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and manufacturing techniques resulted in new and Opulent glass dressing room accessories, including
better types of glass, from windowpanes and mirrors a magnificent gilded silver dressing table set, with a
to heavy, clear ‘crystal’ tableware, perfectly suited to looking glass as its centerpiece, made in about 1700
the tastes and needs of Britain’s growing urban elite for the 1st Countess of Portland; perfume bottles,
whose wealth derived from new enterprises in patch boxes, and an exquisite blue glass casket richly
finance, manufacture, international trade, and mounted in gilded metal, used in the “toilette” a
colonial expansion,” explains Maxwell. semi-public ritual of dressing which was adopted
The smooth, “polished” and reflective properties from France for men and women alike and became a
of glass perfectly embodied 18th-century ideals of feature of British aristocratic life in the 18th Century.
sociability. As urban centers grew in size and prosperity,
sociability became ever more sophisticated. The Glass Drawing Room for the
terms “polite” and “polished” were often used
C. Dorflinger & Sons (1881-1921) interchangeably in the numerous etiquette manuals Duke of Northumberland
grapefruit bowl circa about 1900- eagerly read by those wishing to take their place in Over the course of the 18th Century, domestic
1920 Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Lyon, 88.4.44 the polite world. Examples of such literature will be interiors were transformed by the increasing presence
displayed alongside fashionable glass of the period, of clear and smooth plate glass. A remarkable example
including embroidered costume, mirrors, a chandelier, is the lavish drawing room designed by the celebrated
cut glass lighting, and tableware, and paste jewelry British architect Robert Adam for Hugh Percy,
that accessorized and defined the lives of the 1st Duke of Northumberland (1714-1786) and his
“polished” elite. wife, Duchess Elizabeth Percy (1716-1776), and
completed in 1775. This unique room, measuring
And the Not So Polite 36 by 22 feet, was paneled between dado rail and
architrave with red glass panels sprinkled on the
It was not just in the market for luxury goods that reverse with flakes of metal foil, like large-scale
highly regarded European glass, such as Venetian, glitter. Similarly spangled green glass pilasters, large
held a place. An article in the St. James’s Chronicle French looking-glasses, and intricate neo-classical
titled “Browne’s Discoveries in Africa” reported on ornament in gilded lead completed the dazzling
the various “currencies” that fueled the slave trade: scheme. The room was altered in the 1820s
“Among the Southern countries, to which the Jelabs, and finally dismantled in the 1870s, when
or Slave Merchants, of Dar-Fur travel, Dar-Rulla is Northumberland House was demolished. Many of
one of the most considerable. The natives of
Pair of “Harlequin” earrings, the panels were acquired by the V&A Museum in
cut glass; silver. Probably England, Rulla sell a male slave of 14 years of age for 12 the 1950s, but their poor condition meant that they
about 1760. Each: H. 8.5 cm, pounds of salt; a female slave of the same age, nearly could only be partially displayed. The panels on
W. 3.4 cm, D. 1.7 cm brings 15 pounds of the same commodity. Venetian display at The Corning Museum of Glass incorporate
The Corning Museum of Glass (2017.2.3). glass beads and tin rings are in general esteem among newly-conserved elements from the V&A’s stores.
them.” Such an account reminds us that at the heart
of Britain’s international mercantilism
was an abominable trade in human life.
While glass played a prominent
and magnificent role in accessorizing
the lives of the elite, it played a more
illicit role in generating the prosperity
that supported the diversification of
material culture during that time.
From the aristocratic shareholder
to the humble tea merchant, slavery
and colonialism were woven into
the fabric of the country’s economy,
Wine or cordial glasses, cut and and glass was not immune from
engraved lead glass. England, about this association.
1780. Each: H. 15.8 cm

The Corning Museum of Glass (51.2.209B–D). Robert Adam (1728–1792), design for the end
About the Exhibit
wall of the drawing room at Northumberland
While the stage continues to be set for this House, 1770–1773. Pen, pencil, and
immersive exhibit by taking into consideration the colored washes, including pink, verdigris,
history, technologies, refined taste, and circumstances and Indian yellow on laid paper.
of happenstance, In Sparkling Company: Glass and H. 51.6 cm, W. 102.1 cm. Sir John Soane’s
Museum, London (SM Adam, volume 39/7). photo: © Sir John
Social Life in Britain during the 1700s will include
Soane’s Museum, London. Photography by Ardon Bar Hama.
important examples of 18th Century British glass,
including: (detail)
Glass embroidered costume: a spectacular men’s Step Into the Picture
coat intricately decorated with glass “jewels” made In Sparkling Company will feature a virtual reality
around 1780; a pair of women’s shoes covered in reconstruction of the drawing-room, created by Irish
glass beads; shoe buckles set with glass paste jewels; production house Noho. Visitors to the exhibition
jewelry and other accessories. will be transported into the interior, experiencing the
Cut glass lighting and tableware, all made possible original design scheme – last seen almost 200 years
through the perfection of British lead “crystal” in the ago. The exhibition will include a specially created
late 1600s and exported throughout Europe and the virtual reality reconstruction of the remarkable and
British colonies in America and beyond.
Claret Decanter Crystal City pattern, innovative spangled-glass drawing-room completed
J. Hoare & Company and Gorham Large mirrors, which became the tell-tale sign in 1775 for Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of
Manufacturing Company, Corning, of a fashionable interior, and reverse-painted glass Northumberland (1714-1786), and designed by
NY, and Providence, RI, circa 1892. meticulously decorated in China for the British Robert Adam (1728-1792), one of the leading
The Corning Museum of Glass (2014.4.14). luxury market. architects and designers in Britain at the time.
24 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles