44 
House & Garden 
HOW to KNOW 
REAL WATERFORD 
Notes for the JVary Collector in 
His Search Jor Irish Glassware 
A. T. WOLFE 
An ice plate, showing the 
“double cutting” pattern, 
typical of good examples 
O URS is an age of connoisseurs; most 
people collect something and are able 
to produce, fluently and off-hand, expert 
knowledge of their own particular subject. 
Of late years the collecting of old glass has 
become exceedingly popular, and “Water¬ 
ford” has come into great prominence and 
realized sums that are an amazement to 
those who have been interested in Irish 
glass for the last quarter of a century. The 
collecting of antiques always offers pitfalls 
for the unwary, and with Irish glass, more 
than anything else, to be cocksure is to be 
rash. Detailed records of the work are 
scarce enough and somewhat 
confusing and obscure, and 
there is really no hard and 
fixed line by which “\\’ater- 
ford” can be marked off with 
certainty from the produc¬ 
tions of the Cork, Belfast, or 
Dublin glass-houses, unless 
the piece was stamped with 
its factory mark, and this 
was by no means invariable. 
Consignments would be 
passed from one factory to 
another; Cork and W'ater- 
ford sold to and exchanged 
with each other; the glass of 
the south would be sent to 
the north. for decoration; a 
batch of workmen would go 
to Cork or Waterford when 
times in Dublin were slack. 
so that the same patterns and methods went 
from factory to factory. Further, while 
Dublin, Belfast, and Cork had each their 
two or three glass-houses working steadily, 
Waterford for fifty or more years had but 
one, a fact which is hard to reconcile with 
the vast amount of glass which is labeled 
“^^nterford” to-day. On the whole, Irish 
glass is a better designation. 
The period in which the finest Irish 
glass was made covered about a century, be¬ 
ginning early in the 18th and lasting until 
the 19th was well advanced. In Belfast 
the work went on until about 1870, in Dub¬ 
lin till 1896. The famous Waterford glass¬ 
house was not established until about 1733, 
and came to an end in 1852 and the Cork 
factory in 1844. 
A more common design, 
found on this ice plate, 
shows the “dice cutting” 
The early manufacture of glass in Ire¬ 
land was encompassed with difficulty, and 
it says much for the pioneers that they man¬ 
aged to carry on in face of the unjust excise 
regulations, ^^'hen the restrictions on the 
export of Irish glass were withdrawn, con¬ 
ditions became easier, and soon quantities 
were being made and sent abroad, to North 
America, and the West Indies, Southern 
Europe and elsewhere. Waterford Harbor 
—“seated as well for trade as any in the 
world”—fulfilled its mission at that time, 
though its glories are now derelict. Drink¬ 
ing glasses—rummers, hobnobs, regents, 
dandies, and so on—were 
sent from Cork together with 
tableware and whole dessert 
services in cut glass. 
In general aspect, early 
Irish glass is not unlike En¬ 
glish glass of the same 
period. This is not surpris¬ 
ing; the glass works, to a 
great extent, were started and 
staffed by Englishmen, and 
the differences in method and 
appearance were brought 
about by natural conditions. 
In Waterford, for example, 
there is no flint, and accord¬ 
ingly sand, with an admix¬ 
ture of red lead, was substi¬ 
tuted, or the limestone of the 
district was crushed for the 
purpose. This resemblance 
Some of the Irish glass candelabra were developed 
into quite elaborate design. This example, for in¬ 
stance, seems almost too elaborate for its size 
A fine cut preserve far. 
The design is typical of 
good work, not common 
A fug of the familiar “beer 
jug” shape, both solid and 
satisfactory in its outline 
