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Here's To The Company Glass!
In Indiana and the Midwest, the most
common glasses from the glass companies are from Brockway and
Owens-Illinois. There's at least a half dozen different Brockway
glasses in white, blue, and green colors showing the B Brockway
logo and glass manufacturing plant. Usually these are tied into
plant openings, anniversaries an There is a nice variety of glasses
from the Brockway Glass Company. Some of the examples include
a Pomona, California Brockway Plant 25th Anniversary glass and
a Dr. J. P. Poole, 1948 - 1982 glass. Dr. Poole is clearly a VIP
to have his own glass made! Then on the right is a simple yet
classy gold decorated glass, from Montgomery, AL. With the gold
letters and wh The Owens- Illinois company have several
glass styles as well, but the most common are the Annual Service
Award glasses. Sometimes these say Annual Service Award Dinner.
Each is dated and shows a different scene each year. They would
be better glasses if the colors were more vibrant, and the scenes
more exciting. They usually have themes, like "Treasures
of Time" or "Our American Heritage", similar to
a prom night. I have one glass that says "Owens Brockway", so at some point these companies worked together.
Everyone has a favorite glass among their
different collections, and mine in this case is a Owens-Illinois
Technical Center Dedication, 8 oz. measuring glass, in red, yellow,
blue, and white, dated Sept. 27, 1955. Pictured on the glass is
the Technical Center, which was probably pretty futuristic looking
in 1955. Also drawn on the glass are outlines of scientific instruments
like a microscope, compass, protractor, calipers, and more. Another
great looking glass is a union label tall measuring glass, "It
tastes better in a Glass container". The blue union label
is on top, with glass containers pictured in red, and the slogan
in yellow underneath. Notice that no actual drinking glasses are
pictured, only containers. Some of these glass company glasses
actually are made on blanks from other companies, like Libbey
blanks. I guess in these cases the glass company made containers,
but outsourced the promo glass. Some of the other companies that made glasses include Duraglas, Libbey, Corning (and Pyrex), Kumkang, and Carolina Glass Works. It takes a little searching to unearth these glasses, but there are plenty of neat ones to find, and a wide variety of types to collect. I like to imagine the glass workers in the 50's, working at the plant as thousands of Davy Crockett glasses of all shapes and sizes go by on the assembly line. What would the worker who boxed up cases of Mighty Mouse glasses in the 70's think if he knew they were selling now for $600 each? And are there folks who have cases of Camp Snoopy glasses at home, still waiting to cash in on their stash? Who knows, but we can all be thankful the glasses outlive the memories, and spark new memories for collectors. |
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This site was last updated 02/20/10