The role of glass knobs in glassmaking and furniture

Magazine Antiques, May, 1996 by Kenneth M. Wilson, Kirk J. Nelson

Other manufacturers quickly recognized the enormous potential of the bench press, and within a few years the technology developed to make the humble knob was being used to make many other forms. By the end of 1830 at least nine patents for pressing glass had been issued,(13) and by 1836 there were at least twenty-four patents, of which thirteen described the production or design of glass knobs.

Information about many of the patents can be extremely sketchy,(14) as is the case for the patent for "glass furniture" issued to John P. Bakewell of Bakewell, Page and Bakewell, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 9, 1825.(15) This is the only patent in the group that predates the Whitney-Robinson patent of 1826. Heretofore it has been assumed to describe a technique for pressing glass, based largely on the two-word description and the existence of pressed glass knobs marked "Bakewell's Patent." McKearin also made this assumption, despite her discovery that Bakewell was involved in the unsuccessful challenge to the Whitney-Robinson patent in 1829. She further noted that after the Union Glass Company lost the case, Bakewell, Page and Bakewell advertised that they had bought exclusive rights for the production of New England Glass Company knobs west of the Allegheny Mountains.(16) This being the case, it seems reasonable to conclude that the 1825 Bakewell patent was not related to pressing, or that it described a significantly inferior technique.

On May 14, 1828, Bakewell, this time with his brother Thomas, was issued a second patent for an "improved method of making glass furniture knobs or handles."(17) Although no further description of the patent is known, it seems likely that the marked Bakewell knobs (see Pl. IX) were produced under this patent, and furthermore that the patent covered the special design of the knob with its distinctive projecting end, rather than a special technique for pressing glass.

Many of the early patents for knobs concern the design rather than the production of knobs, proposing novel methods for affixing knobs to drawer fronts or describing features that would prevent them from turning after they were in place. A surprising amount of creative energy was devoted to this seemingly insignificant, but persistent, problem. In 1831 a Baltimore merchant wrote to the Journal of the Franklin Institute, "I have been plagued in my furniture by those glass knobs, now so much used, becoming loose." His simple solution was to use two nuts instead of one to secure the bolt that passed through the drawer or door front. "All the merit I claim," his letter continues, "is that of applying this well known contrivance to the remedying a domestic annoyance, which, by its frequent occurrence, may be termed a serious evil."(18)

Another solution to the problem was patented on June 11, 1829, by Deming Jarves, the founder of the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company. His knobs had an integral glass screw shank (see Pl. VI).(19) They can be found in sizes ranging from 1 to 2 1/2 inches in diameter with screw shanks from 3/8 to 1 inch in diameter. Despite the fact that large holes had to be drilled in the furniture to which these knobs were attached, significant quantities were apparently made, judging by the many fragments excavated at the site of the Sandwich factory. The 2 1/4-inch-diameter knobs are embossed "PATENT" on the end of the screw shank. The Empire sideboard shown in Plate XIV has these knobs on all drawers and both cabinet doors, while the curved ends of the backboard are mounted with brass rosettes. This is one of the very few pieces of furniture mounted with such knobs to have survived, although a relatively large number of the Jarves patent knobs themselves exist. Explaining this scarcity Thomas Ormsbee wrote: