Not on display

Paperweight

1850-51 (made)
Artist/Maker
Allen & Moore (designed)
Place of origin
Birmingham (made)

Dome-shaped clear lead glass paperweight enclosing a sulphide medallion on a bed of royal blue glass. The sulphide bears a representation of the Crystal Palace.

Object details

Categories
Glass
Great Exhibition
Object type
Paperweight
Materials and techniques
Glass and the sulphide of china clay with super-silicate of postash
Glass
Sulphide
Brief description
Clear dome-shaped lead glass containing sulphide of the Crystal Palace, Allen & Moore, Birmingham, ca.1850-51
Physical description
Dome-shaped clear lead glass paperweight enclosing a sulphide medallion on a bed of royal blue glass. The sulphide bears a representation of the Crystal Palace.
Dimensions
  • Height: 4cm
  • Diameter: 5.7cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'THE BUILDING FOR THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION LONDON 1851' (surrounding representation of the Crystal Palace on the sulphide enclosed in the paperweight)
  • 'A & M', signed (for Allen & Moore, Birmingham, medallists, designers of the sulphide)
Credit line
Given by Mrs Eric Hervey
Object history
From a group of Crystal Palace memorabilia which belonged to Gerald Smedley Hervey, MBE.

London glassmaker Apsley Pellatt the Younger patented his methods for making sulphides or 'cameo incrustations' in 1819, publishing an account of this method in 1821. He described the process in more detail in his 'Curiosities of Glass Making' of 1849. Other manufacturers of sulphides included Joseph Moore (medallist and die sinker) in partnership with John Allen (die sinker and inventor) between 1844 and 1856. Allen & Moore exhibited goods in a variety of materials at the Great Exhibition (general hardware section) so it seems probable that rather than making goods in such a variety of materials themselves, they collaborated with other Midlands companies. They may have turned to a Stourbridge glassmaker to enclose their sulphides as paperweights.
Subject depicted
Great Exhibition
Bibliographic reference
Barbara Morris, 'Victorian table glass and ornaments', London, 1978
Collection
Ceramics Collection
Accession number
CIRC.792-1969

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O345317/paperweight-allen--moore/
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