Glass!

[Nemesis]

Came across this site while looking for something else - it's a US site, but interesting to note the 'bullseye' glass manufacture, although frankly it's rather overdone in some of the examples, and it seems that only the bullseyes are being manufactured and not the more useful crown glass:


http://www.smithrestorationsash.com/restorationglass.html

http://www.sugarhollowglass.com/

Totally agree with what is said about old v modern glass in period buildings.

The storm windows are interesting too:

http://www.smithrestorationsash.com/woodstormwindows.html

 

[biffvernon]

Bit of a cop out - the fact is that no-one actually knows how to make crown glass. The guys at English Antique Glass made a valiant attempt a couple of years ago but failed to get close to the quality achieved by the 18th century glass makers.

I know of one place, Gunby Hall that has some bullions in a semi-basement kitchen, but I think the use of the 'bull's eyes' as cheap window glass was pretty unusual. Much better from the glass makers' point of view, to drop the bullion back in the melt.

 

[Nemesis]

Berwick.

I agree - not sure that it would have been used as shown on that site.

 

[biffvernon]

That's a nice example. The bull's eye's are quite small, leaving a good deal of undistorted glass.

Do you have more details about the house?

 

[Nemesis]

It's a church building in Berwick - I thiink in fact part of a church hall or some community use building. It's a small complex. Catholic church, off a side street. Possibly it was part of the priest's accommodation once. looked like a kitchen but it was getting dark, hence the flash.

Ghastly cement and that white paint though... but I thought it quite a stunning example of glass (Berwick has a great deal of good glass) - pity about the crack, hope no-one decides to 'improve' it.

 

[Penners]

the fact is that no-one actually knows how to make crown glass.

But surely if you can make the bullion bit, you have already made a piece of crown glass, albeit a fairly small piece?

Or are you saying that nobody is able to make it large enough to cut "clean" pieces (ie: without bullion) from it?

If so, I wonder why. It was simply spun on the end of a steel rod, wasn't it, so that centripetal force extruded the glass into a flat disc? Sounds simple enough (at least, it does to someone who hasn't the foggiest idea how to do it!)

 

[biffvernon]

Yes that's the theory. But the attempt to recreate it ended in a circular sheet that was three or four feet in diameter and looked very impressive but really was not up to the quality in terms of flatness and lack of distortion that would have been acceptable to an 18th century householder. They just could not get it good enough - and this was a couple of the best professional glassblowers.

Furthermore, the annealing process involved holding the sheet, attached to a pontil, up to the open door of the furnace. Modern H&S legislation would never allow this sort of work for an employee.

 

[Penners]

H&S legislation

I might have known that this would be involved somewhere.