LOOK around any of Bristol's main tourist destinations and you'll see Bristol Blue glass for sale. In fact its connections with the city are so strong that Harvey's Bristol Cream sherry, although no longer bottled here, is available in blue glass bottles.
Just how this attractive, coloured glass became part of Bristol's manufacturing tradition is revealed in an informative little book by Mike Rendell.
By the 18th century, he says, the city had become well known for its glass making skills, utilised in the manufacture of window panes and glass bottles for the beer, cider and wine trade.
In fact, it's been estimated that over 50 per cent of all the glass used in England in the 18th century was produced in Bristol.
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At one stage, it's said, there were as many as 60 cone-shaped glass-making kilns, fired by local coal, poking above the house tops.
Only the stump of one remains, the much truncated circle of brick which houses the Kiln Restaurant, at the back of the former Ramada Hotel, now the Doubletree by Hilton, in Prewett Street.
Blue glass had already made an appearance; small medicine bottles – now collector's items – were being manufactured in the city in the middle of the 17th century.
But soon all that was to change.
During the late 18th century Bristol merchant Richard Champion, who was making porcelain, was working with a Devon-born chemist called William Cookworthy.
"Champion wanted a way of emulating the blue-on-white porcelain produced in the Far East," explains Mike.
"Cookworthy knew of cobalt oxide, known as smalt, which was being mined at the Royal Saxon Cobalt Works in Saxony.
"When production ceased in 1753 he bought the exclusive rights to all the remaining smalt stocks and, over the next 20 years, they were brought into England by ship into just one port – Bristol.
"And so it was that the flint glass makers of Bristol suddenly found themselves with easy access to the mineral which they could mix with lead glass to make a beautiful soft-blue material."
As other glass makers, in other cities, were forced to buy their cobalt from Cookworthy so the name, "Bristol Blue" arose.
Lazarus Jacobs, a Jewish businessman and glass cutter originally from Germany, became a top maker of "Bristol Blue" glass in the 1780s.
"When the major glass manufacturing business of Perrots went into bankruptcy in 1774 Lazarus bought a pair of adjoining houses in Temple Street belonging to the business so that he could develop his glass cutting and engraving skills," says Mike.
Assisted by his teenage son, Isaac, Lazarus soon became adept at adding cobalt oxide to the glass, which soon became fashionable.
"Blue Glass was made in many centres, including Newcastle and Stourbridge, and it quickly became the vogue on smart dinner tables," says Mike.
"But what distinguished the Jacobs glass from items from all other manufacturers was that theirs were often signed, making them both identifiable and extremely collectable."
Blue Glass was often produced to commemorate current events, such as the birth of the Prince of Wales (later King George IV) in August 1762.
When Lazarus died in 1796, aged 87, he passed the business on to Isaac, who, in 1805, opened the Nonsuch Glass Manufactory.
A year later, says Mike, he had opened a Bristol shop and was describing himself as "glass manufacturer to His Majesty" even though nothing had actually been commissioned from the king.
In 1809 Isaac had made enough money (£15-£20,000 per annum) to build himself a mansion in Weston-super-Mare.
He was made a Bristol Freeman and granted his very own coat of arms.
But high taxes, cheap imports and an inability to raise funds to pay for his new house, soon made life uncomfortable for Isaac.
As the banks foreclosed on him Isaac was declared a bankrupt and found himself briefly in gaol.
It was further claimed that he had acted fraudulently in paying his son, Joseph, a wage while being chased by creditors.
With his business in ruins Isaac became a recluse, dying in 1832 and being buried in the Jewish graveyard in Rose Street.
His grand house in Weston was demolished in 1925 to make way for a bus station.
Bristol's glass makers were invited to demonstrate their skills at the Great Exhibition of 1851, opened by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
Today there are two modern companies making Blue Glass in the city.
Bristol Blue by Mike Rendell is available from Amazon.co.uk for just under £7.
