Engraving on glass produced in the United Kingdom had many particularly notable proponents in the Georgian, Regency and early Victorian eras. There were some marvellous engravers such as Absolom, numerous itinerant Bohemians and the many Jacobite engravers their finely executed symbols attest to their capabilities – but few of them were known by name, with anonymity often being the watchword in those seditious times.
In the mid 19th century, there were equally as many fine examples of engravings on rummers, in particular, but the many very well executed ships, masonic displays, bridges and architectural motifs which proliferated somehow lacked the inspirational creativity, the innate artistic feel of earlier diamond-point work from – for instance – the Netherlands and Liege.
This slightly industrial, prosaic approach was to persist until the latter part of the century, when immigrant craftsmen began to arrive from Bohemia – sometimes Italy – and began to demonstrate their more naturalistic flair, appropriately at around the same time that the Arts & Crafts movement began to curry public favour.
These artists, following the path trodden by earlier Huguenot glassworkers, first settled in and around the West Midlands – notably the glasshouses of Stourbridge, and one of these was a fellow by the name of Joseph Keller who secured work at the Stevens & Williams factory. As with most of his compatriots, Keller was particularly skilled at working at a copper wheel engraving lathe – technology which had been developed in his homeland.
Keller was renowned as a skilled craftsman, but was often said to lack the ability to conceive and compose really striking designs. This, though, does not sit very easily alongside the fact that he compiled and published several compendious reference books which were the go-to resources for his contemporaries.
What this did mean, though, was that his name became synonymous with high quality engraving, whether or not he was actually the man who sat at the lathe and produced the pieces himself – which seems to, retrospectively at least, balance out the apparent lack of credit he got at the time.
Our pair of engraved wine glasses – typically – cannot be directly attributed to Keller personally, but they are still very fine examples of his canon, and illustrate the quality of his designs.
