Preface
It is not the purpose of the author in this volume to treat of the myriads of pressed glass dating from the centennial to the present day masquerading in shops as “Sandwich glass” and cluttering up the cabinets of the unwary collector only to be discarded later by those who have learned by comparison with the beautiful lacy specimens of early Sandwich that they have been led to acquire pieces of little beauty and less real value. It is of the period of Sandwich glass dating from the opening of the factory in 1825 by a handful of men, blowers of great physique, artists, and mold makers, some of whom started in the struggling “Parent Tree” factory of 1817, down to the period of greatest prosperity in 1853—that we are dealing with. These men put their best efforts into designs of intricate beauty. There is no comparison between their work and the later commercial pressed glass which took unto itself all the worst features of Victorian decoration and which was never found upon the tables of people of good taste, who turned from pressed glass to English cut during this latter period, or preserved with reverence and used on state occasions the pieces of a generation before. This late glass covered with stars and rosettes in ugly amber and blue and white became a tremendous advertising medium and was distributed as premiums and sold in quantity at very cheap prices. The author sees no object in collecting it to-day other than the commercializing of an unworthy product. The glass sheltered by the Mansard roof does not fit in with early Sandwich.