Details:
The history & production of more than forty of South Jersey’s small independent glasshouses and the artisans that operated them. Well-documented. 8½ by 11 inch softbound book. 614 pages & over 1200 photographs. $150.00 media mail postpaid. Contact: tchaunton@comcast.net
Announcing the release of Last Links to the Past - 20th Century South Jersey Glass Volume 2 - Brotherhood in the Pine Barrens.
Last Links to the Past Volume 2 is a combination of history book, picture book, and detailed production catalog of one of New Jersey’s best-known but rapidly disappearing products, hand-blown glass. Using information gathered by the author over a period of forty years, the book tells the stories of more than forty glassblowing shops that operated in, or immediately adjacent to the New Jersey Pine Barrens between 1899 and 2025. Sources include over a hundred interviews with South Jersey glassblowers and their families, private manuscript collections, catalogs, trade journals and other publications, as well as hundreds of newspaper articles and advertisements.
Some companies covered in this book only existed for months, others for decades. Several more operations died a quick death only to rise like a phoenix from the ashes. In this era, an individual’s imagination and creativity were not limited solely to the quick lunchtime or after-hours whimsey in the large glass factory. Decorative glassware would be the norm for these businesses, with each individual or company bringing their own creations and innovations to the market.
Readers will find photographs of glassblowers, molds, tools, formulas, catalogs and newspaper articles. Many of these photographs have never been published or not seen the light of day for decades. And, of course, you will see the glass! Hundreds of color photographs of documented pieces of hand-blown glass, paperweights, whimsies and pressed glass produced by these companies and artisans. These include Ralph Barber Millville Roses; the little known backyard shop glass by Emil Larson; glass from the New Jersey WPA Arts and Crafts Project; two unknown patterns of depression glass by Dell; art glass by Durand, Iorio Furnaces, Liberty Village, and Vandermark-Merritt; unknown pieces by the Bohemian Art Glass Works made on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City; and the newest South Jersey Glass now being made in Millville and Clayton.
Among the artisans and glass operations covered in this book include:
Whitall Tatum – Millville /
Ralph Barber, John Ruhlander, Emil Stanger
& Michael Kane
Bohemian Art Glass Works – Atlantic City
Gayner Glass – Salem
Vineland Flint Glass – Vineland
Durand Art Glass – Vineland
Emil Larson – Vineland
August Hofbauer & Hofbauer Glass – Vineland
Beacon Glass Co. - Vineland
Angelo Ponzetto / Chino Glassware Co. - Vineland
New Jersey WPA Arts and Crafts Project - Vineland
The Dell Company - Millville
Glass Crafters - Millville
Old Williamsburg Glass Co. – Millville
Dell Glass Company - Millville
Old Jersey Glass Co. - Millville
Delsam Glass – Vineland
Delsey Glass – Vineland
Clayton Glass Works – Clayton
Ted Ramp / Homestead Glass Works – Vineland / Egg Harbor
Collini Glass – Vineland
Adolph Macho – Vineland
Jersey Bog Glass Works – Elwood
Iona Glass Works – Iona
Farabella Glass Works / The Italian Club – Milmay
Doerr Glass Co. – Vineland
Newfield Glass Works – Newfield
Koering Glass Company – Vineland
Glass of South Jersey – Malaga / Millville
Skip Woods / Old South Jersey Art Glass – Vineland
Downer Glass Works – Downer
Iorio Furnaces – Flemington
Liberty Village Glasshouse – Flemington
Vandermark-Merritt Glass Studios – Flemington / Three Bridges / Readington
Wheaton Glass Company Hand Shop - Millville
Wheaton Village / WheatonArts - Millville
Wheaton Village Glassblowers – Millville
New Fislerville Glassworks – Clayton
Gilson & Sons – Clayton
Working Man Hand Made – Millville
Bambino Glassware - Clayton
