Glasshouse of Jacopo Verzelini, 1522 - 1606
Goblet, 1578
Dark soda glass engraved by diamond point
C.4-1967
This goblet is one of the earliest securely dated examples of English glass. The year 1578 is engraved within a panel, surrounded by incised foliage. In another panel the letters AT and RT are intertwined – the initials of the otherwise anonymous couple whose marriage the glass was made to commemorate. A unicorn, two hounds and a stag run in a frieze around the rim.
The distinctive decoration allows us to recognize the goblet as a rare survival from the glasshouse of Jacopo Verzelini - although, paradoxically, the diamond-point engraving was the only aspect of the production that did not take place in the glasshouse itself. This was probably done by Anthony de Lysle, a Frenchman living in London.
Jacopo Verzelini had been born in Venice where the finest glass in Europe had been produced since the 13th century. Around 1500 Venetian glassmakers had developed cristallo glass which was clear, colourless and sparkled like crystal. This was highly prized throughout Europe and the near East.
Verzelini arrived in London in 1571 and joined the factory of Jean Carré at The Hall of the Crutched Friars in the City of London. The following year, after Carré’s death, he took charge of the factory and in 1574 Elizabeth I granted him exclusive rights for 21 years to produce 'Venetian' glass in England. Imports from Italy were forbidden, a ban that lasted until 1623 and which made Verzelini unpopular with London's tradesman.
This monopoly was strictly enforced: in 1581 a rival furnace was ordered to be demolished. But after Verzelini’s retirement in 1592 the patent for cristallo production was given to Sir Jerome Bowes, and Verzelini’s sons were both imprisoned for infringement of this man’s rights.
The popularity of crystalline glassware in Verzelini’s day is attested to in William Harrison’s, A Description of England, written in 1586:
“It is a world to see in these our days, wherein gold and silver most aboundeth, how that our gentility, as loathing those metals, do now generally choose rather the Venice glasses, both for our wine and beer … and as this is seen in the gentility, so in the wealthy communalty the like desire of glass is not neglected.”
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Information Branches (related to this work) |
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Signs and Symbols: The Meaning of Glass
Signs and Symbols: The Unicorn
