Sulphide portrait glassware



Sulphide portrait glassware is blown, cut, and molded glassware usually made from lead crystal that encases an image that appears silver or white as if made from silver sulphide. Although sulphide is used to describe glass decorated in this manor, the silver or white image is actually a clay paste. This glass decorating style was created in Europe during the late 18th century. In the United States, Pittsburgh glass manufacturer Bakewell, Page and Bakewell was the main manufacturer of sulphide portrait glassware in the United States during the 1820s. At that time, the ornamentation style was known as cameo–incrustation or crystallo ceramie. This type of glassware became popular again during the middle of the 19th century.

Bakewell, Page and Bakewell used an unusual style for their sulphide portrait tumblers. The portrait was at the bottom of the tumbler, while the sides of the ware featured engravings. The men portrayed in these tumblers were famous historical figures, such as Marquis de Lafayette, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin. Also portrayed were current (early 1800s) politicians that that were champions of causes that favored domestic glass producing industry, such as Andrew Jackson and DeWitt Clinton.

Background
In the glass industry, a sulphide is a glass object that contains an image encased in the glass that appears as white porcelain. These images can also appear to be silver. The process for making a sulphide was developed in France by Barthélemy Desprez during the final quarter of the 18th century. In England, ceramic portrait medallions made by Josiah Wedgwood created interest in the production of portraits encased in glass. Apsley Pellatt received an English patent for the sulphide process in 1819. Sulphides were typically medallions or paperweights. They also were set in plaques of glass to be hung on a wall. Some were added to sides or bottoms of glassware such as tumblers, beakers, and bottles.

This type of glass ornamentation was most popular between 1815 and 1830. At the time, the objects were described as cameo–incrustation or crystallo ceramie. Historians at the end of the 19th century speculated that the silvery objects encased in glass were made of silver sulphide, although the objects were actually made of a clay paste. The name "sulphide", although not correct, has continued to be the term used to describe glass decorated using this method. Inserting the portrait, or cameo, into the glass was the most difficult part of the process. There could be no air bubbles between the cameo and the glass. The cameo needed to be white, which could give it a silvery appearance when viewing through the glass. Pellatt's cameos consisted of china clay, sand, and potash that were cast in molds and then baked to a hardness.

Bakewell, Page and Bakewell
Benjamin Bakewell moved to New York from London in 1793. In London he had been an importer of luxury goods, and he started the same type of business in his new home city. Bakewell was very familiar with French and English fashions and styles. Embargoes and blockades related to the Napoleonic Wars caused Bakewell to be bankrupt by January 1808. Later in the year, Bakewell and other partners formed a glass making company in Pittsburgh named Bakewell and Ensell. By September 1813, the company had already reorganized once, and it reorganized again under the name Bakewell, Page and Bakewell. Benjamin Bakewell and Benjamin Page were the partners, while Bakewell's son Thomas was a key employee. During 1825 the company employed 61 glassworkers plus 12 engravers and ornamenters. About $45,000 worth of glass products were produced.

During the early 19th century, Bakewell was one of the few producers of leaded crystal glassware in the United States, and Bakewell's major domestic competitors were located away from the western United States along the nation's east coast. Benjamin Bakewell continued to keep abreast of popular European luxury items, and he sought to produce glassware equal in quality to that of Europe's best glassmakers. At times he would present gifts of glassware, knowing that the publicity would benefit his company. Strategic gifts caused presidents James Monroe and Andrew Jackson to order Bakewell glassware for the White House.

Beginning in 1824, American Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette toured the United States, and his visit to Pittsburgh during May 1825 included a tour of Bakewell's glass works. Capitalizing on Lafayette's popularity, Bakewell produced both commemorative tumblers and tumblers with a sulphide portrait of Lafayette in its base. A sulphide tumbler was also produced of another Revolutionary War hero, Senator (and future president of the United States) Andrew Jackson. Other sulphide glassware known to have been made by Bakewell included images of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and DeWitt Clinton. Clinton was a champion of transportation infrastructure projects such as the Erie Canal, which benefited glass producers by lowering transportation costs.

The American production of sulphide portrait glassware is thought to have ended a few years after 1825, and Bakewell is the only American company known to have produced it in significant quantities during that period. Bakewell's major rival, New England Glass Company, did not advertise anything similar. Sulphide glassware remained popular in Europe, but did not revive in the United States until the 1850s. There is no evidence that Bakewell was involved in sulphide portrait glassware in the 1850s, and those sulphide portrait bottles and paperweights are thought to have been produced by factories from New England and New Jersey.