books (Q to Z)

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Click on any of the above to take you to titles beginning with that letter

Registration numbers 1908 - 1945
Jim D Edgley, 1996 (The Glass Association, no ISBN number, £5.00)
An essential tool, that carries on the list where Jenny Thompson left off.

Saint Louis - from Glass to Crystal (from 1586 to today)
Gérard Ingold, 1986 (Editions Denoël, 2-207-23290-5, price unknown)
The author ran the company for many years, and was responsible (amongst other things) for re-introducing paperweight production in the 20th Century. Beautifully illustrated, and a useful dating aid - essential for the collector of French glass - but it's a pity that the rather stilted translation was not better done (many thanks to Colin Moran for lending us his copy of this book to review - they are hard to find!)

Scent Bottles
Alexandra Walker, 1996 (Shire publications Ltd, 0-85263-909-0, £2.25)
Probably the best of the Shire's guides on glass-related subjects. Plenty of illustrations.

Schneider
Edith Mannoni, c 1996 (Editions Charles Massin, 2-7072-0191-X, about £30.00)
Everything you ever wanted to know about Schneider glass; pretty good translation of the French text & superbly illustrated, including sketches of patterns. (Strangely, nowhere in the book does it say when it was published! I think my estimated date is about right)

Scottish Paperweights
Robert G Hall, 1999 (Schiffer, 0-7643-0828-9, £39.95)
The estimable Bob Hall again, doing for Scottish paperweights what he has already done for Old English ones. Keep up the good work!

"75 Years of Diverse Glass-making to the World"
(A celebration of Nazeing Glass Works, 1928 - 2003, and exploration of their Victorian origins)
Geoffrey C Timberlake, 2003 (£22.00, privately published - enquiries to Geoffctim@btinternet.com)
Sorry, Geoff, but what a ponderous title! Why not something a little snappier, like "Amazing Nazeing"? Nevertheless, a much needed, and well researched, source-work on the hitherto little-considered Nazeing Glass Works in England. Lots of good illustrations - shame that budgetary constraints resulted in the book being in ring-bound, loose-leaf form. An essential tool for the collector and dealer

Sotheby's Concise Encyclopedia of Glass
David Battie & Simon Cottle, 1991 (Conran Octopus, 1-85029-654-5, £19.99)
Yes! Good layout, text, illustrations & appendices. Definitely worth having (if you can find one)

Sottsass, Glass Works
Marino Barovier & others, 1998 (Links for Publishing, 1-902535-01-4, price unknown)
As with the Tagliapietra book, there is one (beautiful) piece from 1947, the rest is all stuff he did for Memphis (not really my personal cup of tea) from 1974 onwards. Where is the stuff Ettore Sottsass did in the 50s and 60s?

Sowerby - Gateshead glass
Simon Cottle, 1986 (Tyne & Wear CC Museums, 0-905974-27-1, price unknown)
The book for Sowerby fans. Everything you ever wanted to know, plus photos, colour-plates, illustrations and registered designs. (Simon Cottle is the Sotheby's expert on antique glass.)

Swedish Glass Factories, Production Catalogues 1915 - 1960
Helmut Ricke & Lars Thor, 1987 (Prestel, 3-7913-0804-1, £120.00)
Now out-of-print, but If you collect or deal in Orrefors or Kosta, sooner or later (like us!) you're going to have to bite the bullet and obtain a copy of this rather expensive tome. Light reading it ain't - just page upon page of reproduced catalogues. Two-thirds of the book is Orrefors, and three-quarters of the remainder is Kosta.The rest is made up of catalogues from Elme, Eda and Strömbergshyttan.

Tagliapietra, A Venetian Glass Maestro
Marino Barovier, 1998 (Links for Publishing, 1-902535-00-6, price unknown)
Stunning glass, but all of it dates from 1995 or later. What about all the fantastic stuff Lino Tagliapietra designed in the 50s & 60s? Very disappointing, same as the Sottsass book

Treasures in your home
Edited by Michael Wright, 1993 (Reader's Digest, 0-276-42038-1, price unknown)
Another general book like Miller's "Understanding antiques". but the section on glass contains some useful tips and information for the beginner.

20th Century Factory Glass
Lesley Jackson, 2000 (Mitchell Beazley, 0-85732-267-3, £40.00)
An excellent, well-illustrated source book with information on 98 major glassworks, from Åfors to Zeleznobrodské Sklo, with an extensive section on factory-marks. However, it is infuriatingly incomplete, and I can't figure out the criteria for inclusion. For example, there are no entries for either Greener & Co or Etling (to name but two), and yet it includes a small atelier like Argy-Rousseau.

20th Century glass
Mark Cousins, 1989 (The Apple Press, 1-85076-179-5, £8.95)
An informative book on the subject, but the illustrations (as always!) are only of masterpieces.

20th Century Murano Glass (from craft to design)
Marc Heiremans, 1996 (Arnoldsche, 3-925369-63-5, price unknown)
Really, this is a supplement to the same author's "Art Glass from Murano, 1910-1970", but is a good book in its own right, with an excellent section on labels & signatures. Good photos, though the text is necessarily limited, as it appears in six languages!

Venetian glass, 1890 - 1990
Rosa Barovier Mentasti, 1992 (Arsenale Editrice, 88-7743-119-9, about £45.00)
A detailed analysis of the development of Venetian glass over the last 100 years (the foreword goes right back to its origins). Excellent for developing a "feel" for dating Murano glass.

Venetian glass: 20th Century Italian Glass
Various contributors, 2000 (Edizioni Charta, 1-890385-05-0, about £45.00)
The book of the exhibition of the collection of Americans Nancy Olnick & Giorgio Spanu, held in 2000 at the American Craft Museum in New York. A sumptuously produced and illustrated book, with lots of very yummy pieces (many of which I have not seen previously elsewhere) and quite a lot of information on Murano glass designers, blowers and companies.

Venetian Glass - Confections in Glass, 1855 - 1914
Sheldon Barr, 1998 (Harry N Abrams Inc, 0-8109-3939-8, about £25.00)
An excellent book that complements Rosa Barovier Mentasti's by illustrating many more examples of late 19th Century Venetian glass (around 100 colour plates). Helpful in dating specimens.

Venini Glass
Franco Deboni (Umberto Allemandi, 88-422-1151-6, about £25.00 in UK)
Many of the photos have been published elsewhere, although there is some interesting text. The most useful section is the complete 62-page reproduction of the manufacturer's "blue catalogue", illustrating pieces made between 1921 and 1936, many of which (especially the early ones) would not have been signed

Victorian catalogue of household goods, The
Edited by Dorothy Bosomworth, 1991 (Studio Editions, 1-85170-638-0, price unknown)
A fascinating reproduction of a massive 1883 catalogue of a London wholesaler. Contains all sorts of intriguing (and frequently amusing) things, and a fair amount of old glass (mostly imported, I think).

Victorian Decorative Glass - British Designs, 1850 - 1914
Mervyn Gulliver, 2002 (Schiffer, 0-7643-1597-8, $79.95)
An excellent book on late Victorian hand-blown glassware, mainly British. Well illustrated, with clear text, and a very useful section on Registered Designs of the period. Having said that, the author will only specify a manufacturer when there is documentary evidence to that effect, and this means that too many of the illustrated pieces are unattributed. Given the lack of such surviving evidence, I believe it is quite legitimate for an expert author to provide "possible" or "probable" attributions also (where he genuinely has an opinion), even though hard evidence may be absent. Having parted with good money to buy the book, the reader is entitled to expect even a "hunch"!

Whitefriars Glass - James Powell & Sons of London
Wendy Evans, Catherine Ross & Alex Werner, 1995 (Museum of London, 0-904818-56-X, about £50)
The book on Powell/Whitefriars. An essential reference book for the dealer or specialist collector.

Whitefriars glass - the art of James Powell & Sons
Edited by Lesley Jackson, 1996 (Richard Dennis, 0-903685-40-X, about £30.00)
Less comprehensive than the above, but highly informative and well-illustrated nevertheless - and a darned sight easier to carry around! A must for the dealer.

Wiener Werkstätte
Gabriel Fahr-Becker, 1995 (Benedikt Taschen Verlag, 3-8228-8571-1, price unknown)
Only 20 pages specifically on glass, unfortunately, but very interesting.

WMF Ikora & Myra Gläser/Glass
Carlo Burschel & Heinz Scheiffele, 2003 (Arnoldsche, 3-89790-189-7, price about £35.00)
If you collect WMF art glass, you have to have this one. A wealth of information, beautifully illustrated

World Paperweights: Millefiori &Lampwork
Robert G Hall, 2001 (Schiffer, 0-7643-1349-5, US $39.95)
Another well-illustrated paperweight book, perhaps not quite as comprehensive as the author's earlier "Scottish Paperweights" and "Old English Paperweights", but a valuable source-work

Ysart glass
Ian Turner, Alison J Clarke & Frank Andrews, 1990 (Volo Editions, 0-9514465-1-7, £110.00 new or about £80.00 second-hand)
The book on Monart, containing all the patterns and a good selection of illustrations. Not so comprehensive on Vasart and Strathearn, but definitely worth having. Frank Andrews has kindly written to tell us that additional information can now be found at www.ysartglass.com

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