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Blue Peacock
Feather Toddy Plate, 1835-50
The production of glass objects was one
of the first industries in the American Colonies. The first glasshouse was
established in Jamestown, Virginia in the early 17th century. Its products were
glass beads for trade, bottles and window glass. Although the Jamestown factory
was short-lived, glass production became an established American industry by the
mid-eighteenth century.
Until about 1825, two basic methods of glass production were in general use.
Both of these methods originated in ancient Rome and the Middle East and had
been in use for centuries. The most common and most technologically simple was
hand blowing: individual objects were created, one by one, by a skilled
craftsman using a blowpipe to manipulate a gather of molten glass. A more
sophisticated method of production was mold blowing. Using this method, glass
was partially or entirely blown in a mold which created the shape and the
surface design of the glass object. The molds usually were made of iron or brass
and often consisted of three pieces, but other configurations are known. Using
this method, elaborately shaped and decorated objects such as pitchers,
decanters, tumblers, plates, bowls and other hollow tablewares were formed.
Factories creating these types of glass existed in the Eastern United States as
far west as Ohio.
Some of these locales were also homes for glass factories which began to use the
more efficient glass pressing machines developed in the 1820s. First used in
eighteen century England and Holland, small-scale hand pressing had been used
for salts, stoppers, or bases for blown goblets, etc. This method probably
inspired the advances in glass technology which eventually led to the pressing
of glassware that developed in the United States in the 1820s. The earliest
known patent for mechanically pressing a glass object was granted to John Palmer
Bakewell of Bakewell, Page and Bakewell of Pittsburgh. This was for an
"improvement in making glass furniture knobs." This type of knob was probably
the first widely produced and distributed piece of American pressed glass.
However, the process was quickly extended to make other articles.
Glass pressing, while more efficient than blowing or mold blowing, was a process
that caused the completed pressed object to appear cloudy and flawed. In an
attempt to disguise these problems, molds were made with ornate designs. The
pieces they created had fine stippled backgrounds with lace-like patterns.
Similar styles of glass developed simultaneously in Europe and the United States
and have been called lacy glass by collectors.
 While the
famed Boston and Sandwich Glass Company was one the the first and largest
producers of lacy glass, this type was also manufactured in other factories in
New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Midwest from about 1825 until 1850.
Most lacy glass is relatively small in size, although bowls 12 inches in
diameter and larger are known. Some of the most common forms are cup plates (a
kind of coaster for tea cups), salt dishes, small plates and bowls. Rarer pieces
are creamers, large plates and bowls, toys, compotes, lamps and candlesticks
with lacy bases, and panes of glass.
Unlike pattern glass, lacy glass table settings are unknown, although certain
design elements are recognizable from form to form. The designs reflect the
styles popular in other decorative arts of the period and lacy glass may be
recognized as being gothic-revival, classical-revival, as well as geometric or
historical in design.
Lacy glass from New England can sometimes be distinguished from lacy glass of
Pittsburgh or Midwestern origin by looking for certain regional characteristics.
Rims of lacy pieces produced in Pittsburgh often have "bull's eyes" as part of
the scalloped edge. Tiny button feet may also found on the undersides of
Pittsburgh dishes. New England made dishes and bowls to rest directly on their
flat bottoms unsupported by tiny knob feet. Articles made in New England often
exhibit finer stippling than those from Pittsburgh, which often show a
cloth-like stippling.
As with pattern glass, lacy pressed glass has also been reproduced in this
century. Sometimes tableware designs were merely inspired by earlier glass,
sometimes museums reproduced examples from their collections, and sometimes
pieces were created to deceive collectors of the nineteenth century glass.
Probably the best method to distinguish an authentic piece from a reproduction
would be by gently tapping the piece. Antique lacy glass was made with a lead
formula which will cause a prolonged metallic ring when the piece is lightly
struck. Novice collectors should avoid pieces that do not ring. Original lacy
glass should also show signs of wear and will display a certain crudeness caused
by the relatively primitive manufacturing methods. Be suspicious of lacy glass
that appears too perfect.
This article was prepared with information from Collectors Guide to American
Pressed Glass 1825-1915 by Kyle Husfloen and ABC's of Old Glass by
Carl W. Drepperd. Other good books with illustrations of lacy glass are
American Glass 1760-1930 by Kenneth Wilson; Glass in Early America,
by Arlene Palmer and The Glass Industry in Sandwich by Raymond E. Barlow
and Joan E. Kaiser.
Lacy Compote, probably French
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