OX skulls and flowers James Giles's glass: although now remembered largely for his decoration on porcelain, the glassware of James Giles was the most luxurious, fashionable and expensive of its time, In the second of two articles, Andy McConnell examines the varied motifs that allow attributions to be made to this accomplished designer

The character of James Giles (1718-80) as a decorator of glassware has drawn out been overshadowed by the designs applied in his workshop to porcelain, greatest in quantity notably from the Worcester factory. Giles's insurance policies categorised him as a 'Glass & China man' and overspreaded stock comprising 'Glass, China and Earthenware'. (1) at the same time although glass consistently took priority in these descriptions, nearly sum of two units centuries elapsed before his designs upon glass began to be correctly attributed) The fault lies principally with Giles himself, who, for reasons unknown, placed little emphasis on glassware in his publicity and failed to sign his work. As a accrue his designs on glass were one time vaguely assigned to anonymous London or southerly Staffordshite workshops. However, of the 450 destinys described in the catalogue of his stock sold at Christie's in 1774 fifty were of glassware. These items included decanters, beakers, essence-bottle vials wash-hand bowls, sweetmeat saucers, epergne vases, lemonade goblets 'gugglets', (3) and 'four elegant make an incision in candlesticks enamel'd mosaik work true rich'.

The 1774 sale was held above five days to dispose of the 'Stock in Trade of Mr James Giles, Chinaman and Enameller, Quitting that Business'. at the same time although its catalogue's descriptions of the decoration of porcelain and glass were frequently identical, they did not evince that the latter had been decorated in Giles's workshop. However, by means of comparing these with examples of previously anonymous gilt and enamelled glassware, Robert Charleston, then keeper of ceramics and glass at the Victoria and Albert Museum, established an incontrovertible link. (4)

individual design, described in the 1774 catalogue as 'stags heads and patera, festoons of husks', appeared, identical in each detail, on opaque-white glass (Fig. 4) and upon Worcester porcelain known to have been decorated by dint of Giles (Fig. 6). Now referr to as the bucrania (ox-skull) pattern, its constituents originated in classical architecture, where they were used to adorn funeral records I have discovered that Giles's version was apparently drawn from a minute detail in Sir William Chambers's pattern volume A Treatise on the Decorative Part of Civil Architecture (1759) (Fig. 3)

[FIGURE 346 OMITTED]

In all cases, Giles's bucrania comprises curling ribbons descending from and surrounding the horns of the brain-pan intersecting garlands and large wheel-like paterae (Fig. 5) Underlining the similarity of treatment in the versions applied to the couple ceramics and glass, the direction of the leaves in the garlands changes direction at their upper and lower apexes in all its versions the one and the other on porcelain and glass.

[FIGURE 5 OMITTED]

Several dooms catalogued in the 1774 sale featured the bucrania, including three porcelain services, five glass vases and a pair of opaque-white decanters, now the rarest colour bearing Giles's decoration, apart from amethyst. Opaque white glass take delight ined brief popularity during the 1760 and 70 possibly inspired by means of Venetian lattimo glass plates bought by the agency of English Grand Tourists and because of its resemblance to more expensive porcelain. However, changes in excise legislation in 1777 made it more high-priced at a time when English porcelain production was rising and its price falling.

Giles also applied the bucrania in gold to colourless (5) and cerulean glass and it was engraved onto a wide range of colourless pieces (Fig. 6) The design of the engraved pattern was clearly translated directly from the porcelain and opaque-white glass versions. This prompts that Giles either employed an engraver or commissioned the series from an outside decorator, probably his associate, William Parker. Parker doubtless busyed engravers as well as cutter in his extensive workshop, and advertised 'Curious divide [i]or[/i] sever Engrav'd, & Plain Glass' upon his trade-card. Giles presumably bought his wound glassware from the same source before applying it with further decoration (Fig. 1) (6)

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Colourless utensils engraved with the bucrania include decanters, carafes, (7) finger-bowls, and at least three sizes of drinking glass. The decanters and carafes are wound around the neck, shoulders and base-rims, a feature normally absent from opaque-white versions. The opaque-white decanters have gilt decoration applied to all the positions occupied by means of cutting on the colourless individuals However, bands of basal scale-cutting appear upon a few opaque-white pieces, of the like kind as a sugarloaf decanter gilded with Hamilton 'vases and laurels', as described in Christie's 1774 catalogue. The wound scales contain stylised flowers of stamps found on other examples of Giles's work upon glass.

The glassware that has previously prov the greatest in quantity difficult to attribute definitively to Giles is a clump of flattened oval and lozenge-shaped coloured redolence bottles. These were retailed singly, as well as in multiples fitted into silver-wire or pierced pinchbeck cages, or as uncompounded bodys of ladies' etuis or necessaites (Fig. 2) (8) They are generally in amethystine green, white or occasionally amethyst glass, and are many times cut with shallow, concave empty diamonds. Their contents were sealed with tiny stoppers, sheltered beneath gold, silver-gilt or silver miser caps resembling sewing thimbles. Dating to around 1760-75 many bear delicate on the other hand thickly applied 'high-relief' polychrome enamelled flowers, exotic birds, fruit, chinoiseries and gilt-scrolled borders characteristic of contemporary Chelsea porcelain.