Mount Washington Glass is an American glassware manufacturer. It is located in South Boston and New Bedford, Massachusetts.
History
Deming Jarves, the founder of Boston and Sandwich Glass, set up a factory in South Boston, Massachusetts. His son George Jarves was the manager there, first with John D. Labree and subsequently with Henry Comerais. Jarves and Comerais, known as the Mount Washington Glass Works, was active until 1861, when its bookkeeper William L. Libbey and clerk Timothy Howe became the firm’s directors. Libbey became the sole director when Howe died.
Search the Collection at the Met for more examples of Glassware from the Mount Washington Glass Company.
Libbey installed new equipment and experimented with art glass in the 1870s and 1880s. The firm produced kerosene lamps and blown and pressed cut glassware during this time. In 1869, Libbey moved the factory from South Boston to the failed New Bedford Glass premises in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
In 1871, the Smith Brothers were in charge of the decoration department. In 1872, Libbey left and became an agent for New England glass. His brother Henry Libbey managed the firm, which closed in 1873. Reopened in 1874 under the management of Englishman Frederick Stacey Shirley, it was named Mount Washington Glass.
From 1884, it produced rose-amber glassware, Shirley’s imitation of the amberina ware invented in 1883 by Joseph Locke at New England Glass. In 1885, its Burmese glass was patented and made in more than 250 forms, several examples of which were presented to Queen Victoria.
In 1886, Thomas Webb was given a license to produce the ‘Queen’s Burmese.’ In 1889 the firm began to produce luxurious gilded enamel opal wares. It also made brilliant-cut and engraved crystal and acid-etched cameo glass.
In 1880, when the Pairpoint Manufacturing Co opened an adjacent factory, Mount Washington began to use silverplated mounts. In 1894, the glassworks were brought by Pairpoint. Mount Washington’s Glass, during Shirley’s tenure from 1874 to 1894, produced a wide range of very high-quality glassware. By 1890 it was dubbed the ‘headquarters’ of art glassware in the United States. In 1895, Shirley and partner John.P. Gregory reopened Boston and Sandwich Glass; it failed the next year.
Recognition
Mount Washington Glass showed cut-glass chandeliers and opal glass and won awards at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.’ Its wares were included in the 1986 – 1987 ‘In Pursuit of Beauty’ exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Sources
Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing. https://amzn.to/3ElmSlL
More on Glassware
-
Riihimaki Glass – Finnish Glass Factory
Riihimäki Glass was a Finnish glass factory. The factory, established in 1810 for the production of domestic glassware, began production of window glass in 1919. It purchased various small factories, including the factory in which the Finnish Glass Museum is located today. After buying the Kaukalahti glassworks in 1927, Riihimaki became the largest glass factory…
-
Timo Sarpaneva (1926 – 2006) Finnish Glass Designer
He also had a lot of success in the related fields of sculpture, painting, and graphic design. He could work with a lot of different materials, such as porcelain, iron, and plastic. Read More →
-
Lino Tagliapietra (b.1934) Italian Glassworker and Teacher
From 1956, Tagliapietra taught glassmaking with Archimede Seguso and Nane Ferro; 1966—68, designed glass for Venini, Murano; until 1968, for Murrina; from 1968, taught glassmaking at Haystack School and Pilchuck School, Stanwood, Washington. Read More →
-
Ulla Forsell (b.1944), Swedish Glassware Designer
Ulla Forsell was born in 1944 and studied at the College of Art and Design in Stockholm and Holland. SheRead More →
-
Hiroshi Yamano – Exquisite Japanese Glass Designs
Kiroshi Yamano is a Japanese Glass Designer. He studied at the Tokyo Glass Crafts Institute to 1984 and Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York, to 1989. Read More →
-
Everything Old is New Again – Glass-Making Techniques
Manufacturers and designers recreated some ancient Egyptian and Roman glassmaking processes in the early 20th century.Read More →
-
Aimo Okkolin (1917 – 1982) Finnish Glass Designer
He made deeply cut crystal objects that were often coloured. He used a lot of nature subjects. The most famous is “Lumpeenkukka”. This glass object, designed by Okkolin in 1960, was Riihimäki Lasi’s best-selling single object. Okkolini’s glassware was presented to several foreign heads of state. He continued working for Riihimäki Glass until 1976 when…
-
Grethe Meyer (1918 – 2008) Danish architect, & designer of furniture & glassware
She worked on the editorial staff of The Building Manual from 1944 to 1955. She was a crucial figure in Borge Mogensen’s research on the standardisation of consumer product sizes, and she collaborated with him frequently. They created the Boligens Byggeskabe (BB) and resund cabinet-storage systems in 1957.Read More →
-
Kosta Boda Swedish glass manufacturer
Kosta Boda, for much of its early life, this famous Swedish glassmaking company’s production centred on drinking glasses, chandeliers, and window panes. However, in the late nineteenth century, with the employment of designers such as Alf Wallander and Gunnar Wennenberg, a more concerted design policy emerged, resulting in more fashionable, Art Nouveau-inspired products.Read More →
-
Léon Ledru (1855 -1926) French glassmaker
Léon Ledru (1855-1926) was a French glassmaker and designer. He was the manager of the design department of the Cristalleries du Val-Saint-Lambert in Belgium for 38 years. Through the work the firm showed at the 1897 Brussels ‘Exposition Internationale,’ he stimulated interest in avant-garde design.Read More →
-
Masakichi Awashima (1914 – 1979) Japanese Glassware Designer
After studying design at the Japan Art School in Tokyo, Awashima worked for artisan Kozo Kagami, who had studied Western glass methods in Germany from 1935 to 1946. Read More →
-
Jean Sala (1895 – 1976) Spanish glassmaker and designer
He was primarily taught by his glassblower father and is now regarded as one of the most accomplished Art Deco glass artists. Read More →
-
Sigurd Persson (1914 – 2003) Swedish metalworker & glassware designer
Sigurd Persson (1914–2003) was a Swedish sculptor, blacksmith, and professor who is regarded as one of the twentieth century’s most influential Swedish designers. Growing up in a goldsmith family, Persson founded his studio in Stockholm in 1942. Throughout his long career, he crafted objects in various materials ranging from metal to glass to plastic. Read…
-
Murrine ancient glass technique – design dictionary
When a glass cane is cut into thin cross-sections, coloured patterns or images created in the cane are revealed as murrine. One well-known design is the flower or star shape, which is known as millefiori when used in large quantities.Read More →
-
What is the difference between a wine decanter and carafe? 🍷
When you serve wine in a decanter or carafe rather than directly from the bottle, you can completely appreciate its full potential, but why? The wine can oxygenate and aerate, allowing the wine to breathe after being sealed in a bottle for so long. A wine decanter has a reputation for being a formal and…
-
Pavel Hlava (1924 – 2003) Czech Glassware Designer
He was best known for his cut and engraved glass. Hlava enhanced a number of innovative technologies, both in terms of conception and manufacturing. These featured melted silver leaf and other materials, as well as skeleton moulds for shaping glass.Read More →
-
A Swedish National Treasure – Orrefors Glasbruk
Orrefors Glasbruk is a Swedish glassware manufacturer. An ironworks was established in 1726 on the property of Halleberg ( the Orrefors estate), Socken, Småland. Read More →
-
Pukebergs Glassworks – Swedish Glass Factory
Glassworks in Kosta CW Nyström and JE Lindberg started the mill in 1871. They acquired land from Jonas Bergstrand, a farmer from Madesjö parish, who owned the land at PukebergRead More →
-
William Blenko (1854 – 1926) and Blenko Glass
Blenko established the first American factory to produce sheet glass for stained glass windows. Blenko’s early successes include providing glass for St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. The White House has a collection of Blenko table ware, used periodically. Wayne Husted pioneered the concept of “architectural scale” designs. Blenko’s “Historic Period” begins with Anderson…
-
Quezal an American glassware company
Quezel was a Brooklyn, New York-based glassware manufacturer. It produced a range of decorative and useful items. READ MORERead More →
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.