John Baker's Late 17th-Century Glasshouse at Vauxhall

by Tyler, Kieron; Willmott, Hugh

• ISBN13: 9781901992441
• ISBN10: 1901992446
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-06-27
• Publisher: David Brown Book Co

Summary

John Baker's Thameside glasshouse in Vauxhall is the first of London's 17th-century glasshouses to be excavated. This publication describes the finds from the site, demonstrates how Vauxhall competed with London's other glasshouses and discusses London's late 17th-century glass industry. The glasshouse opened sometime between 1663 and 1681, and had closed by 1704. Excavations in 1989 found a furnace, crucibles, tools, working waste and finished vessels. Vauxhall was operating when lead crystal was first being made in England but it produced vessels for a proven market: wine bottles, green-glass vessels and fine wares. The remains of a well-preserved 17th-century bargehouse were also recorded at the site.

Table of Contents

List of figures	p. ix
List of tables	p. xi
Summary	p. xii
Acknowledgements	p. xiii
Introduction
Location and circumstances of fieldwork	p. 1
Organisation of the report	p. 1
Textual and graphical conventions in this report	p. 1
Geology and topography	p. 4
Historical summary	p. 4
Background	p. 4
The bargehouse (constructed between 1643 and 1649)	p. 5
Industry at Vauxhall	p. 7
The glasshouse (constructed 1663-81, discused by 1704, demolished by 1706)	p. 8
London's late 17th- and early 18th-century glass industry	p. 10
In the glasshouse	p. 14
Raw materials	p. 14
Glass preparation	p. 15
Crucibles	p. 15
Vessel formation and finishing processes	p. 15
The archaeological sequence
Introduction	p. 19
Pre-glasshouse activity on the site, before c 1650 (period 1)	p. 20
Introduction	p. 20
A ditch and ?well in trench C	p. 20
The glasshouse and broadly contemporary activity on the site, c 1650-c 1700 (period 2)	p. 20
Introduction	p. 20
Dumps (OA2, OA3) and ditches, pits, postholes and other cuts	p. 21
The river wall (S1)	p. 25
The bargehouse (B1)	p. 26
A brick building (B2) and other brick-built structures (S2-S5)	p. 27
A fritting oven (S6)	p. 30
A glass furnace (S7)	p. 32
A compartmentalised store (S8)	p. 36
A second brick building (B3) and other brick-built structures (B4, S9-S12)	p. 37
After the glasshouse: 18th-century activity on the site (period 3)	p. 39
Introduction	p. 39
Dumps, brick-built foundations and surfaces, a ditch and a pit (OA4-OA10)	p. 39
The glass from Vauxhall: analysis of the excavated material
Evidence for the manufacturing process	p. 41
Raw materials	p. 41
Fritting	p. 42
Crucibles	p. 42
Evidence for glass vessel formation and finishing	p. 47
Working waste (soda-based glass, and high-lime and low-alkali glass)	p. 48
The glass manufactured at Vauxhall	p. 51
Wine bottles (high-lime low-alkali glass)	p. 55
Other green-glass vessels (high-lime low-alkali glass)	p. 56
Pink-tinted fine wares (soda-based glass)	p. 56
Clear-glass fine wares (soda-based glass)	p. 58
The Vauxhall glasshouse: conclusions
Introduction	p. 60
The Vauxhall glasshouse: its place in the market	p. 60
Innovation and technology	p. 62
The end of the Vauxhall glasshouse	p. 63
Vauxhall: a step towards a research agenda for London's glass industry	p. 63
Specialist appendices
The crucible fabrics	p. 64
Petrology	p. 64
Chemical composition	p. 67
A summary of vessel glass not manufactured at the site	p. 67
Vessel glass catalogue	p. 68
Vessel glass not manufactured at the site	p. 68
Glass manufactured or possibly manufactured at the site	p. 70
The ICPS analysis of the glass	p. 74
Introduction	p. 74
Soda-based glasses	p. 74
High-lime low-alkali glasses	p. 77
Lead glasses	p. 78
Summary	p. 78
French and German summaries	p. 79
Bibliography	p. 81
Index	p. 84
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