When we began to show interest, it did not take long to realise that the then conventional narrative on British seventeenth century fine glass did not make sense. What did take time – over fifty years in fact – was gathering evidence of what did actually happen.What emerges is a fascinating picture of a pioneering 'hi-tech' industry, fore-shadowing the industrial revolution a century later, that rose from third-rate to world-class in a couple of decades. This work provides new insights into the development of the 'wheel of glass fashion' and the roles of organisations such as the Worshipful Company of Glass-sellers in achieving this in an increasingly capitalist economy. As such the book should be of interest to historians, glass-collectors, glass-technologists, and museums and archaeologists; in fact anyone seeking insights into how this early interaction between customer demand, artistic design and 'hi-tech' manufacture helped to shape the world as we know it today. Although the book concentrates on English and Irish glass it is expected to have a wide international appeal because of the exports involved, both of these highly-desirable glasses, and the less tangible ideas behind their realisation.
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