english cameo glass in the corning museum of glass
english cameo glass in the corning museum of glass
english cameo glass in the corning museum of glass
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Accord<strong>in</strong>g to tradition, Hodgetts,<br />
Richardson & Son made 40 blanks for<br />
<strong>the</strong> Portland Vase project. Thirty-eight<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se are said to have been defective,<br />
<strong>the</strong> 39th was usable, and <strong>the</strong> 40th survives<br />
<strong>in</strong> its unworked state.<br />
Richardson's stand at <strong>the</strong> Paris exposition<br />
was breathtak<strong>in</strong>g. It <strong>in</strong>cluded not<br />
only Locke's Portland Vase and <strong>cameo</strong><br />
<strong>glass</strong>es carved by Alphonse Lechevrel<br />
(see page 28), but also a great variety <strong>of</strong><br />
cut, engraved, acid-etched, and threaded<br />
<strong>glass</strong>. (Joshua Hodgetts, ano<strong>the</strong>r <strong>of</strong><br />
Richardson's employees, had recently<br />
developed and patented <strong>the</strong> thread<strong>in</strong>g<br />
mach<strong>in</strong>e, which was used to apply long,<br />
spirally wound trails.)<br />
Locke left Richardson's <strong>in</strong> 1879 and<br />
worked successively for Philip Pargeter's<br />
Red House Glass Works and ano<strong>the</strong>r<br />
local firm, Webb 8c Corbett. In 1882,<br />
however, he emigrated to <strong>the</strong> United<br />
States, where he became an <strong>in</strong>fluential<br />
figure at <strong>the</strong> New England Glass Company<br />
<strong>of</strong> East Cambridge, Massachusetts.<br />
The proprietor <strong>of</strong> that company was<br />
Edward Drummond Libbey, who subsequently<br />
relocated it to Toledo, Ohio, <strong>in</strong><br />
order to take advantage <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> availability<br />
<strong>of</strong> natural gas <strong>the</strong>re. Locke went with<br />
him, but <strong>in</strong> 1891 he moved to Pittsburgh,<br />
where he became head <strong>of</strong> design<br />
at <strong>the</strong> United States Glass Company<br />
and opened his own f<strong>in</strong>ish<strong>in</strong>g shop. In<br />
America, Locke made <strong>cameo</strong> <strong>glass</strong>es and<br />
developed a number <strong>of</strong> highly successful<br />
varieties <strong>of</strong> Art Glass, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g Amber<strong>in</strong>a<br />
(patented <strong>in</strong> 1883), Pomona (1885),<br />
Wild Rose or Peachblow (1886), Agata<br />
(about 1887), and maize <strong>glass</strong>ware<br />
(1889).<br />
FIG. 21 (left). Joseph Locke's replica <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>the</strong> Portland Vase.<br />
FIG. 22. The Birth <strong>of</strong> Venus, by Alphonse Lechevrel.