A very decorative arts and crafts & vaseline glass lantern. The lightly mottled brass gallery in the style of W.A.S Benson and holding a vaseline glass conical lampshade with knob by James Powell and Sons of Whitefriars Glassworks, London. Original period flex spacer and replacement ceiling rose for suspension. England c.1900

Ht.(as displayed)71cm/28in, HT.(shade & Fit.)20/8, Ht.(shade)12.5/4.5, W.10/4

Whitefriars Glass Company, London

James Powell & Sons/ Harry Powell

• In 1834 James Powell,  then a 60-year-old London wine merchant and entrepreneur, purchased the Whitefriars Glass Company, a small glass-works off Fleet Street in London.
• Powell, and his sons Arthur and Nathanael, were newcomers to glass making, but soon acquired the necessary expertise and specialised in making church stain glass windows.
• When Harry Powell “Grandson of James” took over as Manager in 1876, James Crofts Powell, his cousin, ran the important stained glass department using in-house designers and famous artists like Burne-Jones for important commissions.
• From 1875 Harry Powell had a blacksmith called Edminstone with a boy called Edmund Francis employed to make wrought iron lighting fixtures, which again used his fabulous shades. He supplied many other makers with various shade shapes.
• During the latter part of the c.19th, the firm formed a close association with leading architects and designers. Whitefriars produced the glass that Phillip Webb used in his designs for William Morris
• By 1900 production lines of  vaseline and opalescent glass-ware, including lampshades, were proving to be extremely successful with clients such as William Arthur Smith Benson using their glass in the design of their lights.
• The firm’s name was changed to Powell & Sons (Whitefriars) Ltd in 1919