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.
Sources consulted:
- Brooks, Robin (Robin Jeremy). The Portland Vase : the Extraordinary Odyssey of a Mysterious Roman Treasure. 1st ed. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2004.
- Larson, Katherine A. “Portland-Mania!” [S.l: s.n.] (2017). https://blog.cmog.org/2017/05/12/darwin-wedgwood-portland-vase/.
- Northwood, John, II. John Northwood : His Contribution to the Stourbridge Flint Glass Industry, 1850-1902 . Stourbridge, England: Mark and Moody, 1958.
- ———. “Noteworthy Productions of the Glass Craftsman’s Art. The Reproduction of The Portland Vase.” Transactions of the Society of Glass Technology (1924).
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