Detailed EAPG Vinegar or Oil Glass Cruet.
Nice Detailed EAPG Vinegar or Oil Glass Cruet.
J.B. Higbee Glass Company 1907 - 1918.
Oliver Higbee and R.G. West started a new glass company in Bridgeville, Pa. They named it in honour of J.B. Higbee since he was instrumental in forming it. He had died in 1906.
Bryce, Higbee Co. had been closed and the abandoned plant had been sold to the Carnegie Steel Company. Oliver was able to purchase all the moveable parts including moulds, equipment, and machinery. J.B. Higbee Glass Co. was manufacturing pot glass only, but a superior and of handmade quality.
Several of the Bryce, Higbee patterns were continued at J.B. Higbee. It is not known if J.B. Higbee did their own decorating and staining. Oliver Higbee started the practice of marking the glass for identification, using a trademark bee that was applied to the plunger. It consisted of a tiny raised bee figure with an H on the left wing, an I on the body, and a G on the right wing.
The plant enjoyed a good run for several years but closed under mysterious circumstances. It had been rumoured that Oliver Higbee left the area with the company money, causing the plant to go up for sale. Oliver died on August 22, 1919, at the age of 44.
The acronym EAPG is often mistaken for Early American Pressed Glass but in fact, it stands for Early American Pattern Glass. EAPG is pressed glass but pressed glass is not necessarily pattern glass.
EAPG is almost always clear glass with a pattern within it. It's prone to imperfections in clarity and finishing (ie, roughly polished or unpolished seam lines). It's heavy and thicker than glass made later. It can be made either of soda lime glass or flint glass with soda lime glass dominating.
Glass produced after 1915 is not generally considered Early American Pattern glass, but rather a transition to the Depression Glass era when the glass was entirely machine made. Not many of the early companies survived this transition.
Early American Pressed Glass is a form of glass made using a plunger to press the molten glass into a mould. This process was first patented by American inventor John P. Bakewell in 1825 to make knobs for furniture.
The technique was developed in the United States from the 1820's and in Europe (particularly France, Bohemia, and Sweden) from the 1830s. By the mid-19th century, most inexpensive mass-produced glassware was pressed.
EAPG, also known as pattern glass, is pressed glass tableware that was made mostly during the Victorian period and some earlier (1826-1915). In 1826, the Sandwich Glass Works made sets that matched in design. Hundreds of glass factories made different sets with some more long-lived and more well-known today than others. It has been estimated that the number of patterns made was as high as 3000. The number of patterns made in extensive sets was probably closer to 1000.
EAPG was manufactured in a very limited number of colours and these are very much sought after by collectors. The earliest pieces were lacy (Lacy Glass) or stippled (Sandwich Glass) in appearance to help disguise flaws that often appeared in the glass. As pressed glass became clearer, simple geometric forms became popular.
Item Code - GLA10A251MAC
Width: 4 1/16" Height: 6 1/4" Depth: 4 1/16"
Weight: 450 g
