The firm was founded in Manchester in 1858 at Poland St glass works, in the Oldham Rd area. It specialised in flint glass, coloured glass and ornamental glass. It is best known for pressed glass ornaments in colours which often imitated Davidson’s pearline. The first registration was in 1870.

In the early 1880’s there were 2 glass houses in Poland St. and the Victoria glass works in Bolton, whose main product was table glass. In 1887 a new glassworks opened in German St. near Poland St. The Bolton factory was closed and all the work was concentrated in the 2 Manchester factories.

Most of the interesting items were registered after 1886. The firm marked its registration numbers in an oblong box.

It made many items in “Topas Opalescent”, similar to Davidson’s pearline, but which appeared in a wider variety of colours. A popular colour was Uranium, a greenish-yellow. In 1894 a variation called “Sunrise” was introduced, used mostly in blown glass, but sometimes found in flower holders. The colour deepens from yellow to amber to pink with ruby edges. The output in the later 1890s was large, both in ornamental and utilitarian glass. In cheap lines they were far ahead of foreign makers, as the quality of the metal was extremely high.

The firm was acquired by Butterworth Bros of Manchester in 1924.