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Vitro-Porcelain Glass:
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| above: white basket- weave vitro-porcelain glass plate, Sowerby c. 1877.  |
Vitro-Porcelain Glass: A short explanationVitro-Porcelain is pressed glass which is made to look like porcelain or pottery. The term was first introduced by Sowerby's Glassworks in Gateshead, England in 1877, the invention of John George Sowerby. The basket-weave plate shown on the left in white vitro-porcelain was also produced in a pale blue which Sowerby's called "turquiose vitro-porcelain" and a rather unattractive opaque green. These plates sometimes have the Sowerby peacock trademark in the centre, and are more valuable when they do. The dense opaque porcelain-like appearance of vitro-porcelain glass was caused by adding cryolite to the glass mixture. Natural cryolite is sodium aluminium fluoride (Na3AlF6). So far as I know the term was used in the UK but is not common in other countries. Vitro-porcelain-type glass is sometimes called "cast porcelain" and sometimes "cryolite glass". Very similar glass is also known as milk glass, opal glass, opaline, opaque white glass, porzellanglas and porcellain-glas. However, these terms are frequently used for glass made opaque by adding tin oxide to the mixture rather than cryolite. They can sometimes be slightly translucent, which is never the case with vitro-porcelain. Opaque glass made with tin oxide has been made for centuries by the Chinese, the Venetians, Bohemians, Germans and others. |
 above: vitro-porcelain posy vase by Sowerby, design reg'd 1882 Glass Encyclopedia Click here for the full list of latest topics or click on any of the following links: Advertising glass Akro Agate glass Amberina glass American glass Apothecary glass Apsley Pellatt glass Art Deco glass Art nouveau glass Arts and Crafts glass Baccarat glass Bagley glass Barolac glass Beads (glass) Bimini glass Blenko glass Books on glass Bottles (glass) Boyd's Crystal Glass Brierley Crystal glass E O Brody glass Bubble glass Burtles Tate glass Caithness glass Cameo glass Cameo incrustations Carnival glass Cast glass Chance glass Charder glass Cire Perdue glass Cloud glass Cobalt blue glass Consolidated Contemporary glass Coralene glass Coudersport glass Crackle glass Cranberry glass Custard glass Cut crystal glass Daum glass Davidson's glass Depression glass Dew drop glass Dorothy Thorpe glass Drinking glasses Dumps EAPG glassware End-of-day glass Etling glass European glass Fairy Lights Federal glass Fenton glass Fire-King glass Flygsfors glass Fostoria glass French glass Fry Glass Galle Glass Glass hand vases Glass-working Glass Dumps Gold ruby glass Goofus Glass Gray-stan glass Greeners glass Hand vases Hazel Atlas glass Heisey glass Historismus glass Hobnail glass Hunebelle glass Imperial glass Intaglio glass Irradiated glass Italian glass Jack-in-Pulpit glass Jade glass James Derbyshire Jeannette Glass Joblings glass Joe Rice glass John Derbyshire J Walsh Walsh glass Kemple glass King's Lynn glass Lalique glass Leerdam glass Le Verre Francais L G Wright glass Libbey glass Libensky glass Lobmeyr glass Loetz or Lotz glass Lost wax technique Malachite glass Manchester glass Marbles (glass) Marqueterie de Verre Mary Gregory glass Mdina glass Mercury glass Milk glass Molineux Webb glass Monart glass Murano glass Nailsea glass New Zealand glass Northwood glass Opalescent glass Orient & Flume glass Orplid glass Orrefors glass Pallme-Konig glass Paperweights Pate de Verre Peachblow glass Pearline glass Percival Yates & Vickers Perthshire Paperw'ts Phoenix glass Pictures on glass Pilgrim glass Pirelli glass Powell glass Riverside glass Reverse paint on glass Rose bowls Royal Brierley glass Sabino glass Scandinavian glass Schneider glass Shoes in glass Silhouettes on glass Silvered glass Silver overlay glass Slag glass Sowerby glass Spatter glass Stained glass St Clair glass Steuben Glass Stevens & Williams Strathearn glass Stretch glass Sulphides in glass Sun changed glass Thomas Webb glass Tiara glass Tiffany glass Toothpick Holders Tortoiseshell glass Tudor Crystal glass Uranium glass Val St Lambert glass Vasart glass Vaseline glass Venetian glass Venini glass Verlys glass Videos on Glass Vistosi Glass Vitro Porcelain Glass Waterford Crystal Webb Corbett glass Webb, Thomas glass Wedgwood glass Westmoreland glass Whitefriars glass WMF glass Ysart glass Useful glass links Glass Message Board Glass Museum on Line
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Vitro-porcelain glass was highly suited to the kind of surface decoration on pressed glass which became very popular during the 1870s and 80s. Sowerby transposed popular art of the time (the book illustrations of Walter Crane) onto their molds and reproduced with surprising accuracy these illustrations. The little posy vase on the left shows a copy of Walter Crane's illustration for the nursery rhyme "Elizabeth, Elspeth, Betsy and Bess" from his book An Alphabet of Old Friends published in 1874. If you are looking for Vitroporcelain glass, you can usually find some items on offer on ebay (click here to see Vitroporcelain glass listings on ebay). If there are any vitroporcelain items for sale right now on eBay.co.uk they will show below - we thought you would like to see these examples. 1: English Pressed Glass 1830-1900 by Raymond Slack (1987) 2: The identification of English Pressed Glass by Jenny Thompson (1989). 3: British Glass 1800-1914, by Charles R. Hajdamach, (1991). 4: 20th Century Factory Glass by Lesley Jackson (May 2000). 5: Glass A to Z by David J. Shotwell (2002). 6: Sowerby: Gateshead Glass by Simon Cottle (1986). Click on the book covers below to read more about these books. 
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