The luxury glass of Bakewell, Page and Bakewell

Magazine Antiques, Feb, 2005 by Arlene Palmer

In 1808, when several New York City merchants installed their bankrupt colleague Benjamin Bakewell (1767-1844) as managing partner of a foundering glasshouse in Pittsburgh, they could not have foreseen the future success of the enterprise. Through nine partnerships, all involving members of the Bakewell family, the glassworks remained in operation for seventy-four years, only closing down in 1882.

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Known as the "father of the flint glass industry" in the United States, (1) Bakewell succeeded in making high quality, lead-formula, or "flint," glass that could compete with the products of England and France. Because he employed skilled craftsmen from those countries and used European examples as models, he was able to produce decorated glass in the latest international styles. As a result, the Pittsburgh Flint Glass Manufactory, as the Bakewell endeavor was called, became famous for its expensive luxury wares.

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As early as 1809 Bakewell offered chandeliers, and possibly some table glass, that were cut for him by an independent glass cutter, Peter William Eichbaum (1749-1827), a Saxon-born glass cutter who, from 1794 to 1797, had managed the glasshouse near Philadelphia established by John Nicholson (d. 1800). Eichbaum moved to Pittsburgh in 1797 to supervise a glass factory for James O'Hara (1754-1819) and Isaac Craig (c. 1742-1826). (2) He soon resigned and set up his own glass-cutting shop, in addition to running a tavern. When a traveler examined the many "articles of taste & luxury" in Bakewell's storeroom in 1809, he noted that "the glass is well cut as by a singular transition of fortune the Glass cutter who carries on that business here was formerly the artist of Louis the 16th." (3) Eichbaum's claim of royal patronage was also reported in another 1809 account describing a "six light chandelier with prisms of his cutting, which does credit to the workman, and reflects honor on our country, for we have reason to believe it is the first ever cut in the United States." (4)

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When Eichbaum learned his trade, cutting wheels were hand-powered and patterns were composed of shallow slice and facet cuts. A shift in style occurred in the 1790s with the introduction of steam-powered cutting wheels that made deeper cuts possible. Intricate patterns were devised using high-relief diamonds and deep, horizontal prism cuts. Bakewell closely followed developments in steam power in Pittsburgh and probably acquired steam engines for his glass-cutting room about 1810. Impressed by the quality of Bakewell's product that he saw in 1811, Talbot Hamilton requested a specimen for what is now the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Bakewell obliged in the spring of 1812 with a pair of cut-glass vases. (5)

Although no objects have been identified from the earliest years of the factory, numerous examples of highly ornamented glass objects survive from the 1813-1827 partnership of Benjamin Bakewell, Benjamin Page (1765-1834), and Thomas Bakewell (1792-1866), a period when the company faced severe financial challenges. During the War of 1812, when European trade came to a halt, domestic manufactories like Bakewell's flourished. The end of hostilities, however, triggered an economic depression that continued into the early 1820s. Of the forty-four glasshouses operating across the country in 1815, fewer than half remained in 1820--and those were barely surviving. Benjamin Bakewell reported to the 1820 Census of Manufactures that his labor force had dropped from sixty to twenty-two (ten men and twelve boys). The value of the company's products, which he described as "white & coloured flint Glass of all kinds," plummeted 80 percent. Much of the blame could be placed upon the quantities of British and continental glassware that now flooded the American market. (6)

In an effort to prove the potential of the domestic glass industry, and specifically to encourage the government to impose a tariff on imported glass, Bakewell, Page and Bakewell presented examples of its finest work to influential people. The proprietors also hoped such gifts might engender positive publicity for the struggling glasshouse. In February 1816, Benjamin Bakewell sent President James Madison a pair of decanters (see Pl. II). Blown of colorless flint glass and embellished with cutting and engraving, the Madison decanters are the earliest documented objects from the manufactory. They attest to the quality of material, the level of craftsmanship, and the sophistication of design the glassworks attained within a mere eight years of its founding. Rows of sharp diamonds embellish the shoulder and body, while the neck is articulated with prism-cut rings. Around the base, on a band of flutes, are pointed, high-relief arches filled with tiny diamonds. On one side, the American eagle is wheel-engraved below a field of eighteen stars; on its breast is a shield with the initial M.

Although these striking decanters had no effect on the government's economic policies, Bakewell was undaunted. He promptly presented another pair of cut-glass decanters to Madison's successor, James Monroe, when the president visited Pittsburgh in September 1817. Deemed "very elegant" and of "admirable" workmanship, they were engraved by a French immigrant artisan. (7) Their exact design is unknown, but Monroe was so delighted that he ordered a large service of cut and engraved glass from Bakewell for the White House, which has still to be identified. Delivered in 1818, the 328-piece cut-glass service included six pairs of quart decanters with the "US Arms engraved on each." That the design of Monroe's service became something of a stock item is indicated by a Cincinnati advertisement for "one elegant set of Diamond Cut Glass Monroe pattern." (8) News of the presidential service was widely circulated with the comment that it should "operate as a talisman on our representatives, to stimulate them to unremitting exertions in favor of manufactures." (9)