Alloa v. Nailsea Glass: Fact or Fiction

Alloa Glassworks, Edinburgh, Scotland

In 1750, Lady Francis Erskine, whose ancestors founded the port of Alloa on the Firth of Forth, founded the Alloa Glassworks at Leith. The glassworks benefited from the ready supply of salt and seaweed from the Firth, as well as coal from the family collieries, see Willis, 1977. Willis stated that bottles formed an important part of the Alloa output and from 1750 onwards bottles made at Alloa did not differ in appearance from those made elsewhere. An early circa 1700 onion-shaped wine bottle was recovered from the Firth of Forth by fishermen and auctioned in Edinburgh, Scotland in July 2002. He concluded that there seems to be no evidence that sealed examples were made at Alloa Glassworks, and the recorded sealed bottles bearing recognisably Scottish inscriptions could well have been made by any of the other north-of-the-border glasshouses, equally, they could have been imported from England.

Scottish Stippled Bottles

Indisputably Scottish are stippled globular bottles. Scottish glasshouses, whether located at Alloa or Edinburgh extended their folk art to include diamond etching directly onto the globular surface of bottles. These stippled or etched scenes covered agricultural implements, vines, roses and crowns to celebrate special events such as births, weddings, coronations, jubilees and other national celebrations.

Nailsea Glassworks, Near Bristol, England

In general, glass and bottle collectors agree that Nailsea is a style of glassmaking that has been attributed to the Nailsea Glassworks, located near Bristol in England between 1788 and 1873. No empirical evidence exists to support the attribution of this form of art glass to the Nailsea works near Bristol. Elville, 1967 concluded that Nailsea must be regarded as a style since it's doubtful whether any evidence, however positive, that the articles were made elsewhere will have any influence today on the description 'Nailsea'.

Nailsea styles recorded by Elville, 1967 include:
- Mottled or flecked style in which chips of different coloured enamels are splashed over the glass surface.
- Encircling bands in white enamels used in jugs.
- Smokey-green glassware with white opal rims.
- Gimmel flasks with white enamel festoons.
- Latticinio decorations in bellows, flasks and cups.
- Rolling pins with enamel festoons.

The latticinio style of glass, perfected by the Romans and then the Venicians, consisted of white opaque or more rarely coloured threads that were entwined and twisted throughout the mass of colourless glass to produce charming lace-like effects. Flasks varied in height from 3.5 to 10.5 inches and in colour from a transparent body with regular loops and festoons in white opaque glass to flasks with blue or white opaque bodies with festoons in pink. Items in yellow and dark red decorations are considered to be rare, see Elville, 1967.

Elville's scepticism about the attribution of coloured or bottle glass to the Nailsea works was based on the fact that only window glass was found at the Nailsea factory site. He believed that the wares accredited to Nailsea were actually produced at Bristol and Stourbridge, in parallel with similar wares at Wrockwardine in Shropshire, Yorkshire, Newcastle, Warrington, St. Helen's and Alloa in Scotland.

Nailsea and Alloa Wine Bottles

Morgan, 1980 confirms the existence of the Nailsea Glassworks from 1788 to 1873 and described the wares as consisting of eye-catching jugs in olive or brown, flecked or streaked with white enamel blotches or stripes, appearing with seals in addition to pincered ornamental bands. Morgan recognised that there was a link to the Nailsea works but was also cautious in recognising the likelihood that such glassware was also produced in the North of England and the Midlands.

Dumbrell, 1983 claims that the Nailsea factory produced the characteristic flasks, jugs and bottles with white enamel decoration in the form of spotting, splashing and flecking on the surface. Dumbrell's statement is in contrast to Elville's comment that only window glass was found at the Nailsea factory site. Dumbrell asserted that wine bottles represented a small percentage of the output from the Nailsea factory that was originally set up by John Robert Lucas, a Bristol bottle maker. Presumably, in 1983, Dumbrell possessed up-to-date research material that corroborated his writings. However, he acknowledges that similar wares were made elsewhere in Britain, both in the Midlands and as far North as Perth and concludes that ascribing pieces to individual factories is more difficult and alludes that most collectors refer to all these items as 'Nailsea'.

Interestingly, bottles classified as 'Nailsea' style with applied rigarees and white incisions also carried applied seals elaborately designed to include a combination of the bottle owners' initials implements (see the ex-Cosbert collection M. McN 1834 applied seal bottle) and various agricultural as used on stippled bottles. See also Ward Lloyd, 2000, page 117, plate 181 for an illustration of a sealed and dated bottle 'S.W. 1792' carrying an applied seal with agricultural implements and classified as Nailsea. The presence of the Scottish folk art and indigenous Scottish names would seem to narrow the origin of these bottles to Scotland and even to the Alloa Glassworks.

Beauty and style are the recognisable characteristics of Nailsea and Alloa glassware and, therefore, one can appreciate the tug-o-war between the English and Scottish claimants of these artefacts. Art in bottle glass used for wine and spirits added an extra dimension to the pleasures of drinking. Dumbrell acknowledges that Nailsea and Alloa shapes confirm in virtually no way to normal bottles of the period and even the string rim is far from typical. Neil Wilcox, commenting in A Wine Lover's Glasses, states that bottles produced at the Nailsea Glassworks in Bristol did not conform to standard evolution of shape and comprised of globular forms plus inclusion of white enamel splashes or pincered rigaree trails. My own opinion is that a collection of British antique black glass bottles without the inclusion of a few 'Nailsea' and 'Alloa' style pieces is as tedious as the sky without stars and clouds.

Author: Douglas Cosbert
Date: 24th October 2002
Nailsea Web page link

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