Antique Paperweights

_Much of the fame achieved by the glass industry in Massachusetts centers about one man, Deeming Jarves (1791-1869). Jarves was a man of unusual vision, and his sound business methods, his inventiveness, and his artistic ability entitle him to a preeminent position among the glassmakers of his day. With four associates he organized the New England Glass Company at East Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1817. Here he received the training which was destined to lead to many brilliant accomplishments.

Below are a few Sandwich Glass Company paperweights currently for sale.  Clicking one of the links will open a new window and show you all the a uction details.  If you buy something after doing that I will receive a small commission.  Text continues after the links.

_ In 1825 he decided to have a glass fac­tory of his own and proceeded to erect it at Sandwich, on Cape Cod. This location was not chosen on account of the sand, for this was of poor quality, but for the abundance of wood which could be used for smelting purposes. Glass furnaces, as has already been suggested, require careful and uniform feeding by men called shearers or tenders in order to produce the finest quality of glass. Sandwich offered another advantage in that the glass products could be sent to Boston by water or over­land, and later over a small railway which was the first rail transortation line in America. In 1837 Jarves tarted another glasss factory for his son, George, at South Boston, Massachusetts, and called this the Mount Washington Glass Company. He even­tually withdrew from this company after a quarrel with some of his directors, and in 1858 he founded the Cape Cod Glass Works. This plant he operated until his death in 1869.

_The history of the Sandwich glass factory finally came to an end as a result of a disagreement with its workers. It is rather surprising, as a matter of fact, that con­flicts with labor did not arise more frequently than they did in the glass industry. Few people who are not ac­quainted with the conditions under which glass must be made have any realization of the tremendous heat to which the glass blower was subjected in the early days of the industry-heat so great that it was reputed to bring about a material reduction of the life span of the worker. A bulletin published by the Boston and Sand­wich Company in 1854 madethe claim that no workman had died or was seriously ill as a result of his employ­ment during the preceding twenty years.This statement, assuming it to be true, refected an important improvement in working condition but it is likely that the improvement was only relative. In December 1887 the Glass Association presented an agreement to the employ­ees of the various factories with the request that they subscribe to its term. This the Sandwich workmen re­fused to do, and a strike followed. Having opperated the company at a loss for some time previously, the manage­ment informed the men that if the furnaces were ever allowed to go out, they would never be re-lighted. The men refused to take this threat seriously, but the management proved to be as good as its word-the plant was closed in 1888, and was never again reopened.