{setting="board_name" escape="true"}
Elegant and Everyday Glass Forum Museum of American Glass in Weswt Virginia Elegant and Everyday Glass Gallery
Glass Etch and Pattern Gallery
    Home\Elegant & Depression Glass Companies\Consolidated\Company History\Consolidated Lamp and Glass Company History Top images  New images   









Consolidated Lamp and Glass Company History
Consolidated Lamp and Glass Company History

Consolidated Lamp and Glass Company History
CONSOLIDATED LAMP & GLASS COMPANY, Fostoria, Ohio (1894‑1896), Coraopolis, PA (1896‑1964).

This concern originated in 1894 with the purchase of the Fostoria Shade and Lamp Company, which was the largest factory manufacturing lamps and lamp shades in the United States. The new company quickly established its own reputation for fine lamps and other goods, greatly aided by the talents of Nicholas Kopp, who had been general manager of the Fostoria Shade and Lamp Company and retained that position with Consolidated. He had a reputation for developing brilliant new colors and innovative designs.

In 1895, the company demonstrated its success by contracting for a second factory to be built in Coraopolis. The intention was to run both factories. However, when the Fostoria plant was badly damaged by fire, it was decided to move all of the workers to the new location.

Although Consolidated's output remained primarily lamps, shades, and globes, they also produced tableware and novelties from the beginning. As lighting needs changed, the Consolidated continued to meet them, remaining the largest manufacturer of lighting glassware through much of its existence.

In 1926, their Art Glass Division introduced Martel?, the first of a series of sculpted glassware designs that vied with French art glass in elegance and artistic merit. Once again they were indebted to a brilliant designer, Reuben Haley, who was quick to respond to the development of art deco and the work of Rene Lalique in France. Other lines that followed included Catalonian and the very modernistic Ruba Rombic. Consolidated could truthfully claim in their advertisements that they were making glass "different from anything else made in this country."

In 1933, the company succumbed to financial difficulties and closed temporarily. Following the death of Reuben Haley in September of that year, his son Kenneth, who was a designer at the Phoenix Glass Company, obtained control of the molds created by his father and some of them were put into production by Phoenix. However, Phoenix was unable to produce the same fine finishes offered by Consolidated. After the Consolidated reopened under new ownership in 1936, the Haley molds were eventually returned.

Later production included blown, cased vases and, beginning in the early 1950s, hand‑painted milk glass, including reissues of some of their earlier molds adapted to a new market. Ultimately, however, the company found itself facing increasing operating losses. When the glassworkers demanded higher wages in 1962, the owners decided they could no longer continue to subsidize a failing business. It was sold and about half the molds were removed to the Sinclair Glass Company in Hartford, Indiana. The remainder of the molds were scrapped. For a while, Sinclair shipped finished blanks to the Consolidated for decorating. However, in 1963, the workers at Coraopolis went on strike and a major fire damaged the plant. In 1964, it was closed for good.

? From The Glass Candlestick Book, volume 1, by Tom Felt, Rich & Elaine Stoer (reprinted with permission)
Keywords:  
Date: 29.04.2007 20:09
Hits: 5228
Added by: Tom Felt



RSS Feed: Consolidated Lamp and Glass Company History (Comments)

Copyright © 2003 - 2019 Glass Etch and Pattern Gallery. All rights reserved, foreign and domestic.