The Birmingham Glass Trade: 1740-1833

JSGT 1927 V11 T374-T386

 The early history of glass-making at Birmingham is still buried in obscurity. There is just enough to show that ordinary glassmaking was carried on there before 1750. Birmingham had also taken up the "small glass" trade, the making of glass buttons, beads, and toys, and "glass pinching," which appears to have been of the same character. And for this the town became as famous as any district in the country. When glass-cutting came into fashion in the Midlands, it was taken up with enthusiasm by the people of Birmingham. They supplied the Sheffield plate-makers with a considerable amount of cut glass from 1784 onwards, and in 1800 and 1805 a celebrated firm of cut glass manufacturers from London advertised in Birmingham for glass cutters.

Francis Buckley