Collectors Facts - Tiny Daisy, Edward Moore
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Shapes:
Creamer (small)
Butter dish
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Colours:
Vaseline
Marigold
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Some years ago we came across this exquisite little cream jug at an antique fair in Somerset. It stands just 2.5 inches high (a shade over 6cm) and features a pattern comprising tiny stylised daisy motifs and vertical ribs. The colour is a vivid vaseline with a marigold iridescence which allows the green of the glass to show strongly though. As you can see, the iridescence is strongest on the top part of the creamer and it fades away toward the bottom of the piece. The base is ground and has a multi-point star. It had the characteristics of a European item, and our “gut feel” was that it was English.
But who made it?
Recently we saw something that made us sit up and take notice—the website of the Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums. While searching their online collections we came across a clear flint glass example of our Tiny Daisy creamer, attributed to Edward Moore and Co., in South Tyneside, circa 1879-1890.
Edward Moore and Co. began producing glass at the Tyne Flint Glass Works in South Shields, Tyne & Wear in 1860. According to Moore expert, Angus McDonald from the South Shields Museum, Edward Moore had been working at Sowerby’s for the preceding decade, where he had no doubt honed his skills and gathered much experience. Angus McDonald describes Moore as a “great experimenter” who liked to use interesting colours.
He took out two patents in 1887 for unusual colours. The first one (Number 4821) was for “Improvements in the Manufacture of Opaque Glass of a Certain new Colour”. This was in respect of an opaque green that Moore called Eau de Nil (also referred to as celadon). He described this colour in his 1887 patent as “opaque glass of a soft shade of green” and the recipe included “oxide of uranium” which was, of course, also the colourant for vaseline glass.
Edward Moore and Co. is known for the use of uranium (vaseline) glass. As Angus McDonald noted, the heyday of the factory was from 1882 to 1891—this would have been the period when colour experiments were taking place and the patents were being lodged. We know of another iridised creamer in a well-known Moore pattern—Gadroon, shown below. Moore registered the Gadroon design in October 1886 (RD 58275) although it was probably in production a little before that date. The Gadroon creamer is in vaseline Carnival with a marigold iridescence which covers more of the glass than that on our Tiny Daisy.
But who made it?
Recently we saw something that made us sit up and take notice—the website of the Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums. While searching their online collections we came across a clear flint glass example of our Tiny Daisy creamer, attributed to Edward Moore and Co., in South Tyneside, circa 1879-1890.
Edward Moore and Co. began producing glass at the Tyne Flint Glass Works in South Shields, Tyne & Wear in 1860. According to Moore expert, Angus McDonald from the South Shields Museum, Edward Moore had been working at Sowerby’s for the preceding decade, where he had no doubt honed his skills and gathered much experience. Angus McDonald describes Moore as a “great experimenter” who liked to use interesting colours.
He took out two patents in 1887 for unusual colours. The first one (Number 4821) was for “Improvements in the Manufacture of Opaque Glass of a Certain new Colour”. This was in respect of an opaque green that Moore called Eau de Nil (also referred to as celadon). He described this colour in his 1887 patent as “opaque glass of a soft shade of green” and the recipe included “oxide of uranium” which was, of course, also the colourant for vaseline glass.
Edward Moore and Co. is known for the use of uranium (vaseline) glass. As Angus McDonald noted, the heyday of the factory was from 1882 to 1891—this would have been the period when colour experiments were taking place and the patents were being lodged. We know of another iridised creamer in a well-known Moore pattern—Gadroon, shown below. Moore registered the Gadroon design in October 1886 (RD 58275) although it was probably in production a little before that date. The Gadroon creamer is in vaseline Carnival with a marigold iridescence which covers more of the glass than that on our Tiny Daisy.
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We know that Edward Moore made vaseline glass, and that he was a colourist and an experimenter. We also know that Moore attended the 1873 World Expo in Vienna when he would have seen - and most probably have been inspired by - the iridised Art Glass made by Pantocsek at the Zahn factory, and by Lobmeyr. The techniques of creating iridescence on glass were known to him, as shown by the existence of a few, very rare, iridised examples of his glass. Moore’s factory was at the height of its innovations and colour experiments from 1882 to 1891 - the most likely time when Tiny Daisy and Gadroon pieces were made, because the circumstances and context would not have been right after 1891. The factory was totally destroyed and burned down to the cones in a catastrophic fire in 1891; damage was reported to have been assessed at £45,000 (around £5 million today) and 400 workers were made idle. Many of the moulds being used before the fire would likely have been rendered useless by such an intense blaze, and although the factory was rebuilt, the driving force that was Edward Moore, died a few years later and the factory closed in 1913. |
Gadroon creamer in vaseline Carnival
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Moulds were sold to George Davidson and Jules Lang, but Angus McDonald believes that Davidson remodelled some of them while Jules Lang never, in fact, used them. There is a strong argument that Tiny Daisy items and the Gadroon creamer were the first examples of press-moulded, iridised, patterned glass, made in the mid to late 1880s at Edward Moore’s Tyne Flint Glass Works in England--around fifteen years before Fenton made Carnival Glass.
Our hypothesis is that Moore probably made the iridised examples towards the end of this period, at which time he himself was at the peak of his creativity and experimentation.
Read more about the vital importance of the World's Fairs in the development of iridised glass.
See more Collectors Facts
Our hypothesis is that Moore probably made the iridised examples towards the end of this period, at which time he himself was at the peak of his creativity and experimentation.
Read more about the vital importance of the World's Fairs in the development of iridised glass.
See more Collectors Facts