Title: Mid-Century English Tudor Crystal Biscuit Barrel With Lid.
Maker: Tudor Crystal
Period: Mid-20th Century.
Place: London, England.
Offered is a fine etched crystal biscuit barrel with lid, features scallop shape facets surround and at rim, accented by a starburst pattern at top lid and foot, acid etched "Tudor England" on bottom.
Measures: 4.25 D x 6.5 H inches.
About the Maker: Tudor Crystal was the name used for their glass by Stourbridge Glass Company Ltd who opened their glassworks in Audnam, Stourbridge in 1922. This company had its origins during the previous year, when a number of senior staff Thomas Webb & Sons (Stourbridge), including the long-serving Managing Director Congreve Jackson, became discontent with changes at the newly formed Webbs Crystal Glass (with its London Head Office).
Several artists, craftsmen and officers left Webbs in 1922 to join the Stourbridge Glass Company, and more followed in the next few years. It would be fair to say that the new company started out with the stars of the old firm, a highly skilled and motivated team, intent on producing the highest quality crystal glassware.
The new team included craftsmen and artists who had worked and trained with some of the greatest names in English glass. They had worked with or been trained by Frederick Carder and his brother George, who were both involved in teaching at the Wordsley School of Art and Technical Institute, before Frederick left for the USA in 1903. George and Thomas Woodall and William Fritsche had also worked alongside some of the Tudor Crystal craftsmen at Thomas Webb's during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Harry Cuneen, who joined the Stourbridge Glass Company shortly after it opened became Artistic Director, had been George Carder's assistant at the Technical Institute just before the first World War. Jack Lloyd joined the company in 1927 and stayed with them until the mid 1970s, still working at the age of 95. His career as a designer/engraver started in the early 1890s, when he was an apprentice at Stevens & Williams.
The Company certainly succeeded in their aims of the highest quality crystal glassware. "Tudor Crystal" came to be used in royal households and government houses around the world, including for example, King Feisal in Baghdad.