Examples of signed, handmade cameo glass command high prices, but less expensive mass-produced pieces are still very collectable.

Roman masterpiece the Portland Vase, probably made in Rome between 25 BC and AD 25, is the most famous example of cameo glass. It was eventually brought to England and acquired by the Duchess of Portland. Josiah Wedgwood’ s 18thC copy in jasperware was so accurate that when the real vase was smashed by a madman in 1845, the copy was used to help restore the original.

Until about 1880 cameo glass, made with different coloured layers, was carved on a wheel and with hand tools to reveal shades of the lower layer. After that acid etching was often used, and today sandblasting may be employed.

Antique Collection

The first cameo glass was made by the Romans. After the fall of Rome, cameo skills re-emerged in 9th and 10th-century Persia. The Chinese made cameo glass in the 18th and 19th centuries — in particular, beautiful snuff bottles that now sell for £400-£600. It was only after the Portland Vase — the most famous piece of cameo glass — was deliberately smashed in 1845 that English glass-makers began to imitate the technique.

John Northwood of Wordsley, near Stour- bridge, was the first to copy the Portland Vase accurately, in 1876, establishing a fashion for cameo glass. The major Stourbridge glass- makers quickly geared up to produce it on a commercial scale, using copper-wheel carving and hydrofluoric acid etching for speed. Thomas Webb & Sons and Stevens & Williams became the leading British makers, eventually producing pieces involving up to seven different-coloured layers of glass.

George and Thomas Woodall were Webb’s most respected artists from the 1880s until 1911, and their work is much sought after. Signed pieces are extremely expensive, and a Thomas Webb vase of three colours by the Woodall brothers sells for £30,000-£40,000. However, later examples of unsigned Webb cameo glass can go at auction for some £800£2000. Even mass-produced pieces are highly collectable — and are much more affordable than handmade, signed examples. A two- colour acid-etched Webb vase, for example, is likely to change hands for £800-£1500.

Baccarat and St Louis were the leading French factories to produce cameo glass, but probably the most renowned were Emile Galle and the Daum brothers, whose pieces often fetch well into five figures. British 19th-century designs were usually Classically inspired, whereas French artists preferred a less restrained, freeform approach typical of the Art Nouveau style.

In 1916 the Orrefors factory in Sweden pioneered Graal’ glass, in which cameo glass was reheated, covered with clear glass and blown out to create a soft, watery quality.

Such pieces sell for £1000-£2000. Thomas Webb & Sons also revived cameo glass- making in the 1930s, and the technique is still being used by contemporary craftsmen.

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