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History of Libbey Glass Company

Libbey Glass Company, Toledo, Ohio (1888 to the present). Libbey produced a wide variety of glassware, ranging from fine cut glass (1888 to the 1920s), fine crystal art glass (1930s/1940s), and machine made pieces (1930s to the present). The story of Libbey actually goes back to 1872, when William L. Libbey left the Mount Washington Glass Company to become sales manager of the venerable New England Glass Company in East Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is this connection that later allowed Libbey to advertise that they had been established in 1818, the date of the New England Glass Company?s founding. Ultimately, Libbey took control of this factory and, after his death, his son Edward moved it to Toledo, Ohio, where the name was changed to W. L. Libbey & Son Company, proprietors, New England Glass Works. In 1892, the name was changed again to the Libbey Glass Company. Pressed ware, similar to that made in New England, continued to be manufactured, but with an increasing emphasis on rich cut glass. A model glass factory constructed at the Chicago World?s Fair in 1892 helped to establish their reputation. Their name recognition ultimately was such that they could advertise themselves as "The World?s Best," emphasizing that all the consumer needed to do was look for their name on a piece to know that they were buying the finest cut glass on the market.

By the end of World War I, cut glass no longer commanded the market and the company faced financial difficulties. It was in 1924 that they made their first major about-face, announcing their new patented Safedge tumblers and becoming a major supplier of the restaurant trade. By 1939 they had perfected the Owens machine for automated production of tumblers and this became their primary product.

Meanwhile, in 1931, the current management at Libbey decided to attempt the reintroduction of fine art glass. They hired A. Douglas Nash, previously associated with Tiffany, to create this new line. He was successful in designing pieces considered by collectors today to be among the finest from the period, but they were not only very expensive to sell (and impractical from that standpoint) but also so expensive to produce that the debt incurred has been directly blamed for the takeover of the company in 1935 by the Owens-Illinois Glass Company. Business grew so rapidly under the new management that the company once again introduced a fine glassware line as the Modern American Series in 1940, doing very well with it this time B only to be discontinued about a year later because of restrictions imposed by World War II. Libbey Glass continues to be operated as a division of Owens-Illinois today, remaining one of the most successful - and profitable - manufacturers of machine made tumblers and other glassware in the world.

Adapted from The Glass Candlestick Book, volume 3, by Tom Felt, Rich & Elaine Stoer (reprinted with permission)

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Date:	28.04.2007 21:59
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Added by:	Tom Felt