Glass

The study of antique glass requires time and effort. Glassmakers were directed to make glass as clear as possible until about 1860. Colored glass was not popular until after the Civil War. Some colored glass was made earlier and some 18th century pieces were produced from blue. purple, or green glass.

Understanding the basic manufacturing of glass helps one appreciate the different forms glass can be made into. The basic materials to make glasss are sand and different alkalis; mixed together and heated to get a molten glass or metal. This metal is blown through a blowpipe or blown into a pattern mold or pressed into a mold. Each process produces a different type of glass object.

The techniques of decoration vary in hundreds of ways. Glass can be made with colored designs, painted or enameled ; it can be engraved or etched or cut as was the brilliant cut glass made in the 1880's.

As the values of Victorian art glass and patterned cut and pressed glass have soared, collectors are attracted to early 20th century household glassware.Good quality glassware was mass produced by many American companies but was not always marked so identification is often difficult. It is suggested that a collector choose the wares of one factory and then use every source available to find examples.

Some of the 20th Century American factories were:

• Akro-Agate, established 1911 (marbles),
• Cambridge Glass Company, 1902 (pressed glass),
• Duncan & Miller, 1900, (all types),
• Fenton Art Glass Company, 1907 (Carnival Glass and later Hobnail and reproductions),
• Fostoria Glass Company, formed in 1887 but produced it's popular wares in the 1920's (pressed glass, oil lamps, restaurant glass, colored glass),
• Fry Glass,1922 (cut glass),
• Heisey Glass, opened in 1896 ( pressed glass),
• Imperial Glass Company,1904 (clear presssed glass and jelly glasses, Depression glass),
• Kemple Glass, 1945 (milk glass, slag glass, cobalt blue and black amethyst, end-of -day, amber and red glass),
• McKee Glass Company, 1853 (became National Glass Company and later trademarked "Prescut"),
• Millersbutg Glass Company, 1910-1912 (Carnival glass),
• New Martinsville Glass Manufacturing Company, 1900, became the Viking Glass Company,1944 ( began making restaurant glass and lamps and later made art glass such as peachblow and other pressed glass ),
• Northwood Glass Company,1890's (made blown, pressed, colored and clear glass in early years, later custard and Carival glass),
• Paden City Glass Manufacturing Company, 1916 (made glass sold and customized for other companies),
• Pairpoint Manufacturing Company took over the Mt. Washington Glass Company, 1894 (pressed, cut and art glass),
• Phoenix Glass Company, 1886,(first made glass insulation, kerosene lamp chimneys and electric lighting parts; later made colored sculptured glassware),
• Sinclaire Company of Corning,N.Y., 1905 ( clear and colored glass),
• Tiffin joined the U.S. Glass Company, 1892 (made a variety of glass including black satin glass and later stemware),
• Verlys Glass of America ( French company that began producing lead glass in the U.S.in 1935 (etched and cut glass)

Any discussion of glass is incomplete without the mention and influence of Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933). As a young interior designer, trained in Paris, his firm decorated for the rich and famous. They coodinated everything for a room, including furniture, wallpaper, carpet, lights, and accessories. Through an interest in stained- glass windows, he bagan working with the glass itself and developed many new colors and textures.

The Tiffany Glass Company started in 1885 made primarily stained-glass windows. In 1892 Louis Tiffany founded the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company to make and sell all types of glass and to continue the interior decorting. In 1893 he joined Arthr J. Nash to found an experimental glass company where the famous iridescent glass, Favrile, was developed. In 1902 they went on to make the bronze or copper metal mounts used for their lamps and desk sets under the name of Tiffany Furnaces. The rest of the Tiffany company was named Tiffany Studios where they made enamel on metal, art pottery and jewelry. Louis Comfort Tiffany was appointed a vice-president of the family store which is still in business today. The Tiffany Furnaces Company sold it's name in 1928. The works of Louis Tiffany fell out of favor in the 1920s. The Tiffany Studios went out of business in 1939.

Not until the 1960s did the art world rediscover the spectactular designs of Louis Comfort Tiffany; meanwhile the glass was copied and even forged as original. Tiffany's designs and coloring influenced the makers of less expensive glasswares and iridescent glass was made for the masses by the companies mentioned in the former paragraph. The Fenton Art Glass Company of Williamstown, West Virginia made most of the Carnival glass and other iridescent tableware made for the modest home but it was the unique designs and color influences of the original works of Louis Comfort Tiffany that made this glassware so popular and collectible.