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Bagley and Co. Ltd, Knottingley
Initially Bagley was a bottle making factory established in 1871 by cousins John William Bagley and William Bagley and John Wild. The firm was very forward thinking in their approach to producing glass and in 1903 were the first in the UK to acquire the rights to the American Owens bottlemaking machine. They renamed themselves as The Crystal Glass Company, branching out in 1912 into Lead Crystal. This only lasted two years, although their pressed glassware was still marketed as Crystal despite not having a true lead content. Their first range of pressed glass included functional flint items such as beer mugs, butter dishes and sugar bowls. As with all the companies, the First World War interrupted their production and instead made electric light bulbs, domestic items for the NAFFI as well as other for the war effort. Crystaltynt The 20's and 30's was the most successful time for Bagley, when their inexpensive art deco products in an array of sugary colours and textures that caught the country's imagination. The icing on the cake was a Royal Seal of approval, after Queen Mary bought some of their glass at the 1924 Wembley Exhibition. In British Glass Between the Wars it is stated that heir manufacturing process was a mix of mechanised methods combined with glass blowers and hand finishing. The main shape was made by the moulds, but things like crimping the edge of the bowl or turning down the lip of a jug was all done by hand, with attention to detail. They were also very advanced when it came to producing new colours and textures. A Bagley engineer called Branscombe experimented with opal and cloud glass in a range of pastel colours in clear and matt. In 1930, Bagley produce decorative items in pastel shades of pink, blue, amber and green called Crystaltynt. Making these colours was often achieved by using expensive and dangerous chemicals. In order to create a pink, they used arsenic, but somehow they discovered that dropping a large potato into the batch would have the same effect, saving money and much safer for the workers. Sandblasting gave a textured surface all over the item whereas hand painting them with an acid paste provided a silky smooth satin finish. Some of the items were hand painted, especially the tourist ware featuring the name of the town accompanied with a posy of flowers. They also added chrome stands to plates, bowls and vases, clock mechanisms, lamp fittings and delicate stands for posy troughs, often decorated with art nouveau stylised leaves.
Tourist ware from Christchurch, with Made in England impressed on the base In the 1930's they introduced their Jettique range of black glass, which was continued after World War Two, decorated by red and while polka dots. In the 1940's they added Crystopal an opal coloured style to their range. On 21 October 1937, George VI and Queen Elizabeth were given a tour of the glass works. To commemorate the event they produced a Souvenir booklet and the employees and school children in the area were given a special commemorative place. Queen Elizabeth was presented with one of their Marine Bowls, which came in a variety of colours either clear, or with the little sea creatures acid etched to make them stand out..
Marine Bowl (Pattern 3000) 1934 Click here to view photographs that were a part of the commemorative booklet from 1937 Again in British Glass Between the Wars it is said that some of their items were very complex and had a high rate of imperfection, while other items, such their Carnival range were produced at almost double their usual target of 1,500 pieces a day!
Carnival range registration number 849118, from the late 40's naturally this design was made well before the term "carnival" was used to describe iridescent pressed glass. Bagley took their inspiration from nature, creating bowls decorated with all forms of sea life, vases featuring koala bears and birds. With the Art Nouveau trend, they created chrome stands made to support the glass troughs in the shape of hearts or horseshoes, decorated with delicate stylised leaves or even Cinderella style carriages. Sometimes the items have registration marks, although it is more common to have "Made in England" impressed on the bases. Like many of the other glass manufacturers in the 30's, all of their vases came with the option to have a black base.
Budgie Vase with acid etched Art Deco stylised holly leaves
1939 Rutland pattern dressing table set decorated with Art Nouveau scrolls Throughout World War Two they turned steel shell cases on their lathes and made battery cases for the RAF and railway signalling equipment. They also made beer glasses for the troops and were kept busy as the records state that they were unable to keep up with the demands from the Airforce who seemed to break a lot of their glasses. The Government also confiscated three tonnes of Uranium, used to give the yellow glow to the glass when they realised that it could be used to make bombs with instead! After the war they produced glass boxes for Electrolux refrigerators and covers for the internal lights of motor cars. In 1962 the Jackson Glass Company of Knottingley took over Bagley when there was a slump in their productivity, which was put down to the lack of skilled labour. Six years later they became part of the Rockware Group who closed the Bagley Crystal works in 1975. In 1995, this company was acquired by the Austrian Stoize Oberglas AG and they still produce high quality bottles for the cosmetic industry today.
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