Vintage Viking Glass

When Mark Douglas and George Matheny founded the New Martinsville Glass Manufacturing Company in 1900, they almost certainly could not have imagined that within half a century, their Victorian-influenced West Virginia glass company would be better known for its copies of Modernist styles originating in Sweden and Italy. Indeed, their first breakthrough product came in 1901, when an English glassmaker named James Webb was hired to be the plant's superintendent. It was on Webb's watch that New Martinsville released its Muranese Line of glassware for the home. With its ruffled edges and pink-to-orange coloration, the line was soon known as Peachblow or Peach Blow. Over the next 40 years, New Martinsville would focus on all sorts of pressed glass pieces, as well as perfume bottles. Candlesticks and lamps were also a big part of the company's output before and during World War II, as were colorful glass figurines in the shapes of animals. In 1939, New Martinsville acquired Rainbow Art Glass Company, which can be seen as the forerunner of New Martinsville's transition, in 1944, to becoming Viking Art Glass. With that new name, the company's glassware aesthetic pivoted 180 degrees when it launched its Swedish Type glassware line, which is today known among collectors of vintage Viking glass as Swedish Modern, as well as its Epic line, which is still widely collected among fans of American art glass. Throughout the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, in colors from ruby and amber to cherry pink and glamour gold, Viking produced all sorts of vases, including tall bud vases. Some sported irregular almost jagged rims, others appeared to have been sliced at a sharp angle, and still others looked like they'd been split with a knife from the top to create vertical wings or handles. Beyond its bud vases, Viking also made a range of squatter vases, from those that resembled Chemex coffee pots to throwbacks to the firm's New Martinsville days. For many, though, Viking's most enduring body of work during the second half of the 20th century is the bestiary of figural animals it unleashed on the world, from cats and dogs to owls and other birds, which sometimes doubled as the lids to candy dishes. One of the weightiest vintage Viking animals was its six-inch whale. Viking was also regarded for its paperweights in the shapes of fruits and vegetables. There were pumpkins and pears, tomatoes and gourds, apples and oranges, an array of berries, and a veritable rainbow of mushrooms. Viking even made glass acorns.