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British Registered Design numbers (1842 to 1944)

introduction

The lists on the following pages are of Registered Design numbers allocated to glassware, which we hope may be of help in identifying the manufacturers of many marked pieces of glass

Marks on objects appear in the form of either a Registered Design lozenge or just a number, either moulded into pressed glass, or etched (with acid or diamond-point), gilded or enamelled on hand-blown glass. Each entry in our lists shows the Registered Design number, the name of the manufacturer (or importer, wholesaler or retailer) who registered the design, and the date of registration

N.B. A design might be in continuous production for many years after being registered, so dates should not be taken as dates of manufacture. Also, our lists only include designs for decorative glassware, and only those by major manufacturers, importers, wholesalers and retailers. They do not contain Registered Designs for much commercial glassware (i.e. items such as bottles, jars and scientific apparatus)

  • British Registered Design lozenges: Shows you how to decipher a Registered Design lozenge, and lists designs registered in Britain by major glass manufacturers, importers, wholesalers and retailers, from 1842 to 1883, when the lozenge system was in use

  • British Registered Design numbers: A list of Registered Designs which appear as numbers (usually prefixed by "Reg No." or "Rd No." or some variation), by major glass manufacturers, importers, wholesalers and retailers, from 1884 to 1944

    • The National Archives

    Full details of all Registered Designs are held by: The National Archives, Ruskin Avenue, Kew, Surrey TW9 4DU   website

    We are happy to publish the following information, which The National Archives has kindly provided:

    "The National Archives provides two research guides which may help with identifying records held within the holdings of Registered Design records:

    Registered Design leaflet 135 and Registered Design leaflet 136

    "The National Archives also accepts telephone, e-mail and written enquiries for the identification of document references within our holdings of Registered Designs (click here for contact details), and for those wishing to pay to have their item identified, we offer a paid search service (click here for details)

    "The National Archives Registered Design Volunteers Group is currently cataloguing all Registered Design records in full for entries held in BT 44 for the years 1842-1844. This cataloguing covers many subjects including glass, ceramics, textiles, wood and metalware. The information will be uploaded to The Catalogue during Winter 2008-Spring 2009. The entries will be fully searchable by date of registration, design number, manufacturer and description of object registered. The entries will include commercial glass items excluded from your online index. Cross referencing will also be available - e.g. a glass hyacinth vase (Class 3-Glass) mounted with a metal rim and bulb support (Class1-Metal)"

    They also report that "One individual travelled a considerable distance to research a Registered Design, only to find out that he could have paid to have the design researched by staff at The National Archives. The fee would have been considerably cheaper than his train fare!"

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