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On the continuum of glassmaking history, Sandwich may not rival Imperial Rome, but it rates
bigger than a blip. Here, between 1825 and 1888, the Boston & Sandwich Glass Co. churned out
blown, mold-blown, and pressed-glass tableware. Mold-blown glass, using a technique that also
dates from ancient times, calls for glassblowers to inflate a molten bubble inside a hinged mold
that imprints it with intricate patterns.
The Sandwich factory used this method in the 1820s and '30s; it made its mark in 1829 by im-
proving a technique called pressing, which eliminated blowing and used lever-operated metal
molds to forge even more elaborate designs at astonishing speed.
A plate, candlestick, or tea saucer could be pressed every 15 seconds, and this mass production,
widely emulated in other glass-making centers, soon made glassware affordable to more Amer-
icans.
A few decades after the factory closed, collectors began beating the bushes for pressed
"Sandwich glass," and well-preserved pieces now command tens of thousands of dollars. Though
connoisseurs appreciate its gem-like colors, many prize it simply for of its nostalgic associa-
tion with New England.
After the War of 1812 cut off glass imports from Britain, glass factories sprang up along the
East Coast, including in Boston and East Cambridge. An entrepreneur named Deming Jarves, who
had worked as a sales agent for a glass works in East Cambridge, decamped to Sandwich to
start the Boston & Sandwich Glass Co.
Though its sand proved too impure to use for glassmaking (the company imported sand from
New Jersey at first and later from the Berkshires), Sandwich had abundant forests to fuel the
furnaces and marsh hay to pack the fragile goods. And by ship, it lay only 50 miles from Boston
and its lucrative markets.
Pressed glass may have earned the company a place in history, but workers continued to produce
high-quality blown glass ornamented in a variety of skillful ways, and the museum displays
dozens of handsome examples. Cut glass required craftsmen to abrade delicate blown pieces with
stone and metal wheels spinning at high speed. Engraving was another highly skilled embellishment.
Delicate strands of colored glass applied around the circumference of a vessel created an effect
known as threading.
A few other glass companies enjoyed brief runs in Sandwich from the 1880s through the early
1900s, among them the Alton Manufacturing Co., maker of an iridescent art ware called Trevaise.
Crafted in the Art Nouveau style, Trevaise vases look as if they were just poured from a caldron
of magic elixir, so dynamic they seem to be breathing.
Color is one of the most eye-catching qualities of the pieces displayed throughout the museum,
including the pressed Sandwich glass in hues of deep emerald, ruby, teal, cobalt, aqua, amethyst,
canary, and amber. Drawn to an exhibit called the Mixing Room, visitors are startled to hear the
disembodied voice of a 19th-century chemist from the Boston & Sandwich Glass Co., who explains
how color specialists mixed oxides of tin, zinc, iron, cobalt, copper, and even uranium to achieve
the rich colors. Lead added brilliancy and transparency.
A drawer pops open to reveal one of the closely guarded formulas, and beneath some finished
pieces, other drawers contain the mineral oxides used to make their colors. Under a blacklight,
a bowl glows radioactive green -- a product of the uranium oxide used to create canary-yellow
glass. Chemists mixed in more lead to absorb the radiation, giving canary ware an unusual heft.
The museum also has opened a long-closed gallery for changing exhibits. The space now displays
jewelry made by Hazel Blake French (1890-1972). As a young girl, French salvaged bits of
colored glass from the rubble of the Sandwich factories, later crafting them within ornate
settings inspired by the Cape's plants and animals.
Working at the height of the Arts and Crafts movement, which rejected mass-produced objects
in favor of handcrafted ones, French used an artist's eye to sculpt flowing forms in copper,
gold, and silver. The glass shards, smoothed into ovals and teardrops, echo the colors of marsh
and ocean.
French's work won international recognition in her lifetime, exhibited in 1925 at the Society of
Arts and Crafts, Boston, and in 1937 at L'Exposition Internationale in Paris.
Ironically, the beauty of French's one-of-a-kind pieces built upon the achievement of the chem-
ists at the factory that brought the Industrial Revolution to Sandwich. By perfecting the
bright color of the glassware stamped out by the press, they too elevated the artistry of
everyday objects.
The Sandwich Glass Museum subtly brings home that point. Chances are that after a visit here,
you'll never look at a juice glass or a wine goblet the same way again. | 
