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Who Got the Moulds?

Glass historians are always looking for ways to explain glass that appears to be almost the same as that produced by another company and often they find the reason was a company merger or perhaps even an employee association.

During the boom times for the glass industry, some moulds were carried to several different companies by glass makers that worked for both companies. In addition, it wasn?t unusual for orders to get filled by another company if one was too busy. Then when companies started closing the moulds started moving again. Consequently we have found that etches, cuttings, and blanks moved around. Add all that to special runs for stores and decorating companies and you get diversity and confusion. There was also a lot of experimentation as well as end runs of glass being used on other moulds.

This ongoing project currently does not list many of the internal movements of company moulds in the larger glass corporations that started to emerge during the early part of the twentieth century. After their initial start up many companies became part of larger glass corporations which often also meant the moulds became part of a new parent company. We have attempted to document the final resting place of the moulds used by the American glass companies which with the exception of Fenton have now all expired.

Bartlett Collins still operates today as part of Lancaster Colony.

Beaumont moulds were bought by Fenton.

Bryce moulds went to Lenox

Cambridge moulds were bought by Imperial. Many of them went to Summit Art Glass and many went to the National Cambridge collectors when Imperial closed. In 2006 Cambridge Collectors were able to purchase all of the Cambridge moulds from Summit Art Glass.

Central moulds were bought by Imperial. They went to the National Cambridge collectors when Imperial closed.

Consolidated Some moulds were acquired by Phoenix when Consolidated first closed, but later repurchased. After Consolidated was sold, most of the moulds were transferred to Sinclair Glass Co. in Hartford City, Indiana, iin the 1960s. In 1992 all of the Consolidated moulds held by Sinclair were purchased by Pilgrim Glass.

Cooperative Flint moulds were bought by Phoenix.

Davies moulds were bought by New Martinsville.

Dugan became Diamond and moulds eventually went to Fenton.

Dunbar moulds went to Weston.

Duncan Miller went to US Glass then to Fenton and then went to Viking and finally Lenox.

Federal went bankrupt and out of business in 1977 or 1978 and all of its molds went to Indiana Glass.

Fenton evidently sent some of their moulds to Viking in the 1950s. As Fenton was closing down in 2007, they sold many of their 9000+ moulds to anyone who would pay their price. Mosser purchased many. The three national Fenton collectors' clubs bought moulds for their respective convention fun-raiser items. Cambridge, Fostoria, and perhaps other glass company collectors' clubs purchased moulds originally made by those companies. Many moulds went to individuals and overseas. The Fenton Gift Shop, which is still in business, kept many moulds from which Mosser Glass in Cambridge, Ohio, makes items that are then hand-decorated and offered for sale at the Gift Shop.

Fostoria moulds were bought by Lancaster Colony then by Fenton circa 2004. They have already reproduced the rooster in their periwinkle blue.

Fry moulds were bought by Libbey

Hazel-Atlas changed owners and it's name first became Hazelware and finally to Brockway Glass

Heisey moulds were bought by the Heisey Collectors of America.

Indiana became part of the Lancaster Colony which was also the parent company of Tiara which produced glass for that company. Fenton bought most of the molds Indiana had upon closing including the Fostoria ones but most were unuseable.

Lancaster moulds are still with the parent company, Anchor Hocking.

Liberty moulds appear to have gone to Cambridge.

Mac Beth-Evans moulds were bought by Corning.

McKee moulds were bought by Jeannette(which explains why those pesky scalloped ones keep showing up where you don?t expect them).

Monongah moulds went to Anchor Hocking which was their parent company.

Morgantown moulds were bought by Fostoria and then they went to Bailey but eventually went to Schott.

National moulds went to Anchor Hocking.

New Cumberland moulds were bought by U.S. Glass

New Martinsville became Viking.

Northwood moulds went to National then to Dugan/Diamond then to Fenton.

Paden City moulds were bought by Canton, Fenton, and Viking. However New Martinsville and PC were always trading workers, as their factories in close proximity to each other. One wonders why Viking (who was New Martinsville) bought the moulds, perhaps the close relationship was only in the early years.

Phoenix is now part of Anchor Hocking Industrial Glass, and no longer makes art glass.

Standard moulds are still with the parent company, Anchor Hocking.

Tiffin/U. S. Glass Some of their moulds may have gone to to Anchor Hocking which was made up of at least 14 companies, so one assumes those moulds moved around. Fenton got their rabbit lamp and Rose candlesticks.

Viking Some of their Janice moulds went to Mosser.

Vineland. became Kimble and still exists.

Weston, Louie, and West Virgina Glass Specialty were all eventually owned or managed by the Wohinc Family. They existed in some form through the early 1970s as Princess Glass which was sold in home parties. The location of their moulds is unknown.

Westmoreland moulds went mostly to collectors but their Panelled Grape and perhaps others went to Fenton.

Anchor-Hocking, Kopp, Lenox, Libbey, Louie, L.E. Smith, and Schott still operate under their own names.

I have no idea what happened to,Brockway, Canton, Jeannette and Jenkins moulds.
If anyone has additional mould information, please post it in the discussion forum and we will integrate it into this article.

Sadly, regardless of where the moulds ended up, many of them have not been properly preserved and are now unusable. In addition, moulds produced for hand work are not acceptable for machine made operations.

Updated 10/15/2012

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Date:	17.04.2006 09:43
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