Molineaux Webb Unregistered Pressed Glass
There are three main sources of information on unregistered items
- The Molineaux Webb pressed glass catalogue, produced circa 1870
- Company adverts in the Pottery Gazette
- Items passed down through family members to museums.
Furthermore, one can make speculative attributions from glass made in the style of the Manchester glass houses.
This section presents the majority of the Pressed Glass catalogue, some speculative attributions, and a round up of other sources.
Molineaux Webb Pressed Glass Catalogue
Images from the catalogue of unregistered items have been sorted into the following categories
Notes on the Catalogue
The Molineaux Webb Pressed Glass Catalogue was found by Siegmar Geiselberger of Pressglas-Korrespondenz magazine and the full version in original format can be seen in edition PK 2008-3. The catalogue consists of 24 pages of lithographic illustrations with a title page as seen above. The outer cover is missing, but we can be sure it is by Molineaux Webb as it contains the majority of their registrations from the 1864 to 1869 period. The catalogue was made in Manchester by Clough & Co, lithographic printers.
The catalogue is a treasure trove of early pressed glass designs, and contains items dating from roughly 1835 to 1870, though it would have been used as an active document for much longer than that. It is the only printed catalogue known to exist from the firm, but several survive from sister company Percival & Vickers. They produced a principal cut and pressed catalogue in 1881, which was later supported by additional supplements, including items specific to the electroplate and lighting trades. It is probable that Molineaux Webb produced similar documents, long since lost.
The catalogue uses a numbering system, which is a little cryptic at times. Items of the same type are numbered within a range, for example, candlesticks go from 490 upwards. The lowest numbered items from within a range were produced first. There are numbers missing in the range of items - this could be because some designs had been discontinued by the time the catalogue was printed. The catalogue was not comprehensive though - it omits a few registrations from the pre 1870 period, and we have found a few unregistered items, not in the catalogue, which are highly likely to come from Molineaux & Webb, suggesting that some designs were more widely applied than shown, perhaps to the point of making up a full tableware set.
Many thanks to Siegmar Geiselberger for permission to use the catalogue images.
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