Isaac Jacobs (1757 – August 1835) was a designer and manufacturer of Bristol blue glass, and is believed to be its inventor.
Isaac was one of three children of Lazarus Jacobs, a Jewish immigrant from Frankfort am Main, and Mary Hiscocks, from Templecombe, Somerset.
[1] Using cobalt oxide imported by William Cookworthy from Saxony, Isaac designed and branded Bristol blue glass as it is known today.
When Lazarus died in 1796, Isaac took over the business, and was able to move his family to 16 Somerset Square Redcliffe, near the glass factory.
He died in 1835, and was buried in the cemetery he had bought for the Jewish community at St Phillip's twenty years earlier.
[5] On 10 June 1808, Harriet Keyser, Isaac Jacob's daughter, wrote to David Samuels, manager at her father's glass factory.
Harriet asks for a decanter, a jug, champagne glasses and 'finger cups', as well as glassware for lemonade and jelly.
This might be the 'Dessert set' that Isaac's advertising campaign describes as 'burnished gold upon royal purple coloured glass', which they 'had the honour of sending to their Majesties'.