At the end of May we went to a HUGE university/private collection/museum deaccession sale. (That is where museums, universities and private collectors quietly dispose of items that they have had in their archives to make room for more or to raise money.) Over the next few weeks we are going to list the items from that sale. They came from anonymous sources, they don't like folks knowing when they are having items leave their collection. We will post this paragraph with the items that come from that sale. Check out all the amazing items.

Out of that sale was this fantastic early 1800's master salt, most likely by the Boston & Sandwich Glass Company. The bottom foot matches their early pieces found online. Broken pontil, in fantastic condition. It measures approx. 2 15/16" across and 2 1/8" high.

Here is some of their history from off their museum site:

Incorporated in 1637, Sandwich is the oldest town on Cape Cod. Originally settled by the English, Sandwich became an agricultural community, the main export of which was timber sent back to England. Even during the American Revolution, it remained a primarily agrarian community, supplemented by coastal fishing. But in 1825, the landscape of Sandwich would drastically change because of Deming Jarves, a Boston businessman and former agent of the New England Glass Company of East Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Deming Jarves, the principal founder and manager of the Boston & Sandwich Glass Company, did not choose Sandwich as a site for the glass factory because of the beach sand that was readily available. Beach sand is too impure to make glass which requires pure quartz silica. The Company shipped in pure silica supplies first from New Jersey and New York and later from the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts.

Jarves did choose Sandwich because of its proximity to a shallow harbor and the possibility of a canal being built through Cape Cod that would allow for the shipment of goods. The local availability of timber could be used to fuel the glass furnaces. Even the salt marsh hay and grasses could be used for packing material.

Jarves brought master glassblowers with him from the New England Glass Company. He also recruited workers from England and Ireland. English and Irish glassmakers were considered the foremost craftsmen during the early 19th century. They were very skilled in making blown glassware with high lead content, the most desirable of the period.

The glass company also produced mold-blown wares. Many of these designs mimicked English and Irish cut glass patterns, but mold-blown pieces were more easily made and required less skilled labor.

In the mid-1820s, American manufacturers began to experiment with pressing glass with the use of a lever-operated machine. Sandwich was quick to utilize the pressing machine. Jarves did not invent the pressing process, but he did receive several patents for improvements in pressing techniques and mold designs. One of the first items easily and cheaply pressed was the cup plate. It was the custom in the early 19th century to drink tea from a saucer. The cup plate became the coaster for the tea cup.

The molds for pressing glass were metal, hand-carved by mold-makers. The early pressing process often created surface imperfections due to the different cooling rates of the glass and molds. Small circles or dots were added to the early pressed designs, called stipples. The dots help to refract the light through the glass and to draw the human eye away from those surface imperfections. Collectors often call this type of glassware LACY glass.

The Boston & Sandwich Glass Company was very prosperous and focused on producing quality pieces of glass. The company continued to grow and expand, creating an entire community around the factory, both fueling and depending on the factory’s business. The community incorporated all of the factory buildings, the workers’ houses, the mercantile buildings, and other support buildings, such as the train roundhouse.

In the 1840s and 1850s, the company perfected the pressing processes further to eliminate surface imperfections. They mass-produced a stunning spectrum of colored tableware, including lamps, spoonholders, perfume bottles, candlesticks, and celery vases.



Estimated shipping weight, (packaged) is 1 lb in a 12 x 10 x 10 box.

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