The New Geneva Glass Works was an early American glass factory established in western Pennsylvania, active from 1797 until 1847. [1]
In 1795, Albert Gallatin gathered several investors together as Albert Gallatin & Company to purchase tracts of land including the towns of Wilson's Port, Georgetown, and unused lots across the Monongahela River in Greensboro. They named the community New Geneva and built a general store, gun factory, sawmill, and a gristmill. [1] Several years later, in 1797, Albert Gallatin & Company partner John Baddolet wrote to Gallatin about a group of German glassblowers who wanted to build a glass factory in the area. John Gabler, Adolph Eberhart, George Reppert, Lewis Reitz, Baltzer Kramer, and Christian Kramer had the skills and knowledge of glassmaking, but needed the capital and land for a glassworks. Gallatin, Badollet, and the glassblowers entered into the venture, along with partners James Nicholson, Louis Bourdillon, and Charles A. Cazenove. [2] The first glasshouse was built near Georges Creek and production began on January 18, 1798. The glassblowers mainly produced window glass, although whiskey bottles, bowls, and other hollow ware were also made. [3]
Production soon grew to an annual average of 4,000 boxes of window glass. [1] At the same time, the company was troubled by supply and production issues, including properly curing the wood they used for fuel, cleaning the sand used to make the glass, preparing batches of glass, and obtaining clay used to make furnace pots. [2]
Gallatin maintained a half interest in the glassworks and provided all the sand and wood used until 1803. That May, he posted an advertisement in the Tree of Liberty, a Pittsburgh newspaper, announcing an auction of his interest in the glassworks, a ferry across the Monongahela River, and several properties in the town of New Geneva. [4] There were no offers, and Gallatin sold his company shares to his partners. Shortly afterward, the partners decided to move the glassworks across the river to Greensboro and replaced wood with coal as their source of fuel. [1] The Greensboro factory functioned from 1807 into the late 1840s, but closed in 1847 because it could no longer compete with newer, nearby glasshouses. [5]
In 1837, the sons of Reitz and the Kramers (New Geneva's first glassblowers) founded a second glassworks in New Geneva and produced the same products as the earlier factories. The firm existed until 1857, when the last glass was made by John Gabler and Charles Kramer. [4]
Greensboro is a borough in Greene County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 267 at the 2020 census, up from 260 at the 2010 census.
James Ross was an American politician and lawyer who represented Pennsylvania in the United States Senate from 1794 to 1803. During his tenure, he served as president pro tempore of the United States Senate from March to December 1799.
Friendship Hill was the home of early American politician and statesman Albert Gallatin (1761–1849). Gallatin was a U.S. Congressman, the longest-serving Secretary of the Treasury under two presidents, and ambassador to France and Great Britain. The house overlooks the Monongahela River near Point Marion, Pennsylvania, about 50 miles (80 km) south of Pittsburgh.
Riedel Crystal is a glassware manufacturer based in Kufstein, Austria, best known for its glassware designed to enhance different types of wines. According to Petr Novy, Chief curator Museum of Glass and Jewellery in Jablonec nad Nisou, Czech Republic, Riedel is the oldest family owned and operated global crystal glass brand worldwide. Established in Bohemia in 1756, the company is managed by Georg Riedel and Maximilian Riedel. Later, it was re-established by Claus J. Riedel in 1956, with the support of the Swarovski family.
Venetian glass is glassware made in Venice, typically on the island of Murano near the city. Traditionally it is made with a soda–lime "metal" and is typically elaborately decorated, with various "hot" glass-forming techniques, as well as gilding, enamel, or engraving. Production has been concentrated on the Venetian island of Murano since the 13th century. Today Murano is known for its art glass, but it has a long history of innovations in glassmaking in addition to its artistic fame—and was Europe's major center for luxury glass from the High Middle Ages to the Italian Renaissance. During the 15th century, Murano glassmakers created cristallo—which was almost transparent and considered the finest glass in the world. Murano glassmakers also developed a white-colored glass that looked like porcelain. They later became Europe's finest makers of mirrors.
Bakewell Glass is nineteenth-century glassware from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, produced by a company founded by Benjamin Bakewell. Bakewell's company can be found under the names ThePittsburgh Glass Manufactory, Bakewell & Page and, Bakewell, Pears & Co. Bakewell glass built a reputation of being both luxurious and utilitarian during the 80 years it was in business.
Pauly & C. - Compagnia Venezia Murano is one of the oldest glass factories of Murano: it was founded more than 150 years ago. The company produces glass art, most notably Roman murrine, mosaics and chandeliers.
Grönvik glasbruk or simply Grönvik was a glassworks in the present-day Grönvik village in Korsholm, Western Finland. It was founded by merchant Johan Grönberg and existed from 1812 to 1907. Several glass manufactures were produced at Grönvik. At first bottles and drinking-glass were made here, but beginning in the 1890s solely window glass. Also pharmaceutical glass was manufactured. The glassworks produced as the first factory in Finland pressed glass, which came about from the 1840s. The domestic market for glass was during the time of the glassworks smallish and glassblowing products were exported to e.g. Lübeck, Saint Petersburg, Stockholm and Denmark, as well as to other parts of Europe. Grönvik was able to successfully assert its position, despite the competition from other glassworks in Finland. Eventually, it became the most distinguished in the country. The glassworks also become the largest in the Nordic countries.
Paolo Venini emerged as one of the leading figures in the production of Murano glass and an important contributor to twentieth century Italian design. He is known for having founded the eponymous Venini & C. glassworks.
The Albany Glassworks Site is an archeological site in Guilderland, Albany County, New York. Approximately 2 acres (0.81 ha) in size, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Duncan & Miller Glass Company was a well-known glass manufacturing company in Washington, Pennsylvania. Items that were produced by the company are known as "Duncan glass" or "Duncan Miller glass." The company was founded in 1865 by George Duncan with his two sons and son-in-law in the South Side neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. By 1890, the company joined other glass companies to form the United States Glass Company, a powerful glass trust. In 1892, the factory was destroyed in a fire, and the company was relieved of its trust relationship with the US Glass Company. After the fire, the second generation of the Duncan family moved operations to Washington, Pennsylvania. In 1900, John Ernest Miller, the company's long-time designer, became a full shareholder along with members of the Duncan family. By 1955, economic pressures from machine-produced glass forced the company to sell off its assets to the US Glass Company, who continued to produce Duncan-style glass until 1980.
The Glassworks-Gabler House, also known as Building 302A, is an historic home which is located in Monongahela Township in Greene County, Pennsylvania.
The Glassworks-Core House, also known as the Reppert/Kramer House and Building 302B, is an historic home which is located in Monongahela Township in Greene County, Pennsylvania.
Early glassmaking in the United States, covered herein as before the 18th century, began before the country existed. The glassmaking began in 1608 at the Colony of Virginia near Jamestown. The 1608 glass factory is believed to be the first industrial facility in what became the United States. Skilled Polish and German workers were brought to the colony to begin the glassmaking. Although glass was made at Jamestown, production was soon suspended because of strife in the colony. A second attempt at Jamestown also failed.
J. H. Hobbs, Brockunier and Company was one of the largest and best known manufacturers of glass in the United States during the 19th century. Its products were distributed world–wide. The company is responsible for one of the greatest innovations in American glassmaking—an improved formula for lime glass that enabled American glass makers to produce high-quality glass at a lower cost. The firm also developed talented glassmakers that started glass factories in Ohio and Indiana.
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Bryce Brothers, also known as Bryce Brothers Company and Bryce Brothers Company Inc., was a glass manufacturing company originating in 1850 at Birmingham, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania that changed names and partnerships until being purchased by the Bryce family when it was moved to Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, where they continued to produced blown crystal glassware until 1965.
18th century glassmaking in the United States began before the country existed. During the previous century, several attempts were made to produce glass, but none were long-lived. By 1700, it is thought that little or no glass was being produced in the British colonies that would eventually become the United States. The first American glass factory operated with long–term success was started by Caspar Wistar in 1745—although two glass works in New Amsterdam that operated in the previous century deserve honorable mention. Wistar's glass works was located in the English colony known as the Province of New Jersey. In the southeastern portion of the Province of Pennsylvania, Henry Stiegel was the first American producer of high–quality glassware known as crystal. Stiegel's first glass works began in 1763, and his better quality glassmaking began in 1769. In the United States, the first use of coal as a fuel for glassmaking furnaces is believed to have started in 1794 at a short-lived factory on the Schuylkill River near Philadelphia. In 1797 Pittsburgh's O'Hara and Craig glass works was also powered by coal, and it contributed to the eventual establishment of Pittsburgh as a leading glassmaking center in the 19th century.