William Hone, in his "Day-Book" for 1831, says, "This superb glass vase, designed by John Gunby, and exhibited at the Queen's Bazaar, Oxford Street, London, is an immense basin of copper, and its iron shaft or foot clothed with two thousand four hundred pieces of glass, construct a vase fourteen feet high and twelve feet wide across the brim, weighing upwards of eight tons, and capable of holding eight pipes of wine. Each piece of glass is richly cut with mathematical precision and beautifully colored; the colors are gold, ruby, emerald, &c.; the colored pieces being cemented upon the metal body and rendered air-tight. The exterior is a gem-like surface of inconceivable splendor; on a summer afternoon it forms a mass of brilliancy. The vase, by illumination of gas alone, glittered like diamonds upon melted gold. Mr. Reingale says the human mind, in all of its extensive range of thought, is not able to conceive a splendid glass vase cut in a more elaborate and novel way. At the first sight one is confounded with astonishment, and knows not whether what we see is real, or whether on a sudden we have not been transported to another globe. To England is due the honor of its production, and it comes from the hands of one of its numerous celebrated artists, Mr. Gunby. The precious metal, gold, glitters in all its glory, intermixed, or rather united with extraordinary beauty of cutting and rich and splendid enamelled painting. One is at a loss whether most to admire the shape, the gorgeous brilliancy, the sparkle of the gems, the beauty of the cutting, the enamelling, the general conception, or the immense bulk of this magnificent and astounding work of art." The "Scientific American" states, "The troupe of glass-blowers at Hope Chapel furnish a very interesting evening's entertainment for those who are fond of practical things. A steam-engine, most beautifully constructed of different colored glass, is worked by steam all the time. The nature of the material affords an opportunity to see all the several parts moving at once, and it is really a very curious sight, even to an engineer, and one that will well repay a visit."