In 1834, James Powell, a successful London wine merchant, bought the Whitefriars Glassworks. His grandson Harry Powell played a major role during the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth century, when the company made very high quality art glass on a par with the output of Loetz in Europe and Tiffany in the USA.
Collecting Whitefriars Glass has become very popular and pieces by artists like Geoffrey Baxter are highly sought after.
Glass has been around for centuries and has basically remained unchanged with only the production methods becoming more efficient and glass quality becoming better and better.
However, modern glass just doesn't have the wonderful handmade feel of antique glass, especially the beautiful tactile Georgian Glass of the eigtheenth century.
Any type of antique glass, though, is a beautiful thing to collect and the diversity and range of glass items is absolutely staggering and almost impossible to fully comprehend. So choose wisely if you intend to start a glass collection and ensure you choose a type and style of glass that you are really passionate about.
Art deco glass is particularly beautiful and very collectable.
Art Deco glass uses geometric patterns, bold colours, exuberant, sometimes stylised, female figures, and animal motifs. Major designers of Art Deco glass were Rene Lalique, Maurice Marinot, Daum Freres, Marius Sabino, Etling, Schneider, Gabriel Argy-Rousseau, and Francois Decorchemont.
If you're looking to add to your Art Deco collection, have a flick through our Art Deco Antiques.
