What is Early American Pattern Glass?
Early American Pattern Glass, or Pattern Glass, was tableware and serving sets made during the Victorian era between 1840 and 1910. Pattern Glass came about as a result of a pressing machine patented by the Boston and Sandwich Glass Co. in about 1830. There was a tremendous amount of it made and it wasn’t expensive. You go back 100 years, and what did you do with disposable income? You bought household items. About 1880 was a time known as the brilliant period of cut glass. During the 1880s and ’90s we became very isolated as a country. As far as glassware was concerned, we didn’t get much from England and France. EAPG has been broken into two groups: flint glass and non-flint glass. The story as been around for a long time: The lead used in flint glass was needed for the Civil War effort. Lead gave glass its clarity and resonance, and a crystalline structure that would allow it to be cut. I doubt the war effort story because during that time companies in Pennsylvania and the Ohio Rive
