12 Facts About Chance Brothers

Chance Brothers and Company was a glassworks originally based in Spon Lane, Smethwick, West Midlands, in England.

Chance Brothers family originated in Bromsgrove in Worcestershire as farmers and craftsmen, before setting up business in Smethwick in 1822.

Chance Brothers ran into difficulty and its survival was guaranteed in 1832 by investment from Chance's brother, William who owned an iron factoring business in Great Charles Street, Birmingham.

Bontemps agreed to share the secret with Chance Brothers and stayed in England to collaborate with them for six years.

In 1870 Chance Brothers took over the failing Nailsea Glassworks in Somerset, but problems with coal supply led to the closure of that business.

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Chance Brothers popularised slumped glass tableware, Fiestaware that included many innovative designs, including the famous Swirl pattern, and Lace, Night Sky, Green Leaves, Calypto, with floral depictions from 1965 with Anemone.

From 1851, Chance Brothers became a major lighthouse engineering company, producing optical components, machinery, and other equipment for lighthouses around the world.

James Timmins Chance Brothers pioneered placing lighthouse lamps inside a cage surrounded by fresnel lenses to increase the available light output; the cages, known as optics, revolutionised lighthouse design.

Chance Brothers continued to use Crookes as a tradename into the 1960s.

Chance Brothers developed cathode ray tubes just before the outbreak of World War II.

Chance Brothers Bros developed precision bore glass tubing under the trade name Veridia in the 1950s.

Archives of Chance Brothers Ltd are held at Sandwell Community History and Archives Service.