2022 has been designated the International Year of Glass by the United Nations. This year also marks 125 years since the publication of Albert Harshorne’s Old English Glasses, the first serious study of the history of English and Irish glass. To celebrate, the V&A is presenting a conference: Celebrating the Birth of English and Irish Crystal Drinking Glass, 1640 – 1702, in partnership with the Association for the History of Glass. This study day aims to explore the evolving story of the birth of these sophisticated products, a century before the ‘industrial revolution’ began.
The conference will be held at the V&A South Kensington on Thursday 6 October 2022. We invite submissions for 20-minute or 30-minute illustrated papers on any aspect of the supply, design, production, consumption, and analysis of British and Irish crystal glass drinking vessels, 1642 – 1702. Contributions could draw on a range of methodological perspectives including art history, history, archaeology, science technology, conservation, and historic making practices.
Topics could also include:
- Museum display and interpretation
- Documentary evidence of crystal glass vessels
- Studies of non-destructive analysis for crystal drinking vessels
- Influence of alchemy and scientific discovery
- Difference between English and Irish production
- Design, consumption patterns, dining culture
- Influence of the European glass vessel industry
- Historiography of the crystal glass vessel industry, especially how the story of the birth of English and Irish crystal glass has been told previously.
Please send your submission of no more than 300 words, together with a brief biography, by 4 April 2022, to: Colin Brain (cjsm132@gmail.com); Reino Liefkes (r.liefkes@vam.ac.uk); Dr Caroline McCaffrey-Howarth (c.mccaffreyhowarth@vam.ac.uk) .
