Glass

This is a clear cut glass toilet water bottle with blue decoration and gold gilding. Toilet water bottles like this are generally larger than ordinary perfume bottles and were kept on the dressing table. Toilet water bottles use a dilute scent based alcohol that is cheaper to buy and lasted longer as it rarely turned rancid. It became very popular during the Victorian period because the more subtle fragrances were seen as more suitable for a lady to wear, rather than heavy perfumes. The most famous toilet water was known as cologne, which emerged at the end of the seventeenth century. In the nineteenth century lavender water became a hugely popular toilet water and is still seen as quintessentially English today.

This is a clear glass attar bottle decorated in red, blue, green and gold enamelling. The term attar describes an essential oil extracted by distillation. The word comes from the ancient Persian atr jul meaning ‘fat of the flowers’. Attar bottles were made in England and Bohemia (present day Czech Republic) from coloured glass, often decorated with gilding and enamelling like this one. These small bottles were bought, containing scent, over the counter from chemists and perfumers and were often thrown away once they were empty. The bottles were also known as ‘throwaways’ and ‘Oxford Lavenders’. The bottles would contain attar (or otto) of roses, which is an expensive essential oil made from rose petals so would only be bought in small amounts.

Kalim Afzal is a glass-maker based in Bradford who previously worked at the World of Glass in St Helens as Chief Designer. In 2002 Afzal had an artistic residency in Preston working with the Harris on site-specific installations for the Noor and Jamea Mosques. This piece takes fluidity and dynamism as its form and theme: it is intended to reflect Afzal’s cross-cultural identity as a British-born artist of Asian heritage. The Harris has other examples of contemporary glass practice in its collection including pieces by Angela Jarman and Ana Rosa Hopkins.

Clear wine glass, saucer topped bowl, plain stem with opaque twist and plain foot. Many of the drinking glasses at the Harris, like this one, previously belonged to, Dr Harry Taylor a local eye surgeon who lived at 13 Starkie Street in the city between 1904 and 1945.Taylor was interested in studying the changing shapes and styles of British drinking glasses during the 1700s. His collection came to the museum after his death in 1945.

This art work is made from broken glass collected by Manchester-based artist Ana Rosa Hopkins after riots in the city in August 2011. On 4 August 2011 29-year old Mark Duggan was shot by police in Tottenham, which triggered violent protests in London. Between 8 and 11 August there were riots in many other UK cities – including Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester. Ana Rosa Hopkins collected some of the broken glass from the Manchester riot and turned it into this art work. You can see this and other examples of historic and contemporary glasswork in the Harris collection.

Photograph: © Alan Sams

In beautiful amethyst, this wine glass is one of around 180 examples of coloured glass in the Harris collection. Most of these came from of a Manchester-based collector, Mrs Laura Seddon (1910-1995). Seddon was born in Oldham and studied mathematics at Cambridge. She was an enthusiastic collector of not just glassware – but also historic greetings cards. When her glass collection came to the Harris in 1980 she noted: ‘As a Lancastrian, I am rather pleased that a northern museum should get a collection of English glass that, as far as it goes, will be unmatched outside of London’.

Glass boats like this are known as friggers, or end-of-days. This sort of whimsical, funny object was made by glassmakers at the end of the working day with any molten glass left in their pot. These objects were often brought home for the glassmaker’s family. Other examples of friggers are glass boots, hats, pipes, walking sticks and even pretend pistols.
Here the glassmaker has used molten glass in its most fluid yet plastic state to build up the ship as a structure. As the glass has cooled the structure becomes fixed and solid – albeit delicately so. The sails and flags on this boat are particularly fluid and delicate.