Real Bristol Blue Glass

Very little of the so called "Bristol Blue" glass was made in Bristol, mostly being made in Stourbridge or Newcastle.  However the above piece is genuine Bristol Blue.  It is a wine glass wine glass rinser or cooler, made by Isaac Jacobs at the Nonsuch glass works c1810.  Its diameter is 4.1 inches (10.4 cm).  Note the signature on the base, it is unusual to find indentification marks on glass.

A modern copy of the Jacob's piece made by Bristol Glass.  You can visit the factory, view this copy and see glass being made in the traditional way. The origin of the term "Bristol Blue" glass is uncertain, partcularly since little of it was actually made in Bristol.  G B Hughes believed that William Cookworthy, the Plymouth chemist, imported the cobalt smalt into Bristol sometime after February 1763.  This is untrue, Cookworthy had no connection with Bristol until the transfer of his porcelain factory, from Plymouth, in 1770, and even then he never lived in Bristol.  The only mention of cobalt in his surviving letters refers to Cornish cobalt. However on 27th January 1753 John Tagg, a blue maker, of St Maryport Street, advertised cobalt smalt in Bristol.  Even before that Edward Clayton is recorded as a "stone blue maker" on 30th October 1750, when his son was apprenticed to a pewterer.  On 5th January 1754 Cornish blue, from St Columb, used in coloring earthenware and making glass, was also advertised in Bristol.  Samples wre available from Nicholas Bishop in Broad Street.  Cornelius Bastable, on 19th October 1765, advertised that he was a manufacturer of stone blue and smalts.  He lived in Penn Street.  Sketchley's directory of 1775 lists William Francis, a blue maker, of 109 Thomas Street; and Peter Holland a blue maker, gained the freedom of the city in 1782 on payment of 12 guineas.  On 20th March 1819 a manufacturer in Avon Street, Great Gardens, advertised that regent blue was brought to perfection and that it was superior to other blues.  It was also sold by R F Ring at the pottery coal wharf, and he was probably the manufacturer.  A James Symonds, described as a blue maker, voted from St Paul's in 1830.  Some of these later "blues" may have been used for laundry rather than colouring pottery and glass.  Perhaps "Bristol Blue" derived from the fact that the blue was manufactured in Bristol (from Cornish cobalt), rather than the import of the raw material.