26 
House & Garden 
Early American glass shows considerable variety in size, color and form. These bottles, pitchers and glasses are Steigel pieces from 
Manheim, Pa., 1769-1774. They and the other examples illustrating this article are from Mr. Holden’s collection 
EARLY AMERICAN GLASS 
Our First Settlers Wrote History in the Home Utensils and Ornaments 
Made in Colonial Days 
M. HOLDEN 
W HEN we collect early 
American glass, we gather 
together some of the household 
articles of American manufacture 
that have in the years of the past 
added beauty and utility to the 
homes of our forebears, from 
early Colonial times to the days 
of the Civil War. 
In the year 1776 in this coun¬ 
try there were wealth and refine¬ 
ment in the city homes, abundance 
and prosperity, even luxury, in 
the homes of the towns, villages 
and old settled farms. But in the 
log cabin homes, in the small 
forest clearing, beside the blazed 
trails of the newly surveyed town¬ 
ships, there were toil and priva¬ 
tion until a farm had been wrest¬ 
ed from out of the timbered land. 
Whence It Came 
During Colonial times all the 
fine table glass used by the citi¬ 
zens of wealth was imported from 
Holland and England. So we 
find that from the farm homes 
alone have come nearly all the 
American glass which we collect 
today. It was purchased by years 
of self denial and the hoarded 
small savings of the thrifty house¬ 
wives’ butter and egg money, and 
was treasured by them because it 
added beauty and adornment to 
their homes. These American 
mothers of olden days loved their 
glass and cared for it. With what 
great care must these beautiful 
Steigel and Wistarberg pieces, 
that we now gather, have been 
handled, to have come down to 
us unbroken through many gen¬ 
erations. Frail, breakable glass, 
preserved for a century and a 
half, heirlooms of the early days! 
No sooner had the colonists 
settled at Jamestown, Virginia, in 
1607 than they started to make 
glass. This first 1608 venture 
proved a failure. In 1622 an- 
Harting 
{Upper) Two Decalcomania vases of 1850 and an early New Jersey 
wine demijohn, with white glass trading beads and wampum above. 
{Lower) Demijohn-shaped bottles, the one at the right by Steigel, the 
other three from Wistarberg 
other attempt was made, equip¬ 
ping a factory for making glass 
beads for trading with the In¬ 
dians. This factory, also, lasted 
only a few years. 
The magic words “trading with 
the Indians”—what mental mov¬ 
ing pictures flash instantly across 
the mind! Sir Walter Raleigh, 
courtier and great adventurer, ap¬ 
pears; then Capt. John Smith, 
and Pocahontas, beloved type of 
all Indian maidens; Peter Stuyve- 
sant trading with the Indians and 
buying all Manhattan Island for 
a string of wampum beads; the 
Pilgrim Fathers and Massasoit; 
William Penn trading with the 
Indians under the great elm tree; 
then the great race for trade and 
empire by the American colonists 
assisted by England against the 
French, in Canada—all are sug¬ 
gested to us by the words. A 
string of white trading beads 
made of glass, and a string of 
wampum beads used for trading 
with the Indians, are shown in 
one of the illustrations. 
Early Attempts 
The glass factories established 
in early Colonial days for mak¬ 
ing window glass and bottles were 
all failures. None continued in 
business over ten years, except the 
Wistarberg glass factory in Salem 
County, New Jersey, whose chief 
output was window glass and 
bottles from 1735 to 1780. They 
also made beautiful table glass. 
Baron Steigel at his glass works 
at Manheim, Pa., made table 
glass for five years, from 1769 to 
1774. In that short time he pro¬ 
duced a large amount of beautiful 
glass (plain, engraved and enam¬ 
eled), besides bottles. He made a 
brave bid to gain some of the 
trade of the wealthy citizens of 
Philadelphia, New York and 
Boston for his fine table glass, 
