Antique Boston and Sandwich Glass

Built in 1825 and incorporated in 1826, the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company of Massachusetts, founded by Deming Jarves, was one of the earliest manufacturers of pressed glass (also known as Early American Pattern Glass) in the United States. During the company's first few years, its workers produced decanters, bottles, tumblers, and other examples of utilitarian glassware, much of it handblown into molds. The furnaces were fired by then-vast stretches of forest (the were soon heated with coal), while the sand that was mixed with lead to produce clear and sparkling crystal was initially brought in from as far away as New Jersey. Almost in parallel, Jarves began to explore the new technology of pressing molten glass into various shapes, which themselves were decorated with geometric or floral patterns. Cup plates, which were plates designed to be used as sipping cups, were perhaps the first Boston and Sandwich pieces to be so pressed. These items often featured pressed designs in their flat "bowls" depicting sea-going vessels bearing the names of American founding fathers such as Benjamin Franklin and Chancellor Livingston. Indeed, Boston and Sandwich designers used patriotic ship iconography frequently, producing, for example, an opaque blue salt cellar in the shape of a small, somewhat generic, vessel, with the name "Lafayette," the French general who was a hero of the Revolutionary War, pressed into both sides of its hull. Some of the most collected antique Boston and Sandwich glass from this early period include pieces of Lacy glass, which featured patches of small stipples that caught light while covering up flaws in a finished piece's surface. Other sought pieces include candlesticks on stands made from dolphins, which were pressed in a range of hues, from amber to blue to white, as well as clear. In the middle of the 19th century, the look of Bohemian glass began to catch fire in the United States. Glass companies up and down the East Coast produced pitchers, vases, and lamp stands that featured all the hallmarks of Bohemian glass of that time. In particular, cased glass that could be cut and polished to reveal contrasting colors underneath was very popular among Boston and Sandwich's customers. By the 1880s, two important events happened at the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company. The first was the introduction of crackle or overshot glass, in which a red-hot, but unfinished, piece was rolled over small shards of a glass before being dunked in ice water and then reheated. The second was the hiring of Mary Gregory in 1885. Though she only worked at Boston and Sandwich a few years, her painted profiles of children at play would be copied by countless other glass manufacturers throughout much of the 20th century.