An Old Sturbridge Village Book , published by Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York, 1972. First printing. 401 pages, hardbound, with dustjacket. 400 illustrations. 7 3/4 by 10 1/4 inches.
from the cover notes:
"This comprehensive history of New England glass contains nearly four hundred illustrations, showing the development of styles over a period of four centuries, from the founding in 1639 of the region's first glasshouse... in Salem, Mass., to the opening in 1970 of a new factory in Sagamore, Mass., by the Pairpoint Glass Company, Inc.
Wilson describes each of the factories that operated in the area, tells which types of glassware were made..., discusses individual pieces in detail, and offers the reader many expert judgments on the attribution of different items to specific factories and artisans...
The trials of the early entrepreneurs... are vividly described. Faced with severe competition from low-cost Anglo-Irish imports, many firms lasted only a year or two despite their claims... that American glassware was equal or superior to the best European ware.
All the great names are , including:
Robert Hewes, operator of a glassworks in Temple, NH, in 1780-1781 and later "super-do" of the Pitkin glass Works in East Hartford, Conn. Thomas Cains, founder of the Phoenix Glass Works, who as a young man was secretly recruited in England (it then being against British law to lure glassworkers to America) Deming Jarves, whose Boston & Sandwich glass company became so famous for its lacy pressed glass that all glass of this type is now known as Sandwich glass. The Coventry (Conn.) Glass Factory, whose highly varied output of bottles and other hollow wares...