Releted file: An Important Nineteenth Century Engraving
Bibliographic record on file at the Rakow Research Library, Corning, NY:
Title: [Scrapbook of designs for engraving]Main author: Fillebrown, Henry S.
Publisher: [East Cambridge, MA?, ca. 1855-1857]
Description: [134]p.: ill.; 32 cm.
Other Author(s): Leighton, Henry B.Notes: Designs are in pencil and in ink, pasted to colored pages. There are also printed cards and drawings, and numbered border designs at the front of the book. The designer worked for the New England Glass Co.
Loaned by the owner for microfilming; CMGL has microfilm only. Dated by Jane Spillman. Fillebrown was apprenticed and then worked at the New England Glass Company on and off between 1855-1876. Spillman believes the book was probably created during Fillebrown's apprenticeship, possibly by Henry B. Leighton, who worked with Fillebrown around 1878, the year of Leighton's death. These patterns were used between 1840's through the early 1880's.Location: Microforms f-15,600
More than 75 years ago, in 1930, Lura Woodside Watkins, in her pioneering book about the New England Glass Company, CAMBRIDGE GLASS, 1818-1888, described "a pattern-book with fine pen drawings done by Harry S. Fillebrown in the [eighteen] sixties and seventies" when Fillebrown worked as a copper-wheel engraver at "The New England" (Watkins 1930, p. 116). Most of the patterns are designs for borders, but there are also designs for other purposes (See "Inside the Scrapbook" below). Fast-forward to 1996 and a talk given by Jane Shadel Spillman at that year's Corning Museum of Glass's annual seminar. She informed her audience that the pattern-book described by Watkins had been lent to the Rakow Research Library, where it was microfilmed and then returned to its owner, the Fillebrown family (note 1).
Who originally drew the patterns in the scrapbook? While this is a simple question, the answer is not. More than one person is likely to have been involved. Moreover, a definitive answer requires more than the casual observations made here. It will be necessary to examine the original scrapbook in order to undertake a more comprehensive and thorough analysis. At the present time only a black and white microfiche is available. With this restriction in mind the following observations can, nevertheless, be made:
Designers who may have been the original draftsmen were probably those who took part in the company's expanded interest in engraved glass during the 1850s. They included, principally, Harry S. Fillebrown (1839-????), who was trained at the New England Glass Company and who worked there, off and on, until the company closed and in whose family the scrapbook has descended, and Henry Barnes Leighton (1837-1878), the grandson of the superintendent of the glass works, who also was apprenticed at the company and who worked all his life as an engraver, at The New England and elsewhere.
Fillebrown was apprenticed to Francis Doms from about 1854 until Doms left the company in 1857. Little is known about Doms except that he apparently arrived in Boston from Bohemia during the 1840s and produced engraved glass of commendable quality as an independent engraver in the Boston area. He went to work for the New England Glass Company in 1852, by way of Pittsburgh (note 2).
Leighton, on the other hand, was apprenticed to Louis Vaupel (1824-1903), a master engraver who arrived from Germany in 1851. By 1876 he had tutored several students in the art of glass engraving in addition to Leighton -- Charles Schier, Charles Winslow, William Crane, William Hunter, Thomas Foley, and Thomas Hodgkins. In addition to these students, Vaupel provided "private work for acquaintances at home . . . and [instructed] several students in drawing" (note 3, pp. 77-8).
While it is believed that not all of the above students pursued careers in engraving, some, like Henry Barnes Leighton, did. His initials appear twice in the scrapbook -- once as H. L., in Pattern No. 15, and once as H B L, in an unnumbered pattern. Fillebrown's own initials as well as those of others, including Doms and Vaupel, are absent. This suggests that Leighton probably originated at least some of the designs in the book. Spillman, in her talk, goes further and suggests that Leighton might have assembled the scrapbook, and that it was then passed on to Fillebrown when Leighton died. Whatever may be the case, a particular design, drawn or engraved, unless signed usually can not with certainty be said to have been sketched or engraved by a particular engraver. The most one can expect to find is evidence that links artifacts such as the scrapbook to a specific factory, in this case the New England Glass Company. With the scrapbook now available in facsimile, it is possible, for the first time, to have such evidence in hand, as illustrated by the following example of a design that has been credited to Louis Vaupel:
A red engraved-to-clear wine glass by Vaupel exists on which the design matches one that is found in the first section of the scrapbook. Because Vaupel worked only for The New England during his lifetime, this is strong evidence that the scrapbook was in use at the New England Glass Company during Vaupel's working life, which spanned the latter half of the nineteenth century. There is additional evidence as well, as will be described later in this file. But first, this rather special wine glass must be given attention. It has been discussed at least three times in the literature, but, unfortunately, only one of these discussions is accurate:
In an article published in 1975 Carl U. Fauster, a Vaupel enthusiast, recorded that the following information is engraved on the underside of the glass's foot: "LT - CH Pattern / No 43 / Vaupel 239", and he comments that "such code information has defied our efforts to identify it, but we have concluded that the glass was signed because it was originally a shelf sample of an engraved design by Vaupel and not signed because it was an outstanding piece he was proud to have bear his name" (note 4). There is no doubt that Pattern No. 43 on the wine glass is an engraved representation of Pattern No. 43 in the scrapbook (which was not available to Fauster). Although Vaupel is clearly involved, it is uncertain whether Pattern No. 43 was designed by him, or engraved by him, or whether he did both. The important point is that this engraved wine glass is linked to the Fillebrown scrap book through Louis Vaupel who, as mentioned above, worked for no other company than The New England. Although the wine glass is not illustrated, it can be seen as plate 50c in Watkins' book (Watkins 1930, p. 119). Fauster also indicates that the glass was acquired by the Brooklyn Museum in 1945 as part of the museum's purchase of "an important collection of early American glass from [Lura Woodside] Watkins". The two erroneous discussions of the glass lie somewhat outside our narrative, but it is important to consider them for what they are. They are, therefore, discussed in note 5.
Vaupel's sketchbook is a single volume that is currently in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It has been reproduced in its entirety in The Acorn, Vol. 6, 1995/6 and has been discussed in detail in an accompanying article by Donald Ferland (note 5b). Unfortunately, Ferland did not have access to the scrapbook at the time he wrote his article. He was, therefore, not aware that the drawings in the sketchbook had been copied from the designs found in the scrapbook, either directly or from a common source, now unknown, that was also used for the drawings in the scrapbook. In any case the scrapbook, not the sketchbook, can be thought of as a master index of engraved border designs as used by the New England Glass Company (and probably by others as well) from the "1840's through the early 1880's" (bibliographic record). It is, therefore, appropriate to refer to the scrapbook as "a New England Glass Company scrapbook of designs for engraving".
It is likely that more than one "master index" was prepared at The New England. Any such indices are probably not identical because additions were continuously being made to them. Even the New England scrapbook represents more than one particular moment in time, when one considers the book as a whole. The first section, however, with its border designs that are numbered, probably does represent a particular date in the 1850s. The rest of the book, however, contains material collected during the 1860s and 1870s. Other, similar compilations for other companies were undoubtedly made during the nineteenth century, but none seem to have survived. It is probably correct to regard all of them, including this one, as factory indices, not compilations of proprietary designs by individuals, known or unknown.
The designs in Vaupel's sketchbook are those that are found in the New England scrapbook, selectively copied, with a few minor designs added. Spillman refers briefly to it in her talk. She speaks of the designs as being "somewhat more careless" in their execution than those in the scrapbook. This writer agrees; they appear to have been hurredly drawn. And they are frequently abbreviated horizontally compared to those in the scrap book. This was done to provide a blank space on the right-hand side of each page. This space was often used to list objects (goblets, etc.) together with figures that probably indicate the amount of money received by the engraver for each engraved object, as suggested by Ferland (note 5b). The sketchbook's pages are horizontally lined, and unlike the scrapbook, the items and their numbers appear to have been entered at the same time; there are no pasted-in pages. Prospective customers would probably have been shown the master index in order to select a border design, but sketch books like Vaupel's, with its price lists, would have been kept out of sight.
Ferland does not tell us whether Vaupel's name and address on the sketchbook's cover matches the handwriting within the book, an important point when one is faced with authenticating a document. As in the case of the scrapbook, the labels above the designs appear to have been written by an American, not a German, hand: For example, number is abbreviated No., not Nr., and American-style numerals 1 and 7 are used. Additionally, the labeling appears to be the work of two different writers. Unlike the scrapbook, however, the numbers appear to have been entered at the time the designs were drawn.
The Vaupel sketchbook provides border patterns between nos. 309 and 419, inclusive, patterns that correspond to like-numbered patterns in the scrapbook. However, as mentioned, the sketchbook is selective and, therefore, does not include all of the patterns between no. 309 and no. 419. And there are a few additions, using a, b, and even 1/2 as suffixes. This writer counted a total of 70 numbered border patterns in the sketchbook compared to 477 numbered patterns in the scrapbook. (And, in addition, the scrapbook contains several dozen unnumbered patterns.)
A second confirmation that the material in the scrapbook represents patterns used at the New England Glass Company is provided by N. O. Merrill in a discussion of items in the Kate Tyler Smith Collection at the Chrysler Museum. These are part of a bequest by Florence L. Smith, a great granddaughter of James B. Barnes who designed furnaces at The New England and was also Henry Barnes Leighton's maternal grandfather. A large goblet carries an engraved pattern that matches Pattern No. 51 in the scrapbook. (This page in the scrapbook is reproduced in Watkins 1930, p. 120). While most of the scrapbook's patterns are intended to be used as borders, this one is designed to occupy the entire bowl of a goblet. (This pattern is important because its lower border matches that used on a richly engraved dish that is illustrated and discussed in the related file, above.) Merrill discusses additional items in the Smith Collection and concludes that "the family tradition calling [these items] New England glass seems correct" (note 6, p. 4).
The New England Glass Company's scrapbook consists mainly of pasted-in pages from either an original compilation of patterns or from a variety of sources including commercial trade cards and original sketches. Some of the latter were drawn directly in the scrapbook, but most are paste-ins. A photocopy of the scrap book's microfiche has been made for this analysis. For convenience, the book has been divided into three sections, as follows:
- Section One: Numbered Border Patterns
- Section Two: Unnumbered Border Patterns
- Section Three: Miscellaneous Patterns
Section One: Numbered Border Patterns
Most, perhaps all, of these sketches were originally drawn in pencil then inked. They were arranged vertically originally and then cut into strips. Two strips, side-by-side, were then placed onto a right-handed page of the scrap book. Occasionally more than two strips were needed to fill up a page whose reverse side is usually left blank. Originally the sketches were not numbered. Numbers were added after the patterns were drawn, as indicated by ther positioning of the numbers which is sometimes cramped. The numbers are in an American style, and they were probably entered by at least two different hands. The original sketches were first mounted on the aforementioned strips probably in order to strengthen any fragility that might have developed over the years for it is evident that the strips were mounted in the scrapbook years -- perhaps many years -- after the designs were originally drawn.
On the first page of this section there are garlands that form three contiguous circles (Pattern No. 15). The center circle contains the initials H. L. (for Henry Leighton).
Pattern Nos. 89 to 91 provide four different depictions of an identical pattern, suggesting that more than one draftsman was involved. They may have been students and what was saved and numbered are four versions of a design assigned by their teacher.
Pattern No. 107 consists of a vine intertwined with its branches, a simplification of the pair of twisted vines that forms the base of the overall design found on the engraved dish that is shown in the related file, above.
Although most of the sketches are for border patterns, there are, in addition, short, vertical sketches of designs that were intended to be used on the vertical facets of stoppers, on the fluted necks of pitchers, and as "filler" (e.g., 97a et seq) . Also included are cartouches of various designs and a few patterns that were designed for use as all-over designs (e.g., Nos. 362 and 453).
Although most of the patterns are floral in nature, some are geometric. But there are only two sketches of animals: a deer (No. 150) and dog (No. 151). Ribbon-and-garland combinations begin appearing with No. 338. A ribbon-and-garland pattern, with medallions added, that is found in Section Two, strongly resembles the design on a goblet made in 1869 for Clotilde Dorflinger (Feller 1988, fig. 2-05, p. 18; and Corning Museum of Glass acc. no. 71.4.122).
Occasionally a sheet's reverse side has been used for additional sketches, both numbered (e.g., No. 351 1/2) and unnumbered, and there are additional, mostly unnumbered sketches that include wildflowers, butterfles, and leafstalks, positioned just before and after the last page in this section. Most of these "sketches from nature", however, are found in Section Three. The final numbered pattern is No. 477.
Section Two: Unnumbered Border Patterns
There is no apparent reason why the numbering ceases. The pasted-in pages in this section are similar to those in Section One. The writer has continued the numbering (using numbers in square brackets) but there are uncertainties because a couple of the pages are badly faded and it is next to impossible to determine individual patterns. One of these faded pages contains evidence that this compilation is likely to have been the source for the copper-wheel motifs engraved on a dish that was discovered by the writer during the summer of 2005. The dish, and the question of its attribution, are discussed in the related file, above. The unnumberd patterns end with [No. 558], which is on a strip that occupies the left-hand side of a page, leaving the right-hand side blank.
Section Three: Miscellaneous Patterns
There is a variety of material in this section. There are cartouche patterns and paterae, as well as additional border patterns. Printed trade cards were also collected and mounted in the scrapbook, obviously for their illustrations of flowers and wildlife. Of particular interest are the "nature study" sketches of vegetation and birds (of which there are many, including owls). One sketch of two birds on a vine has the note "nicely polished" (a precursor of the rock-crystal style?) Another sketch, very badly faded, has various vegetative forms in a linear rendering that contains a bird and a butterfly. It is labeled "on Pitcher". This page also has hand-printing that is said to be "too small and fine" to photograph for the microfiche.
There are three pages of paste-ins with chamfered corners that contain especially neat and detailed sketches. Included are floral bouquets and sprays, paterae, and cartouches, as well as additional border patterns and a floral basket. One cartouche contains the inials H B L (for Henry Barnes Leighton).
On another page there are designs that include an engraved flower horn and two engraved disks (dishes or plates). In the latter case the designs encircle a blank area that could represent a wafer base such as the one that is found on the engraved dish in the related file. The designs are Classical and geometric. The last two pages of the scrap book include sketches of leaping deer, birds (including a heron), and what appears to be a spray of shamrocks.
Although Watkins' book includes a page of sketches for three engraved wine glasses, it is missing from the scrapbook that is owned today by the Fillebrown family today, as microfilmed at the Rakow Research Library in 1996.
NOTES:
1. Spillman, J. S., 1996: "Henry Fillebrown & Engraved Glass at the New England Glass Co.". Video tape 7, Curator's Choice. A talk delivered at the 1996 seminar, Corning Museum of Glass.
2. Spillman, J. S., l996: American glass in the Bohemian style, The Magazine Antiques, January, pp. 146-55. Also, Editor's Note, 1980, The Glass Club Bulletin, No. 129, p. 4.
3. Vaupel, L. F., 1995/6: Kurze Biographie meiner selbst: Short autobiography of H. F. Louis Vaupel, The Acorn, Vol. 6, pp. 23-90.
4. Fauster, C. U., 1975: Vaupel engraved masterpieces acquired by major museums, The Glass Club Bulletin, No. 113, p. 4.
5. In 1975 the Vaupel family sold a number of items engraved by their ancestor, Louis Vaupel, through a catalog prepared by Carl U. Fauster's Antique & Historic Glass Foundation. The catalog lists a pair of engraved wine glasses purported to be "the same" as the glass shown as Plate 50c in Watkins' book except that they are not signed. Donald Ferland, who secured ownership of one of the glasses, describes it as having "five half leaves" and "three clusters of grapes each with thirteen grapes" (note 5b, p. 92). This is the first error. The photograph in Watkins' book is not especially clear, but no half-leaves are seen and the grape cluster, which is clearly shown, has 18, not 13 grapes. In other words the pair of wines sold in 1975 are merely similar to the wine glass in Watkins' book that is at the Brooklyn Museum.
Because he was using only the 70 sketches that are contained in Vaupel's sketchbook, it is not surprising that Ferland was unable to find one that matched the vine-and-grapes (vintage) pattern on his wine glass. With what is probably the New England Glass Company's complete sketch book now available (as contained in the scrapbook) it might be possible to do this, and it might also be possible to match other Vaupel engravings with the company's sketches. But to accomplish this, detailed photographs would be necessary, if not actual access to the items themselves. While it would be an interesting exercise, it probably would not add much to what is already known about Vaupel. After all, no one questions the authenticity of those engravings that are attributed to him in major museums today. And, as indicated earlier, a sketch/engraving match-up does not necessarily identify the engraver.
The previous paragraph describes Ferland's wine glass in 1996. He also tells us that it "has been in the author's collection since 1976" (note 5b, p. 115). Therefore, it appears that he obtained it either directly or indirectly from the Vaupel sale in 1975 that was cataloged by Fauster. In 1984 Ferland was involved with an exhibition of Vaupel glass that was held at the Jones Gallery in Sebago, ME. Its catalog, probably written by Ferland, describes the Brooklyn Museum's glass, which was in the exhibition, as having the following inscription engraved on its foot: "Lt. Ch. Pattern No. 49 Vaupel 239" (note 5a, p. 6). In this transcription Pattern No. 43 (Fauster) has been changed to Pattern No. 49. This is the second error, and it is repeated in Ferland's 1996 discussion of the Brooklyn Museum's wine glass (note 5b, p. 92). Ferland could not look up Pattern No. 49, of course, because he had access to only a section of the scrapbook -- in the form of Vaupel's sketchbook -- and this does not include patterns "earlier" than No. 309. If he could have done so he would have found that Pattern No. 49 is entirely different than the vine-and-grapes pattern recorded as Pattern No. 43. It should also be reported that the Brooklyn Museum gives the height of its glass as 4.75", while Ferland reports that his "same" glass has a height of 4.25".
5a. [exhibition catalog] "Louis Vaupel, Master Engraver and His Contemporaries", Jones Gallery of Glass and Ceramics, Sebago, ME, 22 Aug-17 Nov 1984, 21 pp.
5b. Ferland, Donald, 1995/6: Elegant simplicity as created by Louis Friedrich Vaupel, master copper-wheel glass engraver, The Acorn, Vol. 6, pp. 91-116.
6. Merrill, N. O., 1980: Engraved New England glass at the Chrysler, The Glass Club Bulletin, No. 131, pp. 3-4.
Updated 26 Sep 2005