Apsley Pellatt Glass
from the Glass
Encyclopedia

Apsley Pellatt IV joined his father's glass business, Pellatt and Green, in London around 1811 at the age of 21. The company owned the Falcon Glass House in Blackfriars and a large showroom at St. Paul's Churchyard. Apsley Pellatt IV took over the company when his father died in 1826 and in the early 1830s the company name was changed to Apsley Pellatt.

Along with prominent scientists of the early 18th century (Humphrey Davey and Michael Faraday) the Pellatt's took a great interest in glass chemistry. Michael Faraday recorded in his notebooks that an experimental glassworks was built at Pellatt and Green's Falcon Glass House premises for experiments on optical glass in the 1820s.

In 1819 Apsley Pellatt IV took out a patent for "crystallo ceramie" - the process of encasing a medallion in glass, later called "Cameo Incrustation" and "Sulphides". In 1821 he wrote a book about this process "Memoir on the Origin, Progress and Improvement of Glass Manufacture including .....Glass Incrustations" and in 1849 he enlarged and revised this text under the title "Curiosities of Glass-Making".

Apsley Pellatt made decanters, paperweights, scent bottles, jugs, mugs, and various other items in clear high quality crystal glass with cameo incrustations during the 1820s through to around 1850. This was not a major part of the company's production, which was primarily high quality cut crystal glass. But it is the part for which they are best known today.