| Formerly | Bakewell & Ensell Benjamin Bakewell & Co. Bakewell, Page & Bakewell Bakewell, Page & Bakewells Bakewells & Anderson Bakewells & Co. Bakewell & Pears |
|---|---|
| Company type | Private company |
| Industry | Glassware |
| Founded | 1808 |
| Founder | Benjamin Bakewell, Benjamin Page, Edward Ensell |
| Defunct | 1882 |
| Fate | closed and factory site sold |
| Headquarters | Water and Grant streets (1808-1854); Bingham Street (1854-1888),
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Key people | Benjamin Bakewell, Thomas Bakewell, John Palmer Pears |
| Products | blown and pressed glassware, including lead crystal, with cutting and engraving |
Number of employees | ??? (January 9999) |
Bakewell, Pears and Company was Pittsburgh's best known glass manufacturer. The company was most famous for its lead crystal glass, which was often decorated by cutting or engraving. It also made window glass, bottles, and lamps. The company was one of the first American glass manufacturers to produce glass using mechanical pressing. In the 1820s and 1830s, Bakewell glassware was purchased for the White House by presidents James Monroe and Andrew Jackson. Founder Benjamin Bakewell is considered by some to be father of the crystal glassware business in the United States.
The company was founded in 1808 by Benjamin Bakewell, Benjamin Page, Robert Kinder and Company represented by Thomas Kinder, and Edward Ensell. The original company name was Bakewell and Ensell, and the the factory was called the Pittsburgh Glass Manufactory. The company had nine different names, which typically changed when principals in the partnership changed. The name Bakewell was used in all nine names. Bakewell family members, as well as members of the Page and Pears families were also involved with the company. The name Bakewell, Pears and Company was used for the longest period, 1844 through 1880. The glass works was closed in 1882, and the facility was sold to a wire manufacturer.
Pittsburgh became the nation's glassmaking center in the 1850s. Its location provided access to river transportation, coal for fuel, and good quality sand. Englishman Benjamin Bakewell recruited skilled English glassworkers that enabled the company to become well known for its glass cutting and engraving. Some of the company's local workers became skilled enough to start their own glass companies. Among those glass men were John Adams (Adams & Company), Thomas Bakewell Atterbury (Atterbury & Company), James Bryce ( Bryce Brothers), David Challinor (Challinor Taylor), and William McCully (McCully and Company).
History
Beginning
Metropolitan Museum of Art
In 1807 George Robinson and Edward Ensell began building a glass works in Pittsburgh. They depleted their funding before construction was completed, so the incomplete works was sold in 1808 to Benjamin Bakewell, Benjamin Page, and Robert Kinder and Company represented by Thomas Kinder. [1] The glass works was located along the Monongahela River on Water Street, which gave the facility easy access to river transportation. [2] The new company was known as Bakewell and Ensell, and consisted of Bakewell, Page, Ensell, and Robert Kinder and Company. [3] Operations began by August 1808. [2] [Note 1] The factory's original furnace contained six pots. [5] [Note 2] Mr. Ensell provided the glassmaking expertise, although Bakewell soon discovered that Ensell misrepresented his qualifications. [8] Ensell left the company in 1809, and the firm was renamed Benjamin Bakewell and Company. [9] [Note 3] The three remaining principals continued with the company. [9] Changes were necessary at the glass works because of a number of problems. The furnace for melting glass was badly constructed, the work force was not highly skilled and and was reluctant to train new employees, and some of the raw materials were delivered by wagon from places beyond the mountains as far away as Philadelphia and New Jersey. Sand, a major raw material for glass, was obtained nearby—but it was low-quality and more suited for window or bottle glass than glassware. [9]
Bakewell worked to solve his factory's problems. The furnace was replaced with a ten-pot version in 1810. [5] Better raw material sources were found, and Bakewell was able to produce better quality glass. [11] Although many European countries forbid their glassworkers to come to the United States as part of an effort to retain glassmaking secrets, Bakewell improved his workforce by smuggling skilled glass workers from England to Pittsburgh. [12] Among the new hires in 1810 was former factory superintendent and glass cutter William Peter Eichbaum, who cut the first crystal chandelier made in America. The chandelier was sold to an innkeeper for $300 (equivalent to $5,844 in 2023). [13] In advertising, the company called its glass works the Pittsburgh Flint Glass Manufactory. [14] Bakewell's glass works began to establish a reputation for "quality and workmanship", which it achieved before the end of the decade. [2]
The works was moved from the banks of the Monongahela River to a building at the corner of Water and Grant streets in 1811. [15]
Effective March 13, 1811, the company's partnership was dissolved, and it was announced that the "business will in future be carried on by B. Page and B. Bakewell, under the firm of the former partnership." [16]
Early years
Bakewell, Page & Bakewell established
In 1814 another ten-pot furnace was added to the factory, which doubled capacity.
[5]
Big management changes
Pears full partner in 1842
Benjamin Bakewell dies in 1844
Pittsburgh fire
New factory 1853
Exceptional products
Talent provider
Decline
1870s: economy, John P. Pears died in 1874
Notes
Footnotes
- ^ An insurance description dated August 19, 1808, indicates the Bakewell glass factory was completed and operating. [2] Bakewell and Ensell was selling its glass by November 9, 1808, because it ran an advertisement in the local newspaper–and the works may have been in operation as early as February 1808 based on a newspaper notice concerning a glassmaking raw material. [4]
- ^ Because glass plants at that time melted their ingredients in a pot, a plant's number of pots was often used to describe a plant's capacity. The ceramic pots were located inside the furnace. The pot contained molten glass created by melting a batch of ingredients that typically included sand, soda, lime, and other ingredients. [6] For comparison purposes, Wheeling's Barnes, Hobbs, and Company had ten-pot, nine-pot, and five-pot furnaces in 1857. [7]
-
^ Pittsburgh's Bakewell glass company had nine different names. Bakewell, Pears & Company was the name used for the longest time. The names are:
Bakewell & Ensell (1808–1809);
Benjamin Bakewell & Company (1809–1813);
Bakewell, Page & Bakewell (1813–1827);
Bakewell, Page & Bakewells (1827–1832);
Bakewells & Anderson (1832–1836);
Bakewells & Company (1836–1842);
Bakewell & Pears (1842–1844);
Bakewell, Pears & Company (1844–1880); and
Bakewell, Pears Company, Ltd. (1880–1882). [10] - ^ Black glass is black in color because Manganese oxide mixed with iron oxide has been added to the batch. In some cases, black glass appears black in normal lighting, but is actually a very dark brown, green, blue, or purple. [17]
Citations
- ^ Killikelly 1906, p. 133
- ^ a b c d Madarasz, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania & Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center 1998, p. 30
- ^ Bakewell 1896, p. 90
- ^ McKearin & McKearin 1966, p. 138
- ^ a b c Jarves 1854, p. 45
- ^ Skrabec 2007, pp. 25–26
- ^ "Manufacture of Glassware in Wheeling (page 2 second column from left)". Wheeling Daily Intelligencer (from Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress). August 29, 1857. Archived from the original on July 20, 2023. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
- ^ Killikelly 1906, p. 133; Jarves 1854, p. 43
- ^ a b c Killikelly 1906, p. 134
- ^ Madarasz, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania & Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center 1998, p. 144
- ^ Jarves 1854, p. 44
- ^ Skrabec 2011, p. 20; Jarves 1854, p. 44
- ^ Knittle 1927, pp. 210, 307
-
^ "Pittsburgh Flint Glass Manufactory - Benjamin Bakewell & Co. (advertisement)". Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette. June 29, 1810. p. 4.
...have recently enlarged their assortment of glassware...
- ^ Knittle 1927, p. 308
-
^ "Notice (column 3 near top)". Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette (Ancestry). May 31, 1811. p. 3.
The partnership heretofore existing...was dissolved....
- ^ Shotwell 2002, p. 41
References
- Bakewell, Benjamin Gifford (1896). The Family Book of Bakewell, Page, Campbell; Being Some Account of the Descendants of John Bakewell... Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: W.G. Johnston & Co. OCLC 475684153. Retrieved April 14, 2023.
- Jarves, Deming (1854). Reminiscences of Glass–making. Boston, Massachusetts: Eastburn's Press. OCLC 14284772. Archived from the original on 2024-03-03. Retrieved 2024-02-23.
- Killikelly, Sarah (1906). The History of Pittsburgh: Its Rise and Progress. Chirora, Pennsylvania: Mechling Bookbindery. OCLC 1017019033. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
- Knittle, Rhea Mansfield (1927). Early American Glass. New York, New York: The Century Co. OCLC 1811743. Archived from the original on 2023-07-19. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
- Madarasz, Anne; Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania; Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center (1998). Glass: Shattering Notions. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. ISBN 978-0-93634-001-2. OCLC 39921461.
- McKearin, George S.; McKearin, Helen (1966). American Glass. New York City: Crown Publishers. OCLC 1049801744.
- Moore, N. Hudson (1924). Old Glass, European and American. New York City: Frederick A. Stokes Co. OCLC 1738230. Archived from the original on 2024-03-03. Retrieved 2024-02-23.
- Palmer, Arlene (1979). "American Heroes in Glass: The Bakewell Sulphide Portraits". American Art Journal. 11 (1). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, Smithsonian American Art Museum: 4–26. doi: 10.2307/1594129. JSTOR 1594129. Archived from the original on February 24, 2023. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
- Palmer, Arlene (2004). Artistry and Innovation in Pittsburgh glass, 1808-1882: from Bakewell & Ensell to Bakewell, Pears & Co. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Frick Art & Historical Center. ISBN 978-0-82294-252-8. OCLC 494286738.
- Pears, III, Thomas C. (September 1948). "Sidelights on the History of the Bakewell, Pears & Company from the Letters of Thomas and Sarah Pears". Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine. 31 (3): 61–70.
- Shotwell, David J. (2002). Glass A to Z. Iola, Wisconsin: Krause Publications. pp. 638. ISBN 978-0-87349-385-7. OCLC 440702171.
- Skrabec, Quentin R. (2007). Michael Owens and the Glass Industry. Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing. ISBN 978-1-45560-883-6. OCLC 1356375205.
- Skrabec, Quentin R. (2007a). Glass in Northwest Ohio. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia. ISBN 978-0-73855-111-1. OCLC 124093123.
- Skrabec, Quentin R. (2011). Edward Drummond Libbey, American Glassmaker. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-78648-548-2. OCLC 753968484.
External links
- Beck, Phillips – the Bakewells – and the Brunswick Pharmacal Co. - Society for Historical Archaeology
- Champagne Glass Bakewell, Pears & Co. - The Met
| Formerly | Bakewell & Ensell Benjamin Bakewell & Co. Bakewell, Page & Bakewell Bakewell, Page & Bakewells Bakewells & Anderson Bakewells & Co. Bakewell & Pears |
|---|---|
| Company type | Private company |
| Industry | Glassware |
| Founded | 1808 |
| Founder | Benjamin Bakewell, Benjamin Page, Edward Ensell |
| Defunct | 1882 |
| Fate | closed and factory site sold |
| Headquarters | Water and Grant streets (1808-1854); Bingham Street (1854-1888),
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Key people | Benjamin Bakewell, Thomas Bakewell, John Palmer Pears |
| Products | blown and pressed glassware, including lead crystal, with cutting and engraving |
Number of employees | ??? (January 9999) |
Bakewell, Pears and Company was Pittsburgh's best known glass manufacturer. The company was most famous for its lead crystal glass, which was often decorated by cutting or engraving. It also made window glass, bottles, and lamps. The company was one of the first American glass manufacturers to produce glass using mechanical pressing. In the 1820s and 1830s, Bakewell glassware was purchased for the White House by presidents James Monroe and Andrew Jackson. Founder Benjamin Bakewell is considered by some to be father of the crystal glassware business in the United States.
The company was founded in 1808 by Benjamin Bakewell, Benjamin Page, Robert Kinder and Company represented by Thomas Kinder, and Edward Ensell. The original company name was Bakewell and Ensell, and the the factory was called the Pittsburgh Glass Manufactory. The company had nine different names, which typically changed when principals in the partnership changed. The name Bakewell was used in all nine names. Bakewell family members, as well as members of the Page and Pears families were also involved with the company. The name Bakewell, Pears and Company was used for the longest period, 1844 through 1880. The glass works was closed in 1882, and the facility was sold to a wire manufacturer.
Pittsburgh became the nation's glassmaking center in the 1850s. Its location provided access to river transportation, coal for fuel, and good quality sand. Englishman Benjamin Bakewell recruited skilled English glassworkers that enabled the company to become well known for its glass cutting and engraving. Some of the company's local workers became skilled enough to start their own glass companies. Among those glass men were John Adams (Adams & Company), Thomas Bakewell Atterbury (Atterbury & Company), James Bryce ( Bryce Brothers), David Challinor (Challinor Taylor), and William McCully (McCully and Company).
History
Beginning
Metropolitan Museum of Art
In 1807 George Robinson and Edward Ensell began building a glass works in Pittsburgh. They depleted their funding before construction was completed, so the incomplete works was sold in 1808 to Benjamin Bakewell, Benjamin Page, and Robert Kinder and Company represented by Thomas Kinder. [1] The glass works was located along the Monongahela River on Water Street, which gave the facility easy access to river transportation. [2] The new company was known as Bakewell and Ensell, and consisted of Bakewell, Page, Ensell, and Robert Kinder and Company. [3] Operations began by August 1808. [2] [Note 1] The factory's original furnace contained six pots. [5] [Note 2] Mr. Ensell provided the glassmaking expertise, although Bakewell soon discovered that Ensell misrepresented his qualifications. [8] Ensell left the company in 1809, and the firm was renamed Benjamin Bakewell and Company. [9] [Note 3] The three remaining principals continued with the company. [9] Changes were necessary at the glass works because of a number of problems. The furnace for melting glass was badly constructed, the work force was not highly skilled and and was reluctant to train new employees, and some of the raw materials were delivered by wagon from places beyond the mountains as far away as Philadelphia and New Jersey. Sand, a major raw material for glass, was obtained nearby—but it was low-quality and more suited for window or bottle glass than glassware. [9]
Bakewell worked to solve his factory's problems. The furnace was replaced with a ten-pot version in 1810. [5] Better raw material sources were found, and Bakewell was able to produce better quality glass. [11] Although many European countries forbid their glassworkers to come to the United States as part of an effort to retain glassmaking secrets, Bakewell improved his workforce by smuggling skilled glass workers from England to Pittsburgh. [12] Among the new hires in 1810 was former factory superintendent and glass cutter William Peter Eichbaum, who cut the first crystal chandelier made in America. The chandelier was sold to an innkeeper for $300 (equivalent to $5,844 in 2023). [13] In advertising, the company called its glass works the Pittsburgh Flint Glass Manufactory. [14] Bakewell's glass works began to establish a reputation for "quality and workmanship", which it achieved before the end of the decade. [2]
The works was moved from the banks of the Monongahela River to a building at the corner of Water and Grant streets in 1811. [15]
Effective March 13, 1811, the company's partnership was dissolved, and it was announced that the "business will in future be carried on by B. Page and B. Bakewell, under the firm of the former partnership." [16]
Early years
Bakewell, Page & Bakewell established
In 1814 another ten-pot furnace was added to the factory, which doubled capacity.
[5]
Big management changes
Pears full partner in 1842
Benjamin Bakewell dies in 1844
Pittsburgh fire
New factory 1853
Exceptional products
Talent provider
Decline
1870s: economy, John P. Pears died in 1874
Notes
Footnotes
- ^ An insurance description dated August 19, 1808, indicates the Bakewell glass factory was completed and operating. [2] Bakewell and Ensell was selling its glass by November 9, 1808, because it ran an advertisement in the local newspaper–and the works may have been in operation as early as February 1808 based on a newspaper notice concerning a glassmaking raw material. [4]
- ^ Because glass plants at that time melted their ingredients in a pot, a plant's number of pots was often used to describe a plant's capacity. The ceramic pots were located inside the furnace. The pot contained molten glass created by melting a batch of ingredients that typically included sand, soda, lime, and other ingredients. [6] For comparison purposes, Wheeling's Barnes, Hobbs, and Company had ten-pot, nine-pot, and five-pot furnaces in 1857. [7]
-
^ Pittsburgh's Bakewell glass company had nine different names. Bakewell, Pears & Company was the name used for the longest time. The names are:
Bakewell & Ensell (1808–1809);
Benjamin Bakewell & Company (1809–1813);
Bakewell, Page & Bakewell (1813–1827);
Bakewell, Page & Bakewells (1827–1832);
Bakewells & Anderson (1832–1836);
Bakewells & Company (1836–1842);
Bakewell & Pears (1842–1844);
Bakewell, Pears & Company (1844–1880); and
Bakewell, Pears Company, Ltd. (1880–1882). [10] - ^ Black glass is black in color because Manganese oxide mixed with iron oxide has been added to the batch. In some cases, black glass appears black in normal lighting, but is actually a very dark brown, green, blue, or purple. [17]
Citations
- ^ Killikelly 1906, p. 133
- ^ a b c d Madarasz, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania & Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center 1998, p. 30
- ^ Bakewell 1896, p. 90
- ^ McKearin & McKearin 1966, p. 138
- ^ a b c Jarves 1854, p. 45
- ^ Skrabec 2007, pp. 25–26
- ^ "Manufacture of Glassware in Wheeling (page 2 second column from left)". Wheeling Daily Intelligencer (from Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress). August 29, 1857. Archived from the original on July 20, 2023. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
- ^ Killikelly 1906, p. 133; Jarves 1854, p. 43
- ^ a b c Killikelly 1906, p. 134
- ^ Madarasz, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania & Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center 1998, p. 144
- ^ Jarves 1854, p. 44
- ^ Skrabec 2011, p. 20; Jarves 1854, p. 44
- ^ Knittle 1927, pp. 210, 307
-
^ "Pittsburgh Flint Glass Manufactory - Benjamin Bakewell & Co. (advertisement)". Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette. June 29, 1810. p. 4.
...have recently enlarged their assortment of glassware...
- ^ Knittle 1927, p. 308
-
^ "Notice (column 3 near top)". Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette (Ancestry). May 31, 1811. p. 3.
The partnership heretofore existing...was dissolved....
- ^ Shotwell 2002, p. 41
References
- Bakewell, Benjamin Gifford (1896). The Family Book of Bakewell, Page, Campbell; Being Some Account of the Descendants of John Bakewell... Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: W.G. Johnston & Co. OCLC 475684153. Retrieved April 14, 2023.
- Jarves, Deming (1854). Reminiscences of Glass–making. Boston, Massachusetts: Eastburn's Press. OCLC 14284772. Archived from the original on 2024-03-03. Retrieved 2024-02-23.
- Killikelly, Sarah (1906). The History of Pittsburgh: Its Rise and Progress. Chirora, Pennsylvania: Mechling Bookbindery. OCLC 1017019033. Retrieved April 13, 2024.
- Knittle, Rhea Mansfield (1927). Early American Glass. New York, New York: The Century Co. OCLC 1811743. Archived from the original on 2023-07-19. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
- Madarasz, Anne; Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania; Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center (1998). Glass: Shattering Notions. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. ISBN 978-0-93634-001-2. OCLC 39921461.
- McKearin, George S.; McKearin, Helen (1966). American Glass. New York City: Crown Publishers. OCLC 1049801744.
- Moore, N. Hudson (1924). Old Glass, European and American. New York City: Frederick A. Stokes Co. OCLC 1738230. Archived from the original on 2024-03-03. Retrieved 2024-02-23.
- Palmer, Arlene (1979). "American Heroes in Glass: The Bakewell Sulphide Portraits". American Art Journal. 11 (1). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, Smithsonian American Art Museum: 4–26. doi: 10.2307/1594129. JSTOR 1594129. Archived from the original on February 24, 2023. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
- Palmer, Arlene (2004). Artistry and Innovation in Pittsburgh glass, 1808-1882: from Bakewell & Ensell to Bakewell, Pears & Co. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Frick Art & Historical Center. ISBN 978-0-82294-252-8. OCLC 494286738.
- Pears, III, Thomas C. (September 1948). "Sidelights on the History of the Bakewell, Pears & Company from the Letters of Thomas and Sarah Pears". Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine. 31 (3): 61–70.
- Shotwell, David J. (2002). Glass A to Z. Iola, Wisconsin: Krause Publications. pp. 638. ISBN 978-0-87349-385-7. OCLC 440702171.
- Skrabec, Quentin R. (2007). Michael Owens and the Glass Industry. Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing. ISBN 978-1-45560-883-6. OCLC 1356375205.
- Skrabec, Quentin R. (2007a). Glass in Northwest Ohio. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia. ISBN 978-0-73855-111-1. OCLC 124093123.
- Skrabec, Quentin R. (2011). Edward Drummond Libbey, American Glassmaker. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-78648-548-2. OCLC 753968484.
External links
- Beck, Phillips – the Bakewells – and the Brunswick Pharmacal Co. - Society for Historical Archaeology
- Champagne Glass Bakewell, Pears & Co. - The Met