By: Auther Walter A. Dyer
Originally Published 1910
There are one or two very interesting forms which Bate and
Hartshorne scarcely mention. About 1796 appeared the square base, chiefly on
goblets, candle sticks, compote-jars, and other large standing
pieces.Tumblers also came into vogue about this time, many of them handsomely
engraved.
Finally, there were certain pieces made in a very rich colored
glass-usually a deep blue. This is found most commonly as a lining to a
piece of openwork silver-a salt-cellar, mustard-pot, or even a wine- or
cordial-glass.
I find that the average American collector treasures English and
American-made ware impartially, provided it belonged to early
Americans-and the French and Dutch and Bohemian ware, for that matter. The American
made ware, to be honest, was not as beautiful as the English, but much
of it was delightfully quaint, and its source naturally
interesting.
At first the American-made ware was greenish, coarse, and full of
bubbles and sand. After i8oo it was clearer, and the patterns then in
vogue had much original grace. There were salt-cellars, bottles, pitchers,
and toddy-glasses. After about 1810 American pressed and cut glass
began to appear, including goblets, mugs, and various pieces of table
glassware, both large and small.
Glass was manufactured in this country at an earlier date than
either china or silver, but in its beginnings it was very crude. A
glass-bottle factory was established in the woods near Jamestown, in the colony
of Virginia, soon after 1609, and blown glassware was made in various
parts of the country from that time until 1827, when the modern industry
was born with the turning out of the first pressed-glass tumblers at
Sandwich, Massachusetts.
In 1639 coarse bottles, etc., were made in Salem, and in 1683
glassware was made in Philadelphia. In New York City there were two factories
in operation in 1732, one in Connecticut in 1747, and another in
Brooklyn in 1760, while work of no mean character was being turned out in New
Jersey as early as 1739- In the latter part of the eighteenth century
there were factories in Temple, New Hampshire; Albany, Baltimore,
Pittsburgh, and elsewhere.
Among the first successful works and perhaps the most famous was
that at Manheim, Pennsylvania. Here Baron Stiegel established a factory
about 1769, and there are in existence richly colored bowls and goblets
of the Bohemian type which were products of this factory. There are also
interesting bottles and flasks in existence which came from a factory
in Kensington, Philadelphia, that was established in 1771.
As a matter of fact, however, most of our old glassware is not as
old as the china, furniture, and silverware which usually figure in
collections, most of the American ware of any merit having been made after
1800. Some that was made as late as 1850 is considered more or less
valuable today.
Many of the American makers after 1800 adopted the idea of the
Staffordshire potters and made bottles and other pieces, blown in metal
molds and engraved in American historical or political designs by
professional cutters. The coloring in these pieces gives little clue, as the
tints used in 1800 were used both before and after.Neither does the size
tell the story,for that varied.Marks are seldom found. The best we can
do is to label them American and place them somewhere between 1775 and
1850.
Comparatively little that is definite is known of the
eighteenth-century products in this country. We know, however, that the earliest
American bottles are characterized by the rough, irregular edges of their
mouths, where the neck was cut off with shears when the glass was in a
plastic state. They possess no rim or ornament. On the base is found the
pontil-mark, which is also found on old glass pitchers and other
mold-blown pieces of American make. In finer work it was ground off, but this
can usually be detected.
Between 1850 and 1860 an improvement was made.The bottle was held in
a case while the bot tom was finished smooth and round. A rim was also
made at the mouth with a tool. Some of these old bottles were made in
very beautiful tints sapphire blue, emerald green, olive, claret, brown,
opalescent white, light green, pale blue, and transparent white. The
factories were most active between 1848 and 1852, so that the majority of
these bottles now in existence are of this period, though earlier ones
exist.
Professor E. A. Barber has made a very complete study of these
historically decorated bottles in his interesting book, "American
Glassware." As early as 1790, he says, bottles bearing heads and busts of noted
men were made in Baltimore. In 1775 Stanger Bros. established works at
Glassboro, New Jersey, which became the property of Whitney Bros. in
1840 From the latter firm we have brown whisky-bottles shaped like log
cabins, and "Tippecanoe" inkstands in the form of beehives, log cabins,
and cider-barrels emblems of the Presidential campaign of 1840.
In 1850 they made flasks with globular bodies and long, slender
necks,dedicated to Jenny Lind.
Earlier in the century interesting bottles were made of a similar
nature. Among others there was a factory at Coventry, Connecticut, in
1813, which manufactured certain quaint tumblers, decanters, pint flasks,
larger bottles, snuff-canisters, and inkstands. Some of these flasks
bear the initials T.S. or S.& C.
In 1825 several factories made portrait flasks, commemorative of the
opening of the Erie Canal, many of them bearing the busts of General
Lafayette and De Witt Clinton. Others are the railroad bottle of 1825,
the log-cabin bottle of 1840, Pike's Peak, General Zachary Taylor,
Captain Bragg, and Charley Ross bottles, as well as bottles bearing national
and masonic emblems.
The name S. Huffsey appears on a few bottles of about 1850, some of
them decorated with likenesses of Jenny Lind and Louis Kossuth, both of
whom made a stir by their visits to this country. Mr. Barber cites many
other examples of this class of work.
Another historical piece was the glass cup-plate, on which the cup
rested while the tea was cooling in the china saucer. These were much in
favor about 1840, and included local souvenirs, like the Bunker Hill
plates, while others bore the heads of statesmen and some the political
emblems of the 1840 campaign. Among other subjects found on these
cupplates are the log cabin, the Benjamin Franklin steamboat, eagle and
shield, etc. There are also to be found a few molded-glass salt-cellars of
this period, bearing relief devices of the American eagle and stars.
Apart from their historical significance, however, these pieces lack
the charm of the earlier pressed ware, while most valuable of all are the
occasional odd pieces that are now quite rare, which were decorated in
colors burned in, as on china.
The opal glass of the early nineteenth century should also be
mentioned. It was very fashionable about 1820 for candlesticks, lamps, cups,
small plates, door-knobs, mirror-knobs, drawer handles, and rosettes
for looping back window-curtains.
Like every other class of antiques, old glassware is faked,
especially abroad. The Germans have turned out much bogus Bohemian ware.It is
probably a fact, however, that most of the glassware in this country is
genuine. The dealers here as a rule find it more profitable to sell
their reproductions frankly as such, and these reproductions are to be
found in many antique shops.
Because of the lack of trade-marks and other distinguishing features,
no ready-made rules for detecting imitations can be laid down. The
experienced connoisseur can usually divine the difference, but the safeguard
of the novice is to purchase in out of the way places, or require a
signed statement from the dealer. As a matter of fact, it costs so much to
imitate the old pieces, whether blown, pressed, or molded, ground or
cut, that faking does not pay at the prevailing prices. The cost of
making a metal mold would usually discourage the attempt.
The value of the sort of glassware herein described varies greatly, but
the prices secured by sales are seldom high-often lower than modern cut
glass. In fact, the modern ware is so much better in every way that
there is not much demand for the old. This fact, however, should not lower
the value of the old glass in the eyes of the collector.
In general, the values do not range as high as for most kinds of old
china. Beautiful pieces of cut glass of the early nineteenth century can
sometimes be secured for $ 10, or a little more, and they are certainly
worth it.
Full sets are not only rare, but are not much in demand. For
present-day use they are not popular because of the lack of finger-bowls and
other desirable pieces. Of course the presence of such pieces
immediately stamps a set containing them as a reproduction. Such reproductions,
however, are popular for home use and deservedly so.
The values attributed to old glassware are of wide range and difficult
to determine. In a shop recently I saw a fine pair of cut-glass
bonbon-dishes marked $28 for the pair. If such a pair had belonged to my
grandmother I might well value it at $50. Another more elaborate
bonbon-dish, over one hundred years old, was valued at $25, and another pair was
appraised at $35.As a rule, the sort of pieces shown here-decanters,
carafes, compote-dishes, etc.-may be bought for from $15 is to $20, and
sometimes beautifully cut pieces are to be obtained for $25 or less.
I have seen late eighteenth-century wine-glasses, handsomely
engraved, marked $1.25 each, and a beautiful pair of cruets of later date
marked $4.50 each. Tumblers of the early nineteenth century are worth about
$2 each, American bottles $6 to $12, and American cup-plates $1
apiece.
