User:TwoScars/sandbox
| Formerly | Eureka Art Glass |
|---|---|
| Industry | Glassware |
| Founded | 1921 |
| Founder | William J. Blenko |
| Headquarters | |
Key people | William J. Blenko, William H. Blenko Sr. |
| Products | hand-blown sheet glass, architectural glass, tableware |
| Revenue | $999999 (1877) (equivalent to $4,291,875 in 2023) |
Number of employees | 9999 (19xxx) |
Blenko Glass Company bla bla
Outline
[edit]
- Glassblower William John Blenko made glass in England. He exported to USA. Came to USA in 1893. Tried in Kokomo, Indiana (Blenko Glass Company) closed in 1903; Point Marion, Pennsylvania started in 1909; Clarksburg, West Virginia -- all failed. Briefly worked at Tiffany's in New York
- Flat glass made using Cylinder blown sheet glass method.
- Eureka Art Glass started in 1921 in Milton, West Virginia. Son William Henry Blenko joined company in 1923.
- Made stained glass. 1926-Liverpool Cathedral in England
- By 1926, Eureka Art Glass could replicate most of the glass used in old European stained glass windows. Work began on a new facility in Milton that would have three single-pot furnaces that could make over 300 shades of antique sheet glass.[1]
- Began making hand blown glassware in 1930s because the Great Depression cut demand for stained glass.
- All glass is hand blown—no pressing or automated production. Hence, simple
- Persuaded Carbone and Sons Company of Boston, an importer of art glass from Venice and Sweden, to try Blenko. Recruited Louis Miller (a finisher)and Axel Muller (a glassblower) (trained in Sweden, brothers despite different spelling) to produce and train. Because of Carbones, glass sold in major department stores in USA. Pictured in a 1931 Carbone and Sons catalogue, but identified as Kenova glass, made in the foothills of West Virginia.
- In 1936 given license to produce glassware like that excavated in Colonial Williamsburg - using same materials and methods.
- Swede Carl Erickson worked for Blenko from 1937 until 1942, left to found Erickson Glassworks.
- 2nd designer was Wayne Husted from 1954 to 1963
- 3rd was Joel Myers from 1964 to part of 1971. (most famous and accomplished). Left for Illinois State University.
- 4th was John Nickerson 1971-1974
- 5th Don Shepard 1975-1989
- 6th Hank Adams 1990-1995
- 7th Matt Carter 1996-2002
- Beginning mid-1940s, employed designers. Winslow Anderson 1946-1953.
- 1969 William Blenko Jr. become president of company. (After William Sr. died, was president?)
- 1996 stained glass window for Carnegie Mellon University.
- 2009 shut down
- Chapter 11 bankruptcy May 2011
- Exited bankruptcy 2013
- No longer produces architectural sheet glass as of 2020?
Three attempts
[edit]William John Blenko, the founder of Blenko Glass Company, was born in London in 1854.[2] At the age of 10 he began working as an apprentice in a London bottle glass works, where he learned the basics of glassmaking.[3] He later studied glass and chemistry.[2] Early in the 1880s he began his own glassmaking business, where he sold round window glass made using the crown method and experimented with additional processes.<NEED CITE> He came to the United States in 1893 to start a glass factory using natural gas as a fuel for the furnace used to melt the ingredients needed for his product.[4]<need cite about natural gas>
Kokomo
[edit]In 1886, a large quantity of natural was discovered in Indiana. Affecting 25 counties in the state, the amount of gas was large enough that it could be used for fuel. This lost cost fuel attracted glass factories, and by 1893 the number of glass factories in the state had increased from one in 1886 to 45.[5] Kokomo, Indiana, was one of the towns within the region of available natural gas, and it had two glass works in 1893.[6] Glass products made in Kokomo were plate glass and colored sheet glass.[7] A review of a Sanborn Fire Insurance map for Kokomo as of March 1896 shows Pittsburgh Plate Glass (image 13), Opalescent Glass Works (image 19), and a small unnamed glass factory (image 19) near the Belt Railroad. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn02382_004/ Although claims have been made that Blenko's Kokomo glass works was one of America's first gas-fueled operations, that is untrue. Glass companies in Findlay and Fostoria, Ohio had been using natural gas-powered furnaces since the previous decade.<need cite> Left in 1903.
Point Marion
[edit]Blenko's second attempt to start a glass works in America was at Point Marion, Pennsylvania, in 1910.[4] 1909? The town had plenty of immigrants from the French-speaking region of Belgium that were already trained in glass making, especially window and sheet glass.<need cite>
Clarksburg
[edit]Blenko's third attempt occurred in Clarksburg, West Virginia, during 1911 through 1913.[4] A local newspaper article dated July 27, 1911, stated that a factory for the Blenko Antique Art Glass Company will start to be built within 30 days. Blenko was one of five investors, and Blenko would manage the factory.[8]
A stained glass trade magazine for July 1917 contained an advertisement at the bottom of page one that simply said "Antique - if you want any, address W. Blenko" with an address of Follansbee, West Virginia. On the same page two glass companies (among others) that were located in towns where Blenko had lived: Kokomo Opalescent Glass Works (of Kokomo, Indiana), and Clarksburg Opalescent Glass Works (of Clarksburg, West Virginia).[9]
By July 1920 Blenko was apparently living on Wheeling Street in Lancaster, Ohio. He posted in classified advertising that he wanted a position in glassmaking, and that he could make "every variety of color including opal and opalescent".[10]
Beginning
[edit]In the January 1922 edition of a glass trade magazine, it was noted that a "W. Blenko, of Lancaster, Ohio" recently purchased land at Huntington, West Virginia, and he expected a plant for the manufacture of colored antique glass would be operating by mid-March 1922.[11]
Blenko filed for a patent of his process for making art glass that appears old, and the patent was called "Art Glass and Method of Making the Same". He filed for the patent on February 26, 1924, and it was granted on May 4, 1926.[12]
Great Depression
[edit][13] https://coalheritage.org/page.aspx?id=64
Notes
[edit]Footnotes
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^ Unknown 1928, p. 8–9
- ^ a b Crain 2004
- ^ Crain 2004; Shotwell 2002, p. 43
- ^ a b c Blenko Glass Company 1999, p. 3
- ^ Peelle Jr 1894, pp. 525–526
- ^ Peelle Jr 1894, p. 526
- ^ Peelle Jr 1894, p. 538
- ^ "Another Factory Will Be Erected". Clarksburg Weekly Telegram. July 27, 1911. p. 6.
Blenko Antique Art Glass Company...to erect a plant....
- ^ Flanagan 1917, p. 1
- ^ Hammer 1920, p. 30
- ^ Krak 1922, p. 23
- ^ U.S. patent 1,583,441, William Blenko, "Art Glass and Method of Making the Same", issued May 4, 1926
- ^ Shotwell 2002, p. 43
References
[edit]- Blenko Glass Company (1999). Blenko 99 (catalog for 1999) (PDF). Milton, West Virginia: Blenko Glass Company. Retrieved October 2, 2024.
- Crain, Damon (April 2004). "Blenko – Uniquely American Modernist Glass". Journal of Antiques & Collectibles. Sturbridge, Massachusetts. Retrieved September 30, 2024.
- Flanagan, Joseph E., ed. (July 1917). "(Untitled)". The Ornamental Glass Bulletin of United States and Canada. 11 (6). Chicago, Illinois: National Ornamental Glass Manufacturers' Association of United States and Canada: 1. Retrieved October 5, 2024.
- Hammer, J.M., ed. (July 1920). "Classified Advertisements - Situations Wanted". The Glasswworker. 39 (42). Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Commoner Publishing Company: 30. Retrieved October 5, 2024.
- Krak, J.B., ed. (January 1922). "News of the Trade". The Glass Industry. 3 (1). New York, New York: Glass Industry Publishing Company: 23–24. OCLC 1751261. Retrieved October 5, 2024.
- Peelle Jr, William A., ed. (1894). State of Indiana - Fifth Biennial Report (Eleventh Volume) of the Department of Statistics for 1893-1894. Indianapolis, Indiana: William B. Burford. ISBN 978-1-33290-560-7.
- Shotwell, David J. (2002). Glass A to Z. Iola, Wisconsin: Krause Publications. ISBN 978-0-87349-385-7. OCLC 440702171.
- Whitehouse, David (2012). Glass: A Short History. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books. ISBN 978-1-58834-324-6. OCLC 1059158760.
- Johnson, Donald-Brian (April 2018). "Cracklin' Good". Journal of Antiques & Collectibles. Sturbridge, Massachusetts. Retrieved September 30, 2024.
- Unknown (January 1928). "Eureka's Antique Glass". Bulletin of the Stained Glass Association of America. 22 (12). Chicago, Illinois: Stained Glass Association of America: 8–9. Retrieved October 1, 2024.
- Gordon, John Stuart (2018). American Glass: The Collections at Yale. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Art Gallery in association with Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-30022-669-0. OCLC 1024165135.
Further reading
[edit]- Eige, Eason; Wilson, Rick (1987). Blenko Glass, 1930-1953. Antique Publications. ISBN 978-0-91541-035-4. OCLC 17006037.