A cut glass huqqa base, probably London for the Indian market, circa 1820-30, of bell-shape form, on a flat base with high shoulder and slightly everted mouth, 19cm. high The export market for English cut lead glass in the late 18th century and the first half of the 19th was huge. As early as 1752, the London glasscutter and retailer Jerome Johnson was advertising 'Turkish and Indian Fashions, Hubble-Bubbles, Springel Glasses for Exportation ...'. This trade was later taken up by John Blades of Ludgate Hill, and by his associates Mathews & Jones, who had a warehouse in Calcutta in the 1820s selling 'a superb assortment of lustres, wall and table shades, hookahs, dessert services, toilet and useful glassware, cut and plain ...'. The Indian princely taste for opulence was well served by the enormous range of British glass on offer - heavy, lustrous, deeply and accurately cut by hand with the aid of steam power. A similar example is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (C.117-1998) where it is noted "few if any complete specimens are known to survive, and certainly not in Britain." A cut glass huqqa base, probably London for the Indian market, circa 1820-30, of bell-shape form, on a flat base with high shoulder and slightly everted mouth, 19cm. high The export market for English cut lead glass in the late 18th century and the first half of the 19th was huge. As early as 1752, the London glasscutter and retailer Jerome Johnson was advertising 'Turkish and Indian Fashions, Hubble-Bubbles, Springel Glasses for Exportation ...'. This trade was later taken up by John Blades of Ludgate Hill, and by his associates Mathews & Jones, who had a warehouse in Calcutta in the 1820s selling 'a superb assortment of lustres, wall and table shades, hookahs, dessert services, toilet and useful glassware, cut and plain ...'. The Indian princely taste for opulence was well served by the enormous range of British glass on offer - heavy, lustrous, deeply and accurately cut by hand with the aid of steam power. A similar example is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (C.117-1998) where it is noted "few if any complete specimens are known to survive, and certainly not in Britain."