CONTEXT 177 : SEPTEMBER 2023 35 WORKING WITH GLASS KATRIONA BYRNE The long reign of Vitrolite For eight decades, from high streets in the UK, Ireland, Europe and the USA to the bedroom of the Maharajah of Indore, this glass product opened up new possibilities. Vitrolite was a 20th-century glass that transformed certain areas of our architectural landscape. It had a much longer reign than other such inventions, stretching from 1908 to 1990, with its heyday between 1910 and 1970. My interest in it began as a response to its aesthetic character in Irish shopfronts and a piece of casework as a conservation officer in Dublin, which led to a research thesis in 2005-6. Vitrolite is a coloured, rolled opal plate glass. The rolled nature of it refers to the ridged underside from the rolling of the molten glass after it leaves the oven; the opal quality refers to its opacity, which was a closely-guarded secret; and plate refers to the fact that it was made by casting rather than blowing, as was common for large sheets of glass before the 1959 development of float glass. Anything published on Vitrolite will date it to the 1920s or 30s, but I found examples that dated to 1908 from both the USA and Europe. While its European origins remain obscure, I unravelled its industrial history from the USA to the UK. In the USA, the Vitrolite Company was incorporated in 1910 to produce the material for structural purposes. Its use spread rapidly to subway stations, bars, hotels and restaurants, its cleanliness associated with a ‘world of sparkling white wherever men assembled for food and drink’. In 1913 the company bought the sole rights to the British Isles, lining a corridor in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and numerous hospital theatres. Colours were introduced in 1922, and countless adverts targeted the housewife, promoting it for bathrooms and kitchens. Pilkingtons of Lancashire re-established its architects’ department in 1928 to exploit this new glass. The company tried to manufacture it itself but failed to, instead buying out the Vitrolite Company in 1932. Salesmen travelled round with little boxes of samples; as well as all the translucent glasses they would have Vitrolite in black, white and mint green. They commissioned the book Glass in Architecture and Decoration by Raymond McGrath and AC Frost, still one of the best texts on the subject. Pilkingtons continued Vitrolite production until 1968. Other trade names included Carrara (USA), Marmorite and ‘black polished’ (UK). Peplow’s in Worcester High Street, with a shopfront by Edmonds Shopfitters of Birmingham and London. Vitrolite was often associated with jeweller’s shops.
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