[Rarebooks] FS: The Greatest Villain in the History of Irish Glass

[Joslin Hall Rare Books]

TITLE: "Old Irish Glass. The Walter Harding Collection. Including old
English & other pieces"

By Walter Harding.
Printed in Liverpool in 1925.

DISCUSSION: An infamous collection within the world of Irish glass
collectors –though more through guilt by association than actual defect.
Harding had been one of the best customers of Elizabeth Graydon Stannus,
collector, glass dealer, glass factory owner, and author of a well-known
book on antique Irish glass. Unfortunately, Stannus has also been called
“the greatest villain in the manipulation of the history of Irish Glass”
(McConnell, Magazine Antiques, Sept.2004).

I suppose we all want to be "the greatest" something, but villain probably
isn't at the top of most people's lists.

In a talk in 1924 Stannus seems to have obliquely admitted that she had
produced some fake Irish glass using genuine old molds, and she was also
thought to have “improved” some of her genuine old pieces with extra
engraving and cutting. As if that was not enough to endear her to the
hearts of collectors, she also admitted to melting down pieces of antique
Irish colored glass and using the metal to produce new pieces that would
have the "correct" antique color.

Such stories inevitably have endings, and this one came in 1936 when the
Harding Collection was auctioned by Sotheby’s for about 1/12th of what he
had paid for it. The irony of that is that the Harding collection is not
known to have had too many fakes, although in the auction, and in this
earlier, private catalog, some of the date attributions are improbably
early. Still, the collection was large and varied, and is presented here
elegantly, with most of the glass photographed against a black background.
And if you are looking for a famous collection of Irish glass (for better
or worse), this is certainly it.

DESCRIPTION: Hardcover. 6.5”x10”, 108 pages, many black & white plates.

CONDITION NOTES: Covers rather soiled, a little soil to the endpapers.
Inscribed by Harding to HJC Grierson, the noted Scottish literary scholar
and critic who wrote books about Tennyson, Donne, Blake, Scott, Byron and
Swinburne and edited the Oxford Book of 17th Century Verse.

WITH- A 1924 booklet describing pieces from the same collection. 16 pages,
black & white illustrations. Some soil.

PRICE: $275-

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Fine books of the 16th-20th centuries
on the decorative and fine arts & design

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