WATERFORD CRYSTAL
This innovative Irish brand began life over 230 years ago and, despite some ups and downs in its fortunes, the company continues to produce exquisite glassware using the same traditional tools and techniques
Just before midnight at the New Year’s Eve countdown in New York’s Times Square, millions watch as a crystal ball, measuring 12 feet across, descends gently on a metal pole. The orb is made from more than 2,600 individually decorated crystal panels and was created by Waterford in Ireland to take centre stage at celebrations that have a global audience. It’s a memorable moment for the factory but not an unprecedented one. The company has played a starring role in New York’s celebrations every year since 2000.
Founders George and William Penrose could not have imagined such a stage for the enterprise they created more than two centuries earlier. ‘The fact that Waterford was founded at all was something of a gamble,’ says glass dealer Mark West. ‘In the late 18th century, taxes were dropped on Irishmade glass, but remained on that made in England. So Irish industrialists seized their opportunity.’
George and William Penrose chose a location in the heart of the harbour city for their new enterprise. As members of a prosperous Quaker family, with various local businesses, they knew li!le about the mysteries of glassmaking, but they didn’t let inexperience stand in their way. They started with aplomb in 1783, enlisting an experienced Stourbridge maker along with a team of skilled British cra"smen. In their #rst year, they spent £10,000 on se!ing-up costs and employed between 50 to 70 people. ‘The
public may be supplied with all kinds of cut !int glass, useful and ornamental,’ the Dublin Evening Post announced.
For the next two decades the factory !ourished. ‘They developed pa"erns not used in England. You get a band of so# shallow facets cut on a decanter or bowl, which we call brickwork cu"ing,’ says Tim Osborne, Director of Delomosne & Son. ‘They also favoured a pa"ern called husk and they produced shapes like turnover bowls, which could be circular or oval, and the turnover part is nearly always cut with a mitre pa"ern.’
Marketing was always a cornerstone of business strategy. Waterford’s reputation was boosted by supplying glass to George III and exporting to a wide international market. In 1799, 40,000 glasses were exported to New York alone. But changes in tax laws didn’t help. ‘The market for Irish glass diminished as the 19th century progressed,’ says Mark. Waterford exhibited a lavishly cut centrepiece at the Great Exhibition in 1851, but closed the same year.
A century was to pass before the name was revived. Soon a#er the end of the Second World War, Charles Bacik, a Czech immigrant, established a glassworks in the city. Bacik employed skilled Eastern European cra#smen and developed designs based on those in the original pa"ern books. In the 1950s, Waterford became a benchmark of quality crystal. It became a public company in 1966, merging with Wedgwood two decades later. The company went into receivership in 2009, but the story doesn’t end there. It was taken over by a US private equity $rm, and then by Fiskars. Waterford is still producing glass today using traditional handmade techniques and focusing on a mission: ‘to retain the narrative around a rich history, cra#smanship and heritage, but ensure relevance for today’s lifestyles’.
For keen collectors of antique glass, Waterford’s appeal is strong, but identi$cation isn’t straightforward. ‘Cork Glass Company, Waterloo Glass Company, Francis Collins of Dublin and Benjamin Edwards of Belfast were all key producers and overlap with Waterford. So we tend to call it Irish glass unless it’s marked,’ says Tim. It’s the colour, feel and idiosyncrasies of Irish glass that collectors $nd a"ractive. ‘Most is quite dark in colour, and generally there’s a slightly bluish tinge that varies in intensity.’ The cu"ing tends to be deep, so glass feels heavy when you handle it, ‘and, compared with English cu"ing, it also tends to be pre"y casual, and there are o#en irregularities,’ says Tim. ‘But that’s what people like.’
Prices have levelled recently but the market for Irish glass has proved resilient and prices tend to be higher in Ireland. ‘Water jugs are £500 to £800, decanters £900 to £1,100, glasses £100 to £200 or so, depending on pa"ern,’ says Tim. The market for marked 20th-century pieces, especially Jasper Conran or John Rocha designs, is also robust. ‘On eBay, single glasses fetch £20 a stem,’ adds Mark. Provenance also impacts on price. In 2014, Bearnes Hampton & Li"lewood sold a collection of glass consigned by a descendent of the Penrose family, and one decanter made £4,700. To Nic Saintey of Bearnes, this isn’t surprising: ‘Anything that transports alcohol and has managed to stay intact 150 years later was either treasured or $t for purpose. Its survival is a minor miracle.’