Glass blowing at Ashbourne

Although all the hand blown glassware is crafted at the Ashbourne Factory, the Derby furnace makes glass items such as paperweights and hand pressed ware such as our ever popular crystal slipper.
Also based at Derby is our section for sandblasting and hand engraving the glassware with emblems, names and company logos. A popular service for wedding and retirement gifts, and company promotional items.

The lead crystal is made from the purest of materials available. It is a carefully prepared mixture of silica sand, lead oxide, potash and several minor ingredients which, when melted at 1400 degrees Celsius results in a quality English crystal with sparkle and clarity. The glass makers then fashion the 'metal', as the liquid glass is known, into a wide range of tableware and fancy items. This includes an extensive range of glasses in different styles and an assortment of vases and bowls.

From the glass makers the unfinished product is then passed to the decorators for the intricate patterns to be cut into the glass using diamond impregnated grinding wheels.

From there the glass then goes on to the polishing section and after careful inspection to the display cabinets in our showrooms for retail sale.
The glass melting furnace and all the ancillary equipment was designed and built by a sister company, A.I.C. (Derby) Ltd., who are specialist furnace and combustion engineers. Due to the pioneering energy conservation techniques tremendous savings in fuel costs were obtained over running costs of comparable equipment.