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Preface
It is not the purpose of the author in this volume to treat of the myriads of pressed glass dating from the centennial to the present day masquerading in shops as “Sandwich glass” and cluttering up the cabinets of the unwary collector only to be discarded later by those who have learned by comparison with the beautiful lacy specimens of early Sandwich that they have been led to acquire pieces of little beauty and less real value. It is of the period of Sandwich glass dating from the opening of the factory in 1825 by a handful of men, blowers of great physique, artists, and mold makers, some of whom started in the struggling “Parent Tree” factory of 1817, down to the period of greatest prosperity in 1853—that we are dealing with. These men put their best efforts into designs of intricate beauty. There is no comparison between their work and the later commercial pressed glass which took unto itself all the worst features of Victorian decoration and which was never found upon the tables of people of good taste, who turned from pressed glass to English cut during this latter period, or preserved with reverence and used on state occasions the pieces of a generation before. This late glass covered with stars and rosettes in ugly amber and blue and white became a tremendous advertising medium and was distributed as premiums and sold in quantity at very cheap prices. The author sees no object in collecting it to-day other than the commercializing of an unworthy product. The glass sheltered by the Mansard roof does not fit in with early Sandwich.
HISTORY
Forerunners of the Sandwich works—Evolution of the Industry
In 1787 a factory was established on Essex Street, Boston by Whalley, Hunnewell and others for making crown window glass. This enterprise was not a success until 1803 when a German by the name of Lint arrived. From then on the factory became prosperous; the state paid a bounty and by 1822 the glass had become famous and was known as Boston Window glass. This factory was given the exclusive right in their charter for a number of years.
In 1811 they erected a larger and improved factory in South Boston, and sent to England for more blowers of window glass but could not get them on account of the war so they turned to using flint glass blowers, previously brought from Europe. This factory in South Boston was the “parent tree” of the Sandwich works. It failed in the thirties and started up again and failed many times but was running in 1854.
Another Company was formed in 1811 called the Porcelain and Glass Manufacturing Company at East Cambridge but it failed in the production of both attempted products because of poor management. The plant was sold at auction November, 1817, and bought by a new company which called itself The New England Glass Company. This enterprise was successful from the beginning—in 1817, thus we see that some specimens of N. E. G. are of earlier date than Sandwich glass.
Its capital of $40,000 in 1817 increased until in 1853 it was $500,000. The start was a six pot furnace with 700 pounds to each pot. Forty hands were employed and the yearly product was $40,000. In 1853 there were five furnaces with ten pots of 2,000 pounds each and 500 hands, and doing a business of $500,000. The author hopes that this may throw some light upon the incredulous amateur collector’s query of “Where does all the old glass come from?”