The first glass maker in Australia was Simon Lord who began blowing glass bottles in Sydney in 1813. However an industry was not established until 1872 when Andrew Felton and Frederick Grimwade established the Melbourne Glass Bottle Works (later ACI).
Carnival glass was produced at the Crystal Glass Works in Sydney from 1924. Uniquely Australian designs were produced in order to compete with the cheaper American product.
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The first successful glassworks in America was established in 1739 by Caspar Wistar in southern New Jersey. There are no positively identified "South Jersey" pieces remaining.
Henry Stiegel established three glassworks in Pennsylvania. The first made bottles and window glass from 1763. The second added some tableware to the range from 1765. The third, from 1769, was the first American glassworks to specialise in tableware. Steigal produced copies of Bohemian glass for sale to the local Pennsylvania "Dutch" (who were actually German migrants) and copies of English glass for sale in New York and Boston. Steigel’s glass is almost indistinguishable from the European originals but proved too expensive. His glassworks closed in 1774.
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Despite many attempts, There was little important glass production in America from this time until after 1824. In that year, glass was given tariff protection. This was increased in 1828 and 1832.
From about 1815 to 1830, "blown-three-mould" glass was popular. This was imitation cut glass produced in a three- part mould. The first successful flint-glass factory was Bakewells, established by Benjamin Page and Thomas Bakewell in Pittsburgh in 1809. The factory made English-style cut and engraved glass. In 1825, John Bakewell obtained a patent on machine pressing of glass. By the middle of the century his machine had made mass production possible. By 1852, the price of glass had dropped so much that its consumption had increased ten-fold. |
