Victorian Pressed Glass

About

English Pressed Glass 1870 - 1900

Most of the glass in this collection comes from this, the late Victorian period.

I have been collecting pressed glass, on and off, for nearly 40 years. As can be seen my main interest lies with the Sowerby factory, but I also collect 'classic' pieces from other the other manufacturers.

In the 1980s three books were published, English 19th Century Press-Moulded Glass by Colin Lattimore, The Peacock and the Lions by Sheilagh Murray and English Pressed Glass 1830-1900 by Raymond Slack. These spurred an interest in this kind of glass, and subsequently pushed up prices. The good news is that prices today are about the same, and in a lot of cases a good deal less, than in the 1980s so now may be a good time to start collecting this glass again.

If you are interested in this type of glass, I would advise trying to find these books and others I have listed in the 'Books' page.

The Website

No AI has been used writing this site, most of it was written before AI became mainstream. I am not a natural writer, each sentence has to be teased from a butterfly mind, changed two or three times before being committed to the page. Then probably changed again for good measure. The good thing about web based articles rather than a book as they can be changed when further information about the subject comes to light. Or when you have realised that you got it wrong in the first place.

Also I am useless at proof reading, especially after changing things so often, so I apologise in advance for any grammatical or spelling mistakes.
Hopefully you are reading interesting, useful and overall fairly accurate information.

Website Disclaimer

Over the years I have accumulated an archive of images from various sites on the internet. Most of the images that appear on this website are from my glass collection. Occasionally, in the interest of people learning about glass when visiting this site, I will use an image on the website that I do not own. Where possible, and if I know the source of the image, I will ask permission to use it and apply attribution when I can. Very occasionally, where I deem it appropriate to use it, I will use an image without knowing the source. If I have used an image which is copyright and the owner would like it removed please contact me and I will do so ASAP.

Website Security

This website does not use cookies and no data is harvested from people visiting the site, apart from by Google or whichever search engine you have used to find the site, but this will happen anyway. The site is for information only, which I hope is useful.

The Contact Form will send an e-mail straight to my e-mail address, a form is used to try to protect my address from being harvested resulting in even more junk mail than I get already. Again no visitor data is collected, but you will have sent me have your e-mail address which will not be used for any other purpose than contacting you.

As of Oct 2026, I have taken out a bank loan and changed the website from an unsecure HTTP connection to a secure HTTPS connection.
This will stop the scary message from Google about an unsecure site, which wasn't a problem in the first place, please see the first sentence.

Wanted

I collect and research Victorian coloured pressed glass and occasionally write items about pressed glass on this site. Therefore I am always interested in acquiring any items relating to the pressed glass industry from this period, particularly any ephemera, documents, pictures or pattern books with particular interest in the Sowerby factory and John George Sowerby.

I also buy glass, as a collector not a dealer. I particularly like the small, preferably coloured, pieces by Sowerby, dating between 1875 and 1885. Please see examples in the galleries or pattern books on this website.

If you have any of items for sale, especially any of the items below, I would be very interested to hear from you.