All About Glass

All About Glass

This is your resource for exploring various topics in glass: delve deeper with this collection of articles, multimedia, and virtual books all about glass. Content is frequently added to the area, so check back for new items. If you have a topic you'd like to see covered, send us your suggestion. If you have a specific question, Ask a Glass Question at our Rakow Research Library.

Baccarat
Article

The Compagnie des Verreries et Cristalleries de Baccarat, the most famous name in French glass, was founded in 1764 by Monseigneur de Montmorency-­Laval, the bishop of Metz, as a way to utilize the wood on the heavily forested land of his estate. In its early years, the factory operated under the

The Eastern Connection
Article

In the 19th century, at the very time when glassmakers were improving their skill in fashioning and annealing the large pieces that would be needed to create furniture, the number of contacts between Europe and countries to the east was increasing, and both England and France were expanding their

Glass Furniture in the 19th Century
Article

Today, it is not at all unusual to find glass tables and cabinets, as well as large glass lighting devices. But in the second half of the 19th century, when glass was first used in furniture on a commercial basis, it would have been truly remarkable to see such objects. The development of glass

F.& C. Osler
Article

F.& C. Osler was probably the largest European company that supplied glass objects to India. Its products sold there included both table wares and lighting devices. During the last quarter of the 1800s and the early years of the following century, Osler also made glass fountains and furniture

Jonas Defries & Sons
Article

One of the largest but least-known 19th-century English glass firms is Jonas Defries & Sons, which was located in the Houndsditch section of London from 1856 until the early 20th century. The company operated under various names for at least a century (an 1880 advertisement says that it was

Coalbourne Hill Glass Works
Article

The third English Company that made furniture for the Indian market was located in the Stourbridge area. This factory had been built early in the 19th century, and it was purchased by Joseph Webb in 1850. He was a cousin of Thomas Webb, owner of the famous glass firm of Thomas Webb & Sons, and

Documented Use of Cup Plates in the Nineteenth Century
Article

Cup plates are an example of the specialized items in ceramics and glass with which Victorian ladies liked to clutter dinner and tea tables. Later in the century, these small plates were joined by a host of other "special" items: ice cream sets, berry sets, lemonade sets, and dishes for

Glass Lantern, Research Shed Light on 1860 Political Group
Article

Late in 1993, The Corning Museum of Glass received as a gift a brass lantern with a red glass globe [93.4.102] inscribed "ELMIRA WIDE AWAKES/ G.L.SMITH/CAPTAIN" (Fig. 1). This lantern had a mid-19th-century look, and I thought it might be an early product of the Corning Glass Works. I was

Glasses with American Views
Article

Glasses engraved with scenic views or important buildings are part of a Germanic tradition dating to the eighteenth century. Similar commemorative glasses are noted in England, e.g., the well-known Sunderland Bridge rummers, but they are less common in English glass. Germanic glasses with this type

Glasses with American Views – Addenda
Article

In 1977, the author discussed two groups of glasses engraved with American views, probably made in the United States but possibly abroad. 1 In the last two years, several more glasses in each of these groups have been discovered, along with some new information which is here presented. Five

Elias Palme
Article

The firm of Elias Palme, one of several companies started by members of the Palme (or Pallme) family, was founded in Kamenický Šenov, Bohemia, in 1849. Most of the Palmes were glass cutters and engravers, and chandeliers were their principal products. Catalogs show table- and floor-size bronze and

Powder Horn Features Glassblower
Article

In 2001, The Corning Museum of Glass acquired an object of folk art: a powder horn engraved with the figure of a glassblower [2001.7.4] (Fig. I). Powder horns were necessary accouterments for soldiers and hunters in the 18th century. Many are known from the French and Indian War (1755-1763) and the

Robert Hewes, Glass Manufacturer
Article

Robert Hewes of Boston is chiefly known among students of American glass as the man who tried unsuccessfully to found a glass factory at Temple, New Hampshire, in 1780-1781. The possibility that The Corning Museum of Glass might undertake an archaeological investigation of the Temple site led the