Heisey Glass Company
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| A.H. Heisey and Company | |
|---|---|
| Type | Private company |
| Founded | Newark, Ohio (1895) |
| Headquarters | Newark, Ohio, USA |
| Key people | A. H. Heisey |
| Industry | glassware |
| Employees | 700 |
The A.H. Heisey Company was formed in Newark, Ohio in 1895 by A. H. Heisey. The factory provided fine quality glass tableware and decorative glass figurines. Both pressed and blown glassware were made in a wide variety of patterns and colours.
The company was operated by Heisey and his sons until 1957, when the factory closed.
The company also made glass automobile headlights, Holophane Glassware lighting fixtures.
Heisey glassware is readily identifiable as being of high clarity and brilliance, and highly finished through the process of firepolishing, with polished bottoms. Many of the pressed pieces appear to be cut-crystal on casual inspection due to the high-quality of the glass and the crispness of the molding. The majority, but no where near all of the pieces are impressed with the company logo a raised capital letter "H" inscribed in a diamond of approximately 1/4 inch (6 mm) in length. This mark is found on the bottom of most large pieces and on the base or stem of drinking glasses and comports.
Heisey glass is highly collectible and widely available in antique stores across North America and on-line auctions such as eBay.
Popular pattern names include crystolite, Greek-key, empress, plantation, ridgeleigh, stanhope, old-sandwich and yeoman amongst dozens of others.
Heisey glass was produced in colors throughout the life of the factory but the most prolific period of colour manufacturing was from 1925 to 1938 when the most collectible colours were created. The company went to great lengths to produce distinct colours and Heisey glass may often be identified from the specific colours alone. In 1925 Flamingo (a pastel rose-pink) and Moongleam (a vivid green) were introduced and produced in large quantities. Marigold is a brassy gold-yellow colour. Sahara, which replaced Marigold, is a satisfying soft lemony yellow colour. Hawthorne is a lavender colour. Tangerine, a bright orange-red, produced from about 1933 was part of a trend to darker more vivid colours. During this time a Cobalt colour called Steigel Blue was also produced. Alexandrite is the rarest of Heisey colours; it can be a pale blue-green under normal light, but in sunlight or ultraviolet light it glows with a pink-lavender colour. Zircon is a very modern grey-blue colour and was the last new colour introduced.
Heisey is believed to have made a few pieces in milk-glass in its early production years and likely produced vaseline glass as well in the early twenties although not in large quantities.
At the time the factory closed, the Imperial Glass Company bought the molds for the Heisey glass production and continued producing some pieces mostly with the Imperial Glass mark until they went out of business in 1984. Many of these pieces were animal figurines -- mostly in new or original colors using the old molds.
Enthusiasts of Heisey Glass formed the Heisey Collectors of America in 1971. This group founded the National Heisey Glass Museum in Newark, Ohio in 1974. The museum maintains a significant collection of Heisey glass and company archives including many of the original molds. The museum is open to the public and also maintains an archive of historical information about the company. When Imperial Glass Company went out of business in the 1980s, the club purchased the Heisey molds and established an archives. The Heisey Collectors of America occasionally reproduce pieces from the original molds for fundraising purposes.
[edit] References
- The Collector's Encyclopedia of HEISEY GLASS 1925-1938, Neila Bredehoft, Collector Books, Paducah Kentucky, 1986
- Heisey Glassware, Viola N. Cudd, Herrmann Print Shop, Brenham Texas, 1966
