Last Updated: Oct 14, 2022     Views: 180

A violet-blue glass vase with two handles that depicts a single continuous white glass cameo scene of seven human figures, plus a large snake, and two bearded and horned heads below the handles, marking the break between the scenes.
Image: Replica of the Portland Vase, Red House Glass Works, John Northwood, and Philip Pargeter, Wordsley, England, 1873-1876, CMoG 92.2.7, bequest of Juliette K. Rakow; From the Cameo Glass Collection of Leonard S. Rakow and Juliette K. Rakow. 

John Northwood's replica of the Portland Vase (not the original vase) was damaged on a trip to London, but not on the trip to claim his £1,000 prize from his former employer, Benjamin Richardson. There are multiple accounts of the accident, but the most likely version appears in John Northwood II’s book on his father, John Northwood: His Contribution to The Stourbridge Flint Glass Industry 1850-1902.

The vase, when nearly finished, was being washed in warm water ready to be taken to London, for probably its last journey for comparison purposes, when it suddenly cracked and parted. This was undoubtedly due to the original fault in the difference in the coefficients of expansion of the two glasses—the opal and the dark blue. The carving had made the opal coating very irregular in its thickness, this rendered the vase more sensitive to any change in temperature and caused it to crack apart to relieve the strain already existing.

Working together with his patron, Mr. Pargeter (who had provided the glass blank for the project from his glassworks), Northwood was able to repair the vase, joining the pieces successfully together.  

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The Rakow Research Library will lend designated books from its collection and will send copies of articles on request from other libraries. Your local school, public, academic or special library can request items through the OCLC WorldShare Interlibrary Loan (ILL) system or by direct request through email at ill@cmog.org. For more information, please see our ILL website.

 

 

 

 

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