Oliver at the Victoria and Albert Museum

On a sunny Autumn Thursday in early October, Oliver made the trip to London to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum. After getting lost in the vast museum galleries, Oliver eventually found his way to the conference he was attending. The Association of the History of Glass, along with the Victoria and Albert Museum, hosted a conference titled “Celebrating the birth of English and Irish Crystal Drinking Glass”. The conference saw multi-disciplinary researchers present research papers. Particularly interesting to Oliver's research were papers that highlighted the role of Italian workers in Irish glass production and another paper that highlighted the strong link between Dutch crystal glass and English glass. Both these papers reinforce the idea that there was a pan-European mobile workforce of glass workers in the early modern period. Oliver plans to understand how Britain fitted into this labour pattern in his PhD thesis.

Oliver presented a paper titled “The Role of Migrants in the British Crystal Glass Industry”. He received valued and appreciated feedback from many colleagues and researchers. The feedback will help Oliver improve his research and helped clarify some points for his PhD thesis.

Special thanks go to the Association of History of Glass for funding Oliver’s travel and expenses and to Michael Noble who kindly sent Oliver a manuscript on 18th-century English glass.

Roemer, drinking glass, attributed to George Ravenscroft, probably at the Savoy Glasshouse, about 1677, London, England. Museum no. C.530-1936. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London