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bjbj The use of a press to form glass is probably the most important invention since the Romans
perfected the blowpipe two thousand years ago. This invention is directly due to the
Americans, and it really set American glassmaking on the path to prosperity. There were a lot
of experiments, but finally it was perfected in the late 1820 s. We don t know exactly
which American glass company was the first to press glass, because there was a lot of
argument about who did it first, but it was a technology that spread very rapidly - into
the 1830 s there were probably a half dozen companies that were making it. This desk set
is important because it s one of the earliest pieces of American pressed glass that is known.
You ll see if you look at it, that the color is not at all even; so this may have been
a second. There are only, I think, six of these desk sets known, and they re all slightly
off in terms of color. The rectangular piece is pressed; the two round pieces in the back,
which are entirely separate and are lifted out, are in fact blown into mold, because
of course you can t press a closed piece. One of those is an inkwell, and the other
is a sander, because if you were writing a letter in the late 18th or early 19th century,
you were dipping your pen into the ink, and of course occasionally blotting whatever you
were writing. So when you finished writing, so sprinkled sand over it to dry the ink.
Most of the early pieces of pressed glass are colorless, because it was difficult to
work with the colors, and keep them the right temperature for pressing, and have them come
out correctly. The various known-examples of that desk set are all slightly different
colors, and I think they stopped trying to make that pale blue because it was just too
difficult. If you look at the piece in the upper-shelf to the right, you ll see that
that particular plate is misshapen, obviously it got bent somehow when it came out of the
mold. I think these early pieces which have problems are interesting. I doubt if they
were sold commercially. They were probably seconds which glassworkers took home for their
own use, but it s interesting to us, is we study the technology of pressing, to be able
to see how they had to work to get it right. If you look to your left, you ll see an actual
press, which was used in the 19th century, and at the end of the case to your left, some
molds and some information about exactly how the molds were made and used. The use of a
press to form glass is probably the most important invention since the Romans perfected the blowpipe
two thousand WrightDC Normal.dot WrightDC Microsoft Word 10.0 The Corning Museum of
Glass The use of a press to form glass is probably the most important invention since
the Romans perfected the blowpipe two thousand Title Microsoft Word Document MSWordDoc Word.Document.8