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 bell-shaped bowl, multiple opaque spiral twist stem, conical foot, and rough pontil mark. The bowl is decorated with a vine and berry border in opaque white enamel; the rim of glass is acid etched and gilded. The enamelling was done by William Beilby of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Enamelled English glass is extremely rare, and Beilby is one of the few credited with the production of many examples of enamelled glass. His most common motifs were the vine and berry pattern, garden landscapes with urns and ruins, and floral swags. Beilby produced the majority of his designs in white enamel although some polychrome examples exist in public collections. A signed Beilby example is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Attached to foot is one red paper label and two white labels which read "2-WT" and "no #/W-T/9/87".
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+02-WT |
