Show glass blowin blowing 0 factory founded years ago on july 4 1825 1625 a patriotic day for another historic beginning the boston and sandwich glass factory turned out the first pot of glass in its long and famous career the sandwich factory was established as a glass blowing e industry but it was the pressed ware which followed several years later with a smelling bottle the first successful pressed article made in sandwich and in america which was to give sandwich glass its real claim to distinction and the lace glass the finest of the pressed type the last touch of elegance lace glass had its origin in the sandwich factory around 1835 and with the superior quality of its metal which produced that brilliant silvery sheen never equaled by the sandwich competitors and the axce excellence of its molds which made possible the lacy pinpoint fineness of its designs it was the aristocrat of the glass family lead and potash used in its ingredients gave it that clear bell like ring which distinguishes every piece of sandwich with the exception of the snakeskin where the rough surfacing destroyed the resonance the molding process was perfected in the thirties and with the pressed products superseding the blown blown glass at this time the designing and constructing of these molds was necessarily an important adjunct it took skill and originality and considerable patience especially with the molds for the intricate lace designs sometimes representing months of craftsmanship tor for a single specimen patterns were first carved in wood then cast in iron or brass or occasionally in graphite and steel |