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Books on American Glass |
If you are looking for American glass you can usually find items on ebay. Click here: American Glass Index to pages on other kinds of glass American glass books Art Deco books Art nouveau books Beads books Bottles books all kinds British Glass books Candy Container books Carnival Glass books Contemporary glass bks Cookie Jar books Cut glass books Czech glass books Depression glass bks Drinking glass books European Glass bks Fenton Glass Books Fostoria Glass Books French glass books Galle glass books Gene Florence books General glass books Glass-making/working Heisey glass books Italian Glass books Lalique Glass books Marbles books Milk Glass books Paperweight books Scandinavian glass Stained glass books Stemware books Glass Blog have a look 
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The first glass made in the Americas was in Mexico in 1535 and in 1592 in Argentina. Neither of these glass-works succeeded due to the small population and lack of demand. Virginia was the first English colony to start a glassworks, in 1608 near Jamestown. This also failed after a year and so did the efforts to establish glassworks in Salem in 1641 and in Philadelphia in 1682. The Dutch operated 2 glassworks in the 1650's in New York (New Amsterdam at the time). We know very little about the glass made in these early works. The demand for glass items increased until in the 1730's the first successful glassworks were set up. In 1738 Caspar Wistar built his glassworks at Wistarburgh, New Jersey and started producing bottles and window glass the next year. They also made tableware, but it is not marked so is hard to identify. Another successful glassmaker was Henry W Stiegel, who set up three glass-works in Lancaster County, west of Philadelphia. He made bottles and window glass but also tried to compete with the imported luxury glass. And the third early glassmaker was John F. Amelung, who bought a glassworks in Frederick County west of Baltimore around 1784 and called it the "New Bremmen Glass-Manufactory". However all these early ventures were opposed strongly by the British and eventually failed. And it was not until the Revolutionary War in 1783 and the war with Britain in 1812 and a trade embargo on British goods, that American glass manufacture really took off. Between 1790 and 1820 some 63 glass-houses were set up.Protective tarrifs were introduced in 1824 and about half of this wave of glass houses survived into the 1830's. In the first half of the 19th century the population of America went from 5 million to 23 million, and the market for glass items increased hugely. To meet this demand the glass-makers invented methods of speeding up manufacture, and mold-blown glassware became very popular. About the middle of the 19th century the supplies of cheap fuel dried up in Eastern America, and so many glassworks switched to luxury, cut, lead crystal glass so they could more easily pass on the higher costs of manufacture. There followed several phases of popularity for cut glass (the "Brilliant" period) and this gave way eventually to the Victorian vogue for colored glass. Around the turn of the century superb quality Art Nouveau glass was popular internationally, and American had its share of Art Nouveau glass works. Tiffany with their Favrile glass and their glass mosaics; Frederick Carder's Aurene glass, Verre de Soie, Cluthra, and Diatreta; Hobbs Brockunier Glass, Mt.Washington Glass, and others. To some extent the beautiful glass produced by these companies lost popularity when large factories began producing pressed glass copies.. The late 19th century and early 20th century saw the growth and success of many pressed glass factories in the US. Some of the books listed below focus on the history of individual companies, such as Fenton, Millersburg, Heisey, Imperial, Fostoria, Lancaster, Fry, Northwood, Indiana and others. Some companies acquired molds from these early companies and reproduced art glass in later years. Kemple (1945-70), for example, focussed on milk glass reproductions of early American pressed glass; Fenton (1905-2017) discovered in the 1970s that glass collectors were a major new market for reproduced early items such as Carnival glass; and Tiara Exclusives (1970-1998) built a small army of Home Sales representatives selling quality art glass reproductions for the home hostess. Kemple, Tiara, and Fenton reproductions are all collected in their own right today. Our selection of books below includes some new books as well as older classics, and covers between them the whole spectrum of glass made in the USA. Click on the book cover or title for more information. 
 
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