The history of beautiful Fostoria glass

I hope our readers aren’t tired of all the glass and crystal history lessons I have been writing about for the last few weeks. I could easily write about a glass company each week for a year or more! With fall coming up, it is nice to use the vintage golds, browns and greens of the vintage glassware that is in abundance at most thrift and antique shops.

Fostoria is one of the more widely known and collected glassware companies and has a very active collectors club. The company first began production in 1887 in Fostoria, Ohio, on land given to the company by the town. Unfortunately, there was not an abundance of natural gas and coal to fire the kilns, so the company moved to Moundsville, W.V., in 1891.

The first furnace was only capable of firing 14 pieces of glass at a time, so the company added furnaces every few years to meet the increasing demand for American glassware. They survived the Great Depression by producing colorful pieces of glass and dinnerware. Milk glass was also added to the production just before World War II.

Some of the more popular patterns produced in the early ’40s were Chintz, Colony, Romance and Holly. During the war, half of Fostoria’s work force was cut due to the lack of demand for dinnerware, converting to producing glass items needed for the war effort, and many of the workers enlisting in the armed forces and/or being drafted.

After the war, the factory geared up and expanded to manufacture dinnerware once again for the men and women returning to the workforce and buying homes in the beginning of the Baby Boom generation.

By 1950, Fostoria was creating over eight million pieces of glassware per year.

Popular pieces produced during this heyday were Rose, Wedding Ring, Jamestown and Century. Fostoria continued to flourish into the 1960s and expanded their marketing and displays in boutiques and jewelry stores.

Unfortunately, foreign competition in the 1970s began the demise of Fostoria. An abundance of cheap foreign made glass flooded the market and many of the great American glassware companies went out of business including Fostoria, which sold the company lock, stock and barrel to the Lancaster Colony Corporation. Lancaster discontinued Fostoria production in 1983.

According to the Fostoria Collectors Club, all of the U.S. Presidents from Eisenhower through Reagan ordered glass through Fostoria. Other American Glass competitors of the era were Cambridge, Hazel-Atlas and Heisey, which were also produced in Ohio and West Virginia. These areas were major production areas for glass and pottery from the late 1800s through the 1950s.

Happy Collecting!

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Jillinda Falen has been buying and selling antiques for over 30 years. She is a licensed REALTOR and estate liquidation specialist. You can contact her via email at jcfalen@gmail.com or through the Houston Home Journal.

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