, WITH THE WORD “LIBERTY.”