Glassworking: History’s a Beach

When the first colonists landed near Jamestown in 1608, they found a ready source of raw materials for making glass – the sandy beaches on which they came ashore.

This was good news for businessmen in London, who hoped to manufacture goods that could be sold for a profit. While the first factory was up and running by 1609, it was difficult to enlist Englishmen to leave home. Even by bringing German and Polish craftsmen, the factory enjoyed only limited successes.

Twelve years later, a second factory was built, and Italian glassblowers were brought in, with hopes for a greater chance of success. But the Italians proved difficult to work with, the glasshouse blew down, and the Indian uprising of 1622 effectively sealed its fate. Little is known about what was made at Jamestown during the two ventures.
After that glasshouses began to spring up from Salem, Massachusetts to Baltimore, Maryland. But the first successful large-scale operation wasn’t established until 1739 in New Jersey, making simple articles, chiefly bottles, for average citizens. The wealthy still imported their crystal from the Old Country.

Around 1827 mechanization made possible mass-produced glass household articles by pressing molten glass into molds. Pattern glass quickly became the preferred process for over 100 years, with the Sandwich Glass Company producing approximately 1500 patterns. Early designs had a classic simplicity; as Victoriana swept the world, the designs became more complex.

About the middle of the 19th century the eastern American glassworks began producing luxury, cut, lead crystal. Then came cut glass, and the Victorian vogue for colored glass and elaborate decoration. By the turn of the century Art Nouveau become very popular in America, thanks to artists like Louis Comfort Tiffany, Frederick Carder, Arthur J. Nash, and Victor Durand.

Left: Louis Comfort Tiffany, Vase, 1901-1905, Courtesy of The Newark Museum

Right: Frederick Carder, Vase, c. 1927, Courtesy of The Newark Museum

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