Mary Beilby (c. 1750 – 1797) was an enameller and glass-painter in the Beilby glassware family.
She was baptised in Durham in 1750, the youngest child of William Beilby senior, a silversmith, and his wife Mary Bainbridge, a schoolteacher. Her six siblings included William, Ralph, and Thomas. By 1760, the family had moved to Gateshead, where Ralph set up Beilby & Co., using William's expertise from his apprenticeship as an enameller.[1]
Mary joined the family business at a young age: when Thomas Bewick joined the Beilby workshop as an apprentice in 1776, he reported that William "taught his brother Thomas and sister Mary enamelling and painting; and, in this way, this most respectable and industrious family lived together and maintained themselves."[2] They would purchase glass vessels and paint them in their home,[3] which Bewick said was Mary and Thomas's "constant employment". Bewick's memoir reports a secret attachment to Mary, which he felt he could not act on due to her family's contemptuous treatment of him.
In 1774, Bewick records that "Miss Beilby had a paralytic stroke, which very greatly altered her look, and rendered her for some time unhappy."[2] Sometime after 1788, she moved to Fife to join William and his wife there. She died in 1797.[1]
Beilby ware involves fine enamelled designs on glass including rococo flourishes, landscape vignettes, and heraldic designs.[4] Although Mary's contribution is acknowledged, it is difficult to identify exactly which pieces she decorated.[5][6]
References edit
- ^ a b "Beilby family (per. c. 1755–1819), glass enamellers and engravers". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/73669. Retrieved 2023-11-25. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ a b Bewick, Thomas. "A Memoir of Thomas Bewick / Written by himself". Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 2023-11-25.
- ^ admin (2017-03-05). "The Decorated Glass of William and Mary Beilby". World Collectors Net. Retrieved 2023-11-25.
- ^ "Beilby Glass". Antiques Trade Gazette. Retrieved 2023-11-25.
- ^ Cottle, Simon, 'Enamelled Glass: The Beilbys Recollected,' Apollo 129 (1989), p. 398.
- ^ Cottle, Simon, "William Beilby and the Art of Glass,' The Glass Circle Journal 9 (2001), p. 34.