Carre, Jean
Carre, Jean
ACHIEVEMENTS:
Helped to establish improved glassmaking in England
NICKNAME/ALIAS:
None
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:
Arras, Flanders
DATE AND PLACE OF DEATH AND AGE AT DEATH:
1572
DISCIPLINE:
Glassmaker
FIELD:
Glass manufacture
PARENTS:
Father:
Mother:
SIBLINGS:
?
SPOUSE:
?
CHILDREN:
?
EDUCATION:
?
MAJOR WORK:
None
LIFE AND TIMES:
Carre, the son of French merchant, settled in London with his family in 1567. In the same year he obtained a license to build furnaces for a glassworks in Kent to make window glass, and permission from the City of London to install a Venetian-style furnace. The Venetians were then acknowledged as the finest glassmakers in Europe.
A few months after building his furnaces, Carre received a patent which secured him freedom from local competition in the manufacture of window glass for twenty-one years. In 1568 Carre, together with his partner, applied for wood for charcoal from Windsor Park. He brought many skilled foreign glassmakers to England to work his furnaces. He also imported “barilla” (the ashes of the glasswort plant) from Spain to replace the inferior types of alkali used by English glassmakers.
He successfully established a small glassworks industry, producing various types of glass including crystal. He located glassworks in a number of places in the south of England. His success led to resentment among native workers and costs of transportation to and from Europe were high.
After Carre died in 1572, the industry he had established was run for only a few years by his relations. The English became increasingly anxious to establish glassmaking in the hands of native craftsmen and the industry in England did not really take off again until Mansell* became involved in the next century.
ASSESSMENT: Carre was responsible for introducing up-to-date continental practices into English glassmaking in the sixteenth century.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: Nehou*?
ONELINER: Jean Carre, early glassmaker.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Vose, Ruth Hurst, Glass, William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., London, 1980