GLASS IN A FLASH: Short Overview of Glass in Sandwich
The Sandwich Historical Society and its Glass Museum, collects, preserves and interprets the history of the Town of Sandwich, the oldest town on Cape Cod. A large part of Sandwich history is involved with American glass production. This short presentation is culled from the collection of glass and historic images of the Museum and Historical Society.
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.
c.1830
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.
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