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Author Topic: Fostoria made in Romania  (Read 11783 times)

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Offline thomas

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Fostoria made in Romania
« on: October 17, 2011, 10:35:40 PM »
I have some stemware by Fostoria made in Romania.  The out-of-focus label says "Fostoria Crystal Fully Hand Crafted Lead Crystal Made in Romania".  I did not know Fostoria had a plant in Romania.  Does anyone know when production in Romania started?

Offline Frank

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Re: Fostoria made in Romania
« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2011, 07:07:31 PM »
Fostoria would have just outsourced them to a Romanian factory. Power to them for honesty!

Offline Lustrousstone

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Re: Fostoria made in Romania
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2011, 12:59:33 PM »
Fostoria was sold to Lancaster 1983 and the factory closed completely in 1986. Far more likely that these were made for the Fostoria brand, which is now owned by marketing company JMM Lee Properties, LLC Ltd

Offline Ohio

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Re: Fostoria made in Romania
« Reply #3 on: October 24, 2011, 04:50:04 AM »
Christine is right on the money. Ken

Offline thomas

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Re: Fostoria made in Romania
« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2011, 11:59:15 PM »
A large crystal replacement firm listed this stem in their publication on stemware identification as the Carmel pattern made in Romania.  On their website they listed it as having been made in 1984-1986.  Someone reminded me that there is a Fostoria organization and I contacted their research department.  They said Lancaster Colony purchased Fostoria in 1982 (others say 1983) and that Lancaster farmed out production to Europe.  They said they had not heard about Lancaster selling rights to JMM Lee Properties but they weren't surprised.  They did not say it but I inferred from their remarks that prior to 1982(3) Fostoria did not outsource production to Europe.
So I guess production in Romania occurred between 1984 and 1986 under Lancaster ownership.  I did find another site that said several years after the factory closed in 1986, Lancaster contracted with Viking to produce selected pieces of the American pattern and this continued until 1998.  They said all ruby American is of this later production.  If this is true, I guess the rights JMM Lee bought didn't include the American pattern.  Better photos.

Offline Ohio

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Re: Fostoria made in Romania
« Reply #5 on: October 26, 2011, 05:27:20 AM »
Lancaster Colony started contracting for stemware/decanters, utility ware etc. (not the same as outsourcing Fostoria production), regardless of what your source told you, from eastern europe & using the Fostoria labels since they owned the name. The eastern european stuff was in all their outlet stores from the late 80's & not before then. LCC operated Indiana Glass until they closed it 2002 & Lancaster Glass until they closed it in 2007 plus they had literally tons of inventory that supplied the outlets for years as the inventory was housed in the Lancaster Glass warehouses. The molds never left the country during this time. Yes Dalzell-Viking did produce American under contract will LCC for a couple of years (that is where the ruby American came from) & Finally the American molds were purchased by the L.E. Smith Company. The LCC AFGW Union delegate Harold Piper & I  used to talk shop a couple of times a month since I worked with his wife. Most of the Fostoria outlets are now closed, maybe a couple are still open. We have Midwest Glassware Outlet in Logan, Ohio that still carries some Fostoria.  

Offline thomas

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Re: Fostoria made in Romania
« Reply #6 on: October 27, 2011, 10:36:20 PM »
Ohio:
Then the 1984-86 date is too early.  A correct date is not before 1988 or 89.  Can I correctly assume that the Carmel pattern is not an original Fostoria pattern but a Lancaster Colony pattern?  Then these glasses really have no connection at all with Fostoria glass (glass produced by Fostoria before Lancaster Colony).  They are simply glasses produced by a Romanian factory under contract to Lancaster to which they have stuck a "Fostoria Crystal....Made in Romania" label.  And, at least in my opinion, cannot be correctly call "Fostoria" glass but would more appropriately be called "Lancanter Colony glass with a Fostoria sticker".  Is this an accurate summary?  I find this very interesting.  I appreciate your taking the time to share your expertise.

Offline Ohio

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Re: Fostoria made in Romania
« Reply #7 on: October 28, 2011, 05:22:11 AM »
I'll admit I was a bit confused here. You stated "A large crystal replacement firm listed this stem in their publication on stemware identification as the Carmel pattern made in Romania", however when I checked the Replacements site for Carmel the response I received was Fostoria 1984-1986 discontinued because Fostoria closed in 1986 so the Romanian labels on Carmel before 1986 is confusing.To double check I searched on the Replacements site Fostoria Carmel & Romania & nothing came up so I searched Fostoria Romania & got a response, however among the patterns listed as  produced in Romania (Kristina, Nadia, FOS5, FOS6, FOS7 & FOS10) Carmel was not listed as having been produced in Romania.  Now what I think possibly happened is when LCC finally disposed of Fostoria altogether whomever ended up with the rights to use the Fostoria name & had the remaining balance of the molds not sold to other U.S. manufacturers sent them to Easter Europe later. Thats the only explaination I can come up with since Replacements does not show Carmel as Romanian. As I said before the Romanina made stemware & sets appeared in...well its been a long time, but I believe it was 89-90 when they showed up in the Cambridge Fostoria outlet & none of it at that time resembled anything out of a Fostoria mold.   

Offline tiredogs

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Re: Fostoria made in Romania
« Reply #8 on: December 11, 2012, 02:32:44 PM »
I also have glassware from Fostoria made in Romania.  I know my mom went to Fostoria when it closed down in the late 1980's and purchased this Decanter and 4 glasses.  I can not identify the pattern.  Spent days looking for information. I have submitted a email to the research department at the replacement site...hoping to get some kind of information from them.

Offline tiredogs

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Re: Fostoria made in Romania
« Reply #9 on: December 11, 2012, 02:44:17 PM »
Maybe this will display the pattern better.

 

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