Glass Epergne, Holyrood Flint Glass Company, ca.1841

This cut glass epergne (table centrepiece) has 40 separate pieces.  It is about a meter in height and was made by the Holyrood Flint Glass Company, Edinburgh, between 1840 and 1842, to mark the accession of Queen Victoria.  An epergne was a glittering centrepiece for a dinner table and was often the largest and most valuable item of tableware on display.  They were made of silver or glass or both, in multiple pieces, often embellished with coats of arms.  Epergnes were sometimes made as wedding gifts or as commemorative presentation pieces to mark a special event.   They were popular in the eighteenth century when they normally included bowls for candid fruits or nuts and they also typically held candles.  In the nineteenth century, with changes in the way that meals were served and the introduction of oil lamps, the epergne was less likely to be used as a food container or for lighting effects and was either entirely decorative or held flower arrangements.

This epergne was made for a royal table setting and was used on state occasions at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh.  It was also displayed at the international exhibition displays that were mounted by the company – as in Edinburgh in 1886.   

The Holyrood Glass Company, with factory premises at the South Back of Canongate and a shop in central Edinburgh, was one of several celebrated glass making firms in Edinburgh.  In 1868 it employed over 200 men and maintained mass production alongside higher end craft output, with a group of about 40 skilled engravers or glasscutters and apprentices.  The owner of the company mid century, John Ford, who took over from an uncle, was apprentice trained as a glasscutter, making a cut glass fruit bowl as his apprenticeship piece.  The company also maintained a strong relationship with a glass engraving workshop, J.H.B Millar, founded in the 1850s by a Bohemian entrepreneur with Bohemian workmen.  J.H.B Millar was particularly associated with the development of the Scottish fern pattern design.

This glass epergne represents a spectacular display of craftsmanship and ingenious design, with numerous cut glass elements in the eight separate bowls and on the upper section, which is topped with a glass replica of a crown and a Maltese cross.  Richard Hunter, foreman glasscutter for the Holyrood Glass Company, made and probably also designed the piece, taking two years to complete it and bringing prestige and publicity for his employers in the process. The company was know for table pieces with a high craft input, including their specialist lines in cut glass lamps, some decorated with ceramic cameos and brass fixings.  Other items were made for royal customers including a cut glass toilet service for Princess Beatrice in 1897, which was describe in the Edinburgh Evening News as intended for use at Balmoral but also on show at the company premises at 39 Princess Street Edinburgh for a few days prior to dispatch. But most of the company’s output and their main source of revenue were more prosaic and comprise mass produced glassware for the middle class home