Glass making at Bolsterstone, near Sheffield

JSGT 1918 V02 T005-T012

The graceful outlines of the older drinking glasses which had their origin at Bolsterstone are highly suggestive of an Egyptian influence, The bell-shaped bowls supported by stalk-like stems, though not so delicately formed as those of Murano, or Venetian drinking-vessels of the sixteenth century are so wonderfully like those of the lotus flower on its stalk that it is just possible English makers may have copied some early Phoenician example found in ancient store or burial mound. The fact that this shape of bowl is said to conserve the full flavour of the wine conveyed therein is another proof that the nearer we approach to Nature the more easily do we attain to that simple beauty which is wedded to objects of real utility.

Glass-making at Bolsterstone, near Sheffield, from about A.D. 1650 to 1750

Joseph Kenworthy