Glass doorstop, 1968.

Glass doorstop, hand-made, mouth-blown, 1968. The art of making fine glass has remained virtually unchanged since Roman days. As a very old craft, glassblowing is rich in historic associations. The Whitefriars glassworks, for example, dates back to 1680. The glassworks were founded on a site where a Monastry of the Carmelite Fathers, the "White Friars", had stood. The site had ready access to the Wharves from which to draw Newcastle coal, sand and clay and other materials required for glassmaking. In 1923 the Company moved Wealdstone, and the tradition that their furnaces were never allowed to die out was maintained by carrying a brazier from the old glasshouse to ignite the first furnace at Wealdstone. However the factory was closed down in 1980 due to insufficient orders.