Description:
The Beilbys were a successful business family from the North East centred around William Beilby (1743-1819). A scholar from Durham School, his father sent him to Birmingham to be apprenticed to John Haseldine an enameller of metal boxes. His brother Richard was also apprenticed in Birmingham as a seal engraver. When their father's business as a silversmith and jeweller failed they returned North and the whole family decamped to Gateshead. William had already been experimenting with enamels on glass and Tyneside would have provided a ready supply of local glass and imported Low Countries glass. Other members of the family were tutored in decorating glass and a thriving business was established.See Glass Circle News, Vol.34 No. 3 Issue 27 Nov. 2011, for an article on Beilby enamelled glass, p.8 for an illustration of five drawn trumpet opaque twist glasses with this fruiting vine pattern. English wine glass with round funnel bowl, multiple spiral opaque twist stem, and conical foot; bowl is decorated with opaque white enamel with a floral swag border; paper label attached to foot read "HICK/362/SON", rough pontil mark. Enameling on glass in England is rare, with most artisans preferring to cut or engrave the material. England's most skilled enameler was William Beilby, who worked with other family members in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the 1760s and '70s. A few of Beilby's works are signed, but the majority are not; however, those signed enamel-painted glasses have prompted Beilby attributions for most glasses of this type. The most commonly produced designs included grapevines, armorials, sporting scenes, festoons of flowers, architectural motifs, and classical landscapes. According to Ken Wilson, glass scholar, he considered these old glasses with added enamelling. He said that Beilby-type enamelled glass has been desirable for years by collectors and the demand has been fed by forgers.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+66.L.10 |
