Whitefriars Glass at Backwell
Vase in wrought iron stand, c.1890 (courtesy of the Country Seat)
A new exhibition at Blackwell, The Lake District Arts and Crafts House, throws light on a little-known Victorian glass-making company (17 July – 1 November)
Whitefriars Glass – or to give it its full name, James Powell & Sons of Whitefriars – was set up by Powell in 1834 when he bought a small glassworks to give his sons a useful occupation. The company prospered, doing particularly well out of the Victorian boom in church building as it originally specialised in stained glass production. By the second half of the 19th century it had branched out into domestic tableware and had earned itself a reputation for high-quality design thanks to its connections with the Arts and Crafts Movement – Whitefriars produced glass designed by Philip Webb and were regular exhibitors at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society shows.
The company’s heyday came under the leadership of Harry Powell (James’s grandson) who joined the company in 1873, and who was both a skilled designer and a chemist. This is the period the Blackwell show focuses on and it includes Arts and Crafts-style vases, candlesticks and tableware, pieces in the Venetian revival style as well as later pieces reflecting the growing fashion for Art Nouveau. Together the exhibits show how the company managed the challenge of combining commercial success with the broad principles of Ruskinian ‘good design’.
www.blackwell.org.uk
