Zanesville Pattern Molded Tumbler

Zanesville Pattern Molded Tumbler

Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio

Aquamarine

Provenance: John Fifer Collection, ex Darl Fifer Collection, ex Ballentine Collection

Ohio and Midwestern glass fall in a category of its own, distinctly American and expressive of the finest craftsmanship in the development of glassmaking in America, untainted by the later commercial mechanization of the industry. Within our Free-Blown & Pattern-Molded Gallery, we have examples from some of the great Ohio glasshouses located in Kent, Mantua, Ravenna, and Zanesville.

In the early nineteenth century, Zanesville was a small town that incorporated in 1814. White Glass Works was the first truly organized glassworks that was established one year later. There were certainly other earlier glassmakers in Ohio, but few if any of these ever reached the incorporation stage. Much of the early glass industry were sole proprietorships, and the nature of the early Ohio Industry was such that almost all of the really early glassmakers left few records.

Zanesville was surrounded by thick forests and had all the necessary ingredients for making glass such as sand, potash, and lime which could be obtained nearby. The glassmakers also had access to coal and wood to fuel the glass furnaces. Making glassware helped ensure meeting the demands of a growing population as well as expanding the economic base.

During these years and up through the 1870s or so, various Zanesville glasshouses and their talented glassmaker’s made window glass, flasks and decanters, sugar bowls and covers; pitchers, large and small; pans and shallow bowls varying in depth and diameter; salts, flips and tumblers, vases and other articles. The glass pieces patterned in these bottle molds are among the finest examples we have in Early American blown glass.

We are featuring this wonderful aquamarine tumbler which has a straight-sided body slightly tapering to the base with a kick-up and rough pontil mark. It has a patterned in rib mold, with swirls twisted from left to right and vanishing at the center.

Zanesville colors are fine and varied. The ambers, ranging from a dark brownish tone to golden yellow, are superb; the greens vary from brilliant aquamarine to deep yellowish or olive tone; occasionally a delicate cornflower, blue or deep sapphire, is encountered; and rarely a brilliant, vibrant amethyst. Similar pieces, free-blown and without a pattern, are also encountered in the same range of glowing brilliant colors.

See the museum example of a Zanesville Pattern Moulded Bowl.

See the museum example of a Zanesville Free-Blown Bowl.

Primary Image: Aquamarine pattern-molded tumbler imaged on location by the FOHBC Virtual Museum midwest studio led by Alan DeMaison.

Support Image: Auction Lot 44: Large Pattern Molded Flip Glass, broken swirl, 24 ribs, probably a Zanesville glassworks, Zanesville, Ohio, 1820-1850. Cylindrical flaring slightly to the rim, light blue green, tooled mouth – pontil scar, ht. 7 inches, base dia. 3 3/4 inches, rim dia. 6 1/8 inches. A quarter of the vessel nearest the rim has been tooled to nearly eliminate the pattern, which makes for an interesting effect. Beautiful color, great condition, extremely rare, a most unusual size. – Norman Heckler, Norman C. Heckler & Company, Auction #91

Support Image: Beaker or Flip. Transparent pale bluish-green glass with minute bubbles and a few impurities; wear marks at base; pattern molded; straight-sided body slightly tapering to base with a slight kick and rough pontil mark; patterned in rib mold, with swirls twisted from left to right and vanishing at center. – Corning Museum of Glass

Support Image: Beaker or Flip, possibly, Zanesville Glass Works, Zanesville, Ohio, Overall H: 14 cm; Rim Diam: 12.1 cm; Base Diam: 8.2 cm, about 1820-1840. Transparent pale bluish-green glass with minute bubbles and a few impurities; wear marks at base; pattern molded; straight-sided body slightly tapering to base with slight kick and rough pontil mark; patterned in rib mold, with swirls twisted from left to right and vanishing at center. – Corning Museum of Glass 

Support Image: Auction Lot 103: Pattern Moulded Tumbler, Zanesville Glass Works, Zanesville, Ohio, ca. 1820-1835, bluish aqua, 24-rib pattern swirled to the right, 4 ¼”h, open pontil, tooled rim. About perfect, (a less than pinhead in size flake is off the top of the rim). Bold impression, rare form! Acquired at Garth’s Auction, Delaware, Ohio in 1973. Don Spangler Collection. – Jim Hagenbuch, Glass Works Auctions, Auction #134

Support Image: Auction Lot 16: Large Pattern Molded Flip Glass, broken swirl, 24 ribs, probably a Zanesville glassworks, Zanesville, Ohio, 1820-1850. Cylindrical flaring slightly to the rim, light blue-green, tooled rim – pontil scar, ht. 7 inches, base dia. 3 ¾ inches, rim dia. 6 1/8 inches. Unusual and rare size. Fine condition. – Norman Heckler, Norman C. Heckler & Company

Support Image: Tumbler (Drinking glass), 1820-1850, White Glass Works, Zanesville, Ohio, Object ID, 64.122.2 – From the Collections of The Henry Ford.

Support Image: Tumbler, 19th century, Zanesville Glass Manufacturing Company, Zanesville, Ohio, Department Decorative Arts, Textiles and Sculpture, Dimension 4 ¼ x 3 ¾ x 3 ¾ in., Gift of Three Trustees, Walter Douglas Collection – Minneapolis Institute of Art

Support Image: Tumbler possibly by White Glass Works, American, 1815–30, Sea-green blown pattern-molded glass, 3 5/8 × 3 1/8 in., Mabel Brady Garvan Collection, Made in Zanesville, Ohio, By appointment, Wurtele Study Center, Purchased from E. & R. Knittle. It had never been out of the hands of the descendants of the original glass blower and owner, or out of Zanesville until purchased in April 1930 by Garvan – Yale University Art Gallery

Support: Reference to Zanesville Glass: A History of the Companies Which Have Manufactured and the People Who Have Contributed to Its Artistry, Elegance and Endurance for Nearly Two Hundred Years, Paperback, Unabridged, January 1, 2011 by J. William Barrett II

Support: Reference to The Kearns Glass Companies of Zanesville by Bill Lockhart, Pete Schulz, Beau Schriever, Bill Lindsey, and Carol Serr with contributions by Bill Barrett and David Whitten

Support: Reference to The Robinsons of Zanesville 1893-1900 by Marg Iwen, Bottles and Extras, 2004

Support: Reference to Ohio Glass 1815-1953, The Toledo Museum of Art, October 1953

Support: Reference to American Bottles and Flasks and Their Ancestry by Helen McKearin and Kenneth M. Wilson, Crown Publishers Inc., New York, 1978.

Support: Reference to Zanesville, Ohio and the Glass Industry: An Enduring Romance, Privately printed, Zanesville, Ohio., 1997, J. William Barrett II.

Support: Reference to Zanesville, Ohio, and the Evolution of its Glass Industry, Bottles and Extras, July 1998, J. William Barrett II.

Support: Reference to Zanesville Glass: A History of the Companies Which Have Manufactured and the People Who Have Contributed to its Artistry, Elegance and Endurance for Nearly Two Hundred Years, Privately printed, Zanesville, 2011, J. William Barrett II.