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Adapted from the Collectors Weekly website: American Brilliant Period (ABP) cut glass came out of the shadows of European cut glass in 1876, at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the exposition, representatives from eight American glass manufacturers showed off their leaded-crystal goblets, tumblers, decanters, and serving plates, each of which had been deeply cut by hand on a succession of metal, stone, and wooden wheels to create elaborate, interlocking, refractive patterns such as stars within stars, fans, hatching, hobnail and caned effects, florals, and saw-tooth, zipper-cut, and/or scalloped edges. 

During the Brilliant Period, roughly 1,000 cutting shops were founded to meet consumer demand. The shops would turn thick, unadorned blanks into multifaceted confections whose cut and engraved surfaces splashed refracted light around a room. ABP’s heyday lasted from the nation’s centennial until the first decade of the 20th century when changing tastes and less-expensive pressed glass replicating the look of cut glass pushed the real thing to the sidelines. By 1910 many cut glass floral, fruit, and geometric patterns were pressed first and then cut, making them less costly to produce and less desirable to contemporary collectors.