Development and Advancement in American Glass - By: Mitch Johnson

During the course of the eighteenth century numerous glasshouses
came up and went. The greatest demands in America would be for
the window-glass and for bottles. The immigrants owned most of
the American glasshouses from Germans and the England who
brought their skills.

America

It is known that Captain John Smith sent back to England
a sample of glass made on American soil in 1609, but doubtless
the anonymous maker and his successors made purely utilitarian
pieces. The greatest demand would be for window-glass and for
bottles; a demand that continued for many years to come.
Numerous glasshouses came and went during the course of the
eighteenth century: Richard Wistar advertised in 1769 'between
Three and Four Hundred Boxes of Window Glass, Lamp Glass,
Bottles, Snuff and Mustard Receivers, and Retorts of various
Sizes, also Electrifying Globes and Tubes, while in 1773 Henry
William Steigel had for sale: 'decanters, tumblers, wine
glasses, jelly and cillabub glasses, wide-mouth bottles for
sweetmeats, phyals for doctors', etc.

As can be understood, not a great quantity of American-made
glass from before 1800 has survived, and examples show divergent
styles. Both English and German immigrants owned or worked in
the glasshouses of the time, and each brought the skills and
patterns of his homeland. Not only is it a matter of difficulty
to distinguish between the productions of the various factories
on American soil, but also wares made in many of the lesser
European factories at about the same date are not dissimilar.

Pocket spirit-flasks were in demand at the end of the eighteenth
century, and usually were made by blowing the molten glass into
an ornamented mould; the ornament being impressed on the article
when it cooled and was removed from the hinged mould.

In the nineteenth century, once the United States had become
independent, imports were discouraged and manufacturing of goods
increased. Innumerable glassworks opened, but none stayed the
course solely by making table or ornamental wares; profits from
them were insufficient and window-glass and bottles were the
mainstays. Finally, a machine for making pressed glassware was
invented and came into use about 1828. Pressing involves the
placing of molten glass into a mould, then a further mould is
pressed on the still-molten material to force it into shape; one
or both moulds could bear ornamentation, depending on the shape
of the finished article. This provided a quick and cheap method
of making imitations of cut glass, and of introducing further
ornament, for instance beading, which was not practicable on the
wheel.

Pressed colored glass was made in great quantities. The Boston
and Sandwich Glassworks, of Sandwich, Mass., founded in 1828 by
Deming Jarves, is probably the best-known source, but very many
other factories, both large and small, made similar wares which
are barely distinguishable one from another. Some examples are
marked with the name of the maker, but many cannot be assigned
to any particular factory.

Copies of some of the French mid-nineteenth-century glass
paperweights were made at the Boston and Sandwich Glassworks,
and some original designs also were produced there.

Books The standard works on English glass are British Table and
Ornamental Glass, by L. M. Angus-Butterworth; From Broad Glass
to Cut Crystal, by D. R. Glittery, both books distributed in the
United States by Arco Publishing Company; New York; and A
History of English and Irish Glass, by W. A. Thorpe, 1929, in
two volumes. Less comprehensive, also by W. A. Thorpe, is
English Glass. W. B. Honey's Glass (Victoria and Albert Museum,
1946), deals with all countries.

The skilled craftsmen from the European countries like Germans,
the Dutch, the English and others brought their skills and built
their own glasshouses and they made their own styles of glass
which they brought from the nations of their origins. Some of
these glass produced during this times can still be seen. There
are some books that can help you to find more information about
the details of glass.

During the course of the eighteenth century numerous glasshouses
came up and went. The greatest demands in America would be for
the window-glass and for bottles. The immigrants owned most of
the American glasshouses from Germans and the England who
brought their skills.

Mitch Johnson is a regular writer for href="www.kitchen-plans-n-designs.com">http://www.kitchen-plans-n
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