Background
He started work at his father"s business in Birmingham, at the age of 12, then started his own glass merchant business in London in 1815.
He started work at his father"s business in Birmingham, at the age of 12, then started his own glass merchant business in London in 1815.
He was always known as Lucas Chance. This involved many trips to France where he formed alliances with French owners. In 1824 he purchased the British Crown Glass Company, following the death of the owner, Thomas Shutt, for £24,000, which is worth around £1 million in 2009.
The partnership with Hartley"s sons (who inherited the partnership on their father"s death in 1833) was dissolved in 1836 and the business was then named Chance Brothers & Company.
Chance was instrumental in introducing the method of Sheet glass production for making flat glass for (primarily) windows. This would eventually dispose the previous working method of Crown glass.
He was also one of the great exponents in removing the crippling excise duty and the Window Tax. Following these actions, the glass trade in England started to flourish.
In 1851, Chance Brothers supplied the glass to glaze the Crystal Palace, which was probably partly due to Chance"s previous links with Joseph Paxton, the architect, when supplying glass for the greenhouses at Chatsworth House.
The two brothers were also very philanthropic, founding a school (1845), a library and a church, all primarily for the workforce. Lucas Chance died in 1865.