Invention.
Producing glass with an iridescent finish to replicate that found on excavated Roman glass, had, according to Mark Hill,been invented by Leo Valentina Pantocsek (1812 – 1893).
Iridescent glass production in Stourbridge was started later, in 1877, by Thomas Wilkes Webb who patented an invention, for “An Improved Means of Producing Iridescent Colours on Glass”. Thomas Webb & Sons exhibited this glass, which they called Bronze, at the Paris Exhibition of 1878.
Richardson also displayed bronze iridescent glass, at the Paris 1878 exhibition and were promptly pursued by Webb for infringing their patent.
Stevens & Williams did not produce iridescent glass until 1908, when it was known as “Fleuriscent” glass.
