to the conclusion that, while pieces of Bristol can be picked up now and again, particularly in the west of England, it will not pay the amateur collector to confine himself to this particular variety.
I am indebted to Mr Cole of South Molton Street, London, for the illustration ([Fig. 26]) of a pair of very fine early Bristol vases which, although undecorated, are exquisite in colour and form, and a beautiful example of the maker’s art. The frilling round the base deserves special notice.
The central piece in the photograph is a long-necked vase decorated with coloured enamels, and known to be the work of Michael Edkin, a Bristol enameller of distinction. If carefully examined, it affords ample evidence of the skill and painstaking care to which the best specimens of this ware owe their artistic merit.
Spiral wine glasses are still often to be found in or near Bristol, and the fact that these are rarely found in other parts of the country seems to indicate that they were a favourite form with the Bristol glass-makers. Among the examples of Bristol ware here reproduced ([Fig. 27]) is included a pair of vases. These rank among the finest specimens still extant of Michael Edkin’s work. This talented artist was a painter of some merit, who gradually drifted into glass painting, and for some twenty-six years, from 1762 to 1788, was engaged by various firms to decorate their ware with birds, flowers, etc. He was also, it may be added, a singer and an actor of no little distinction.
Fig. 26 shows a pair of candlesticks, 6½ inches in height, from the British Museum Collection. They are excellent examples of Edkin’s taste and delicacy of execution. Great quantities of glass decorated by him must have been exported, and I have found undoubted specimens of his work in Rome and the museums of other Continental cities I have visited. One of the very finest specimens of his art is a richly gilt and decorated tea-tray, now in the Museum of Practical Geology. Another example from the British Museum Collection is the fine mug, ornamented with a portrait and the word “Liberty” in gold, possibly made by some sympathiser with the revolutionary spirit which strongly affected Britain as well as France towards the close of the eighteenth century.
FIG. 27.—SPECIMENS OF OPAQUE WHITE BRISTOL GLASS. 18th CENTURY.
(Decorated by M. Edkin.)