Glass – Birmingham Manufactures and Industries Foresters Guide Book 1883

Mr. Timmins, in his interesting volume, “Birmingham and the Midland Hardware District,” says: “No glass seems to have been made here before the year 1785, when Isaac Hawker, who established himself as a ‘glass cutter’ in 1777, erected a small glass house in a court behind his shop, 14, Edgbaston Street.” From such a small beginning this now important industry took its rise, and Birmingham glass work is now well known wherever glass is used. Great Exhibitions and lighthouses have rendered the name of Chance Bros., of Spon Lane, famous throughout the world. For stained glass windows, Messrs. Hardman, Newhall Hill, and Camm Bros., Smethwick, are especially renowned. The showrooms of F. & C. Osler, Broad Street, are stored with some of the finest examples of ornamental and cut glass, which make a visit a rich artistic treat. As a rare example of ingenuity and skill we would mention the works of Mr. C. Parke, Lower Hurst Street, where glass eyes of all kinds, animal and human, are made with remarkable naturalness.

Source: The Foresters’ Guide to Birmingham and Its Neighbourhood. Presented by the Demonstration Committee to the Delegates In High Court Meeting, Assembled in Birmingham, August, 1883.Specially Prepared For the Occasion by John Alfred Langford, LL.D; F.R.H.S. Birmingham: James Upton, Baskerville Printing Works, Great Charles Street. 1883