Sulphide brooch portraying William Roscoe by Apsley Pellatt

Rare example sulphide brooch portraying one of the leading Liverpool abolitionists-William Roscoe. The item was produced by Apsley Pellatt- an English glassware manufacturer and politician. The process of producing sulphides involved the embedding of ceramic figurines into the glass sides of paperweights, jugs, decanters, etc., by cutting a hole in the hot glass, sliding in the insert, and resealing the glass afterward. Pellatt became the most famous and successful producers of sulfides in England from 1819 to the mid-century rivalled only by Baccarat in France.