IMPORTANT WILLIAM BEILBY (ENGLISH, 1740-1819) ATTRIBUTED FREE-BLOWN AND ENAMEL-DECORATED PRESENTATION FLASK, colorless lead glass, compressed oval form, white enamel-decorated with the inscription "James Warmby / Manchefter / 1760" below a scrolling shoulder band featuring a ruined castle with a bird perched on top, with a simpler scrolling band below; tooled mouth with five rounded neck rings, rough pontil mark to base. Circa 1760. 6 1/4" HOA.
Literature: James Rush - The Ingenious Beilbys, p. 90 and ibid, p. 112, fig. 63.
Catalogue Note: Presently, there are only two other white-enameled presentation flasks attributed to the hand of William Beilby. For an illustrative comparison, see the "Thomas Brown Flask", which currently resides at the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, England) with accession number WA1957.24.2.181. The flasks' inscriptions are strikingly similar but the decorative surrounds on the latter flask, dated 1769, are of a noticeably higher quality than on the present "Warmby" flask, unsurprising given the much earlier date of production. Beilby was only 20 years old and about to complete his apprenticeship in Birmingham; it seems likely that this flask would have been commissioned and completed while he still resided in Birmingham, before traveling back north to Newcastle (where he would reside for the bulk of his career). This seems especially possible when considering the man to whom the flask was presented: James Warmby (sometimes "Wharmby") was a bureaucrat in Manchester (far from Newcastle, much closer to Birmingham), and according to available court records he was sworn into public office several times including the years 1748, 1750, 1751, and 1755, apparently as some type of officer in the city markets' Weights and Measures department. His purview was the sections of "Alportlane, Deansgate, St. Ann's Square, and adjacent" in Manchester. His relationship to William Beilby, and to John Hazeldine (the Birmingham enameler to whom William was apprenticed), is unknown.
Research into this area of British glassmaking history is ongoing. It has long been theorized (but never proven) that William Beilby was first inspired to paint in enamels on glass while in Birmingham, and would have likely experimented with it at that time. Rush reports that he "apparently met many Stourbridge glassmakers, and this significant event turned his attention towards glass as an art medium". These glassmakers remain unidentified, as do any other South Staffordshire enamelers with which they may have been affiliated. And while it is possible that one of them is responsible for the present flask, the amateurish decoration (the castle in particular shows "a naivety which might be expected of someone practicing the craft", according to one expert who viewed it) combines with the fortuitous date to indeed suggest a young William Beilby as the likeliest culprit.
The recent discovery of the Warmby flask is significant for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is the simple fact that, even if the flask were not attributable to Beilby, it still appears to be "the earliest known dated example of opaque-white enamel painted on English lead glass", according to noted British glass authority Simon Cottle, who has made a special study of Beilby enameled glass. We are thankful to Simon for consulting with us on this intriguing and previously unknown flask.

Undamaged with heavy wear/scratching to the surface.