CAMEO, in its most correct sense, is a technique of carving or engraving,
in relief, on a gemstone usually composed of multiple layers of colors. The
carving on the stone is done so that the upper or outer figure area is in one
color of material while the background is in another color. The resulting object
is also called a cameo. The cameo brooch is common enough for most to be familiar
with it.
In Roman times the making of cameo carved gemstones was common. The wealth
that was evident in Republican Rome drew artisans from Greece and the Orient
to meet the demand of the Roman patrons. When glass technology improved sufficiently
around the middle of the first century B.C., cameo carving on glass became
popular. By using glass instead of gems, the carver no longer had to uncover
(and use to best advantage) the hidden layers in a gemstone. Instead the designer
could specify colors and thicknesses of glass to the glass blower and receive
a blank that he could readily use for his design.
Only thirteen ancient Roman cameo glass objects and a few miscellaneous fragments
exist today. Among these, the vessel known as
The Portland Vase, the most exquisitely
carved of the extant vessels, served to inspire the revival of cameo glass
production in England during the latter part of the nineteenth century.
Discovered late in the sixteenth century near Rome, The Portland Vase came
to be owned by Cardinal Del Monte whose heirs sold it around 1600 to Cardinal
Francesco Barberini, and thus came to be known originally as the Barberini
Vase. It remained in the Barberini family until around 1780 when it sold to
James Byres, a Scottish antiquary residing in Rome, who in turn sold it, in
1783, to Sir William Hamilton, British Ambassador to the Court of Naples. Hamilton sold it to the
Duchess of Portland (giving the vase its current name). When she died in 1785,
it was bought at auction by her son, the third Duke of Portland. In 1810 the
fourth Duke of Portland lent the vase to the British Museum, which purchased
it in 1945.
Although the vessel had been discovered intact and unchipped, in 1845, while
on display at the British Museum, it was smashed into over 200 fragments by
a madman, but it was restored that same year and again in 1945.
During the latter part of the eighteenth century, the attraction of the ancient
Greek and particularly Roman world was intense among the English. No young
man about to enter society was fully educated unless he had made the “Grand
Tour” of the ancient world. This penchant for the antique made itself
evident also, not only in the collecting of ancient objects. This tendency
led to interest in making copies of The Portland Vase.
The first attempt to copy The Portland Vase was made by Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795).
Borrowing the vase from the third Duke of Portland, immediately after the Duke
had acquired it, Wedgwood studied it to produce replicas in his “jasperware” pottery
material in 1790. These fifty replicas, of which one example can be found in
the British Museum, were made of a black jasper body with the figures in white
jasper. The first attempt to copy the vase in glass was made by Edward Thomason
and a Mr. Biddle at the Birmingham Heath Glassworks in 1818, but they failed to
complete the white casing.
It took Phillip Pargeter (1826-1906) and John Northwood I (1836-1902) to solve the problems of successfully copying The Portland Vase in glass.
The problem was two-fold. It was first necessary to develop the glass technology
that would allow the successful annealing, or fusing, of two different glass
metals together. The knowledge of making a translucent deep blue glass and
opaque white glass with similar coefficients of expansion had been lost to
Western civilization since the decline of the Roman Empire. Since different
metal substances were used to achieve the different glass colors, each color
of glass in turn had its own coefficient of expansion and contraction. If the
coefficients of expansion for adjacent layers of glass were too different from
each other, the object was unstable and would crack or even break suddenly
when subjected to changes in temperature. If a stable blank could be achieved,
a carver masterful enough to copy the figures from The Portland Vase would
have to be found.
Both Pargeter and Northwood worked at W.H., B., & J. Richardson, Stourbridge
during the time when Benjamin Richardson (1802-1887), generally regarded as “the
father of the glass trade” in Stourbridge, would inspire his workmen
to make a copy of The Portland Vase in glass. Walking in with one of Wedgwood’s
jasper copies, he would exclaim to the workmen, “There is a thousand
pounds for him who can produce that in glass.”
Pargeter took up the challenge
after he acquired the Red House Glass Works, Wordsley in 1869. Spending several
years of research and substantial amounts of his own money, he was eventually
able to produce a stable blank in the glass color of the original Portland
Vase, opaque white over a translucent deep or cobalt blue.
By the time Pargeter had already approached his cousin, John Northwood I, about
his endeavour to copy The Portland Vase, Northwood was in partnership with
his brother Joseph at this time at J. & J. Northwood, Wordsley where they
ran a small glass etching shop. Northwood had already begun experimenting with
the difficult technique of relief carving on glass. In 1864 he accepted a commission
from J.B. Stone which resulted in Northwood’s completion in 1873 of The
Elgin Vase, a two-handled vase, so called because the principal subject matter
(carved in relief) was taken from the famous frieze (the Elgin Marbles) which
had been removed from the Parthenon and taken to England. Because The Elgin
Vase was made of clear flint glass, the relief carving was not, technically
speaking, cameo work. The vase was nevertheless hailed as the most important
work in carved glass since Roman times.
By 1873, when Northwood had completed The Elgin Vase, Pargeter had succeeded
in making stable blanks for The Portland Vase copy. Northwood was immediately recruited
to perform the carving of the vase, and, beginning in 1873, he spent
the next three years on the arduous task of copying the famed vase.
He not
only used drawings he had made by studying the original and Wedgewood’s
jasper copy, but by special arrangement with the British Museum, he was able
to work on his copy directly in front of the original. It is generally known
that upon nearing completion, the vase cracked in two. The parts were reunited,
and the nearly completed Northwood replica of The Portland Vase was
exhibited at the Paris International Exhibition of 1876 to much acclaim.
Pargeter next designed and produced another blank for Northwood to carve. Because
the subject was taken from Milton’s "Paradise Lost," the vase became known
as The Milton Vase. Both Northwood and Parteger collaborated on the carving
of this vessel and completed the work in 1878.
By this time, however, Joseph
Locke, working for Benjamin Richardson, had produced his own replica of The
Portland Vase. Both Northwood’s Milton Vase and Locke’s Portland
Vase were exhibited at the Paris Exhibition of 1878, causing a sudden demand
for cameo carved glass objects.
By the end of that year many of the major glasshouses in the Stourbridge region
had established cameo glass sections to meet the demand. Among the major houses
to go into cameo glass production were Thomas Webb & Sons, Stourbridge,
and Hodgetts, Richardson & Sons, Wordsley. After Northwood became art director
at Stevens & Williams, Brierly Hill, that firm became one of the major
producers of cameo glass, second only to Webb’s.
According to George
Woodall, during the height of cameo glass production about seventy men were
assisting him and his brother, Thomas, and that as many as 150 men were involved
in production throughout the various firms in the district.
