Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to stay at the lovely Arizona Inn at Tucson. The dining area, somewhat dark and cavernous, was transformed into a warm, glowing, welcoming room by one thing: the tables were all set with water glasses made of cobalt blue. Here in Britain it is generally known as ‘Bristol Blue’. It gave some idea of the effect that introducing blue glassware must have had when it came into vogue in the last couple of decades of the Eighteenth Century. From decanters to wine glasses, from display dishes to glass coolers and finger rinsing bowls, they must have glittered and amazed in the flickering candle-light.
So I have written a book. Not a very long one, but packed with full-colour photographs to give an idea of the beautiful rich translucent blue.
It is a history of how and where the blue glass was made (not necessarily in Bristol, which just happened to be the port where smalt – cobalt oxide – was imported). And it is also the story of the men behind the spectacular boom in popularity of Bristol Blue.
I wrote it because I could not find anything which told me about the origins of the glassware – or if it did it was as part of a large dictionary of glass, usually printed in black and white (which frankly is a bit pointless when it comes to picturing coloured glass!). Also, I found it fascinating visiting one of the glass factories which is still producing ‘Bristol Blue’ in Bedminster, Bristol, on almost the exact site where glass was being produced 250 years ago. There is precious little of Bristol’s industrial heritage still standing, so what there is is worth remembering.
Anyway, a harmless hobby, and I brought the book out on Amazon where you can find it here if in the U.K. and in the States here. I am hoping that it will also be available on kindle, although at present they are not playing ball and I would be the first to admit that this is not my favourite platform for displaying pictures of the gorgeous blue glass. The images appear courtesy of the V&A Museum, and the Bristol Blue Glass South West Glass Museum.
I am pleased to say that I have taken delivery of a shiny pile of paperbacks of the Journal of a Georgian Gentleman and am delighted to be able to offer them for sale to UK readers at a price of nine pounds plus £2.20 postage. Alternatively if you would prefer to buy via Amazon (they take credit cards - I don’t) you can find it at 
And it is also on Kindle! Come to that, it’s on Kobo and just about every other platform I could think of. Not as many illustrations as there are in the printed version of the book, but that is because of download time. Besides, you know you deserve the printed version, and it is nearly Christmas. Mind you, the Kindle at £2.56 (or fractionally over four dollars) isn’t bad but I thought you deserved a choice!
From time to time I feature the delicate and beautiful cut-outs made by my ancestor Richard Hall, illustrating life around him in the 18th Century. A number of people commented about the cut-outs so I decided to publish them as a separate book, using CreateSpace. Over fifty illustrations are used and I have tried to put the cut-outs into the context of Richard’s life and times. If anyone is interested, the book is only a fiver (if you are in the UK) or eight bucks (if you are in the States) and I am optimistic that you will find that in either case Amazon will dispatch for little or no cost.
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
It is slightly daunting to have your book reviewed by a history professor when, like me, you are an exponent of ‘history-lite’ but I was nevertheless delighted to see that the Journal of a Georgian Gentleman has been reviewed by the London Journal and this is to be found in its March 2012 issue. I have set it out in full and entirely accept that I wrote the book from a family slant and that many contemporary social issues were not addressed – largely because if my ancestor Richard Hall did not mention them in his diaries as being of concern to him, I generally did not mention those issues in the book.
Tweetypie