Ruby Stain Pattern Glass

First we have to talk about pattern glass and then a small category of it, ruby stained, can be discussed. Most pattern glass was produced in the United States during the 1880 to 1920 period. There were many thousands of patterns produced during this period. Some patterns were produced only in a few different forms, say wines, a decanter, and a tray. Many of the more popular patterns were produced in hundreds of forms. Combined with the different colors of glass and different decorating techniques such as staining, frosting, and enameling and there are hundreds of thousands of unique pieces of glass from this era. Willi and I have been building a comprehensive collection of ruby stained pattern glass, a small sub-set of pattern glass.

Glass is a material that has intrigued people for four thousand years. To the chemist it is a supercooled liquid. Like liquids, glass flows freely under the force of gravity, but very slowly. It was the first industry in North America as there was a glass house at Jamestown, Virginia. However, it was not until the late 1800s that glass became affordable, pervasive, utilitarian, and beautiful for the American family. It took a combination of events for this to happen. These events came together about 1880 in the United States to create an explosion of what has come to be called pattern glass or early American pressed glass ("EAPG" among collectors). "Pattern" and "pressed" because each piece of this glass had a pattern on its surface created by taking a glob of molten glass and literally pressing the glass into a mold which had the obverse of the pattern cut on its cast iron surface. The first glass pressing device was patented by Thomas Bakewell of Pittsburgh in 1825. In some cases the plunger also had a pattern which left a pattern on the inside surface of the glass form.

The events that shaped the production of pressed glass in this country range from the technical to the social. Technically, the development of the soda lime glass formula was critical. This formula is still the basis of most glass made today. This glass was invented in 1864 and had several advantages. Expensive lead oxide was eliminated from the glass batch mix, cutting the cost of the glass by thirty to fifty percent. The glass could be more quickly and deeply pressed. The latter quality allowed for more closely and inexpensively imitating the much more expensive cut glass. To this date, many of the less proficient antique dealers label pressed glass as cut glass in their shops. The original manufacturers directly copied many of the more popular cut glass patterns. For example, in 1896 the Westmoreland Glass Company produced a pattern called "Stirling." It was an identical copy of a cut glass pattern made by the New England Glass Company called "Bedford." A popular cut pattern was Russian. Just about every company copied it and we now see huge amount of Daisy and Button and its variations.

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