Copper-wheel engraving on British drinking vessels between 1770 and 1850

摘要

This paper reports the findings of a survey of engraved drinking vessels made and engraved in Britain between 1770 and 1850. The subject of wheel engraving on drinking glasses in the later Georgian and early Victorian period has been largely neglected in the literature. In part, this might owe something to the lack of firm attribution when considering the likely executors of such engravings. The names of the engravers have mostly escaped us due to their reluctance to sign their work Furthermore, the primary focus for writers on drinking glasses has been the vessels themselves, with the engraving often seen as of secondary importance. With the exception of the intrinsic interest in Jacobite engravings much of the work of British engravers has been dismissed as crude or naive, certainly not worthy of comparison with their continental contemporaries. Hugh Wakefield summed up this view by suggesting 'Very little distinguished engraved work had been carried out in this country in earlier times; but from the middle of the nineteenth century British glass manufacturers and dealers began to produce a great amount of fine engraved work' (Wakefield (1961) p.36). Engraving in Britain during our period can thus be seen, perhaps not unreasonably as folk art, reflecting those issues of account to the general people and made for them rather than those of a loftier social position.The engravings themselves can be seen as important, not necessarily for their artistic merit (though some are of great merit) but for their relevance as historical and social artefacts.