Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => USA => Topic started by: Frank on April 14, 2008, 07:57:13 AM
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Underlining that some glassworks can drop of the map. US glass companies are in general very well documented but occasionally there are dead ends.
The American Glass Company of Carney Kansas is one such and yet it produced highly collectable glass. The reason it stays obscure is that it was just a manufacturer with sales via another company: General Glassware. AGC's existence was relatively short - the dates that appear to be accepted are 1939 to 1945. One of the owners was an important mould maker and designer Kenneth R Haley who produced many high quality moulds for several companies in the US and probably Europe.
However, Paden City Glass might have bought the business in 1948.
Garmon & Spencer in "Glass Animals" list 4 figurines but no details beyond "Carney, Kansas (affiliate of General Glassware)".
Under K R Haley they mention that he set up General Glassware in 1939. Herman Lowerwitz who was Haleys partner and the president of American Glassware died in 1946. Haley continued as K.R. Haley Glassware Co. Inc. until 1972. K R Halley's father and grandfather are also fairly well documented, Wilson: Phoenix and Consolidated Art Glass.
The Glass Zoo adds two more figural boxes.
Production range 'probably' included some or most of: Pressed tableware, blown tableware, illuminating glassware, novelties and specialties, colored glassware, milk glass, tobacco glassware, bar accessories.
So, has anyone else come across references to the American Glass Company, not a Google friendly name and some of the web references suffer from dyslexia.
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Frank see here under Dugan http://www.knottywood-treasures.com/id30.html but i am sure Glen could add to this.
Also a mention here http://www.excelglass.com/Excel-Glass-Profile/index.html
And here too http://www.eapgs.org/Steiner.htm
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I've never heard of the Dugan glass company being called the American Glass Company (as per the factory mentioned in Frank's post). The dates and location don't fit either.
Glen
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Sue there were several unrelated "American Glass Company"'s and several exist today too. Location is certain and they almost definitely stopped production in 1946 but certainly by 1948. The exact start date is less certain. It is likely to only have been a partnership type organisation but virtually everything else is speculation.
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This is post ACG, and it sounds like you already know it, but I thought I'd post it, FWIW.
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A couple Haley products:
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I posted a question about ACG in the forum at chataboutdg.com; maybe someone there has more info.
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I find it quite funny that the glass is known more for the designer than the maker - as so often the opposite is true. As AGC would never have produced catalogues under their own name, I guess it was just a case of the two people separating the functions essentially for accounting purposes. If it was a partnership, or sole trader, would that have been registered in the US at the time? Certainly in the UK at that time, and up to the 1970s, sole traders and partnerships had to register and use the registration number on stationery - but there were no requirements to file any thing else.
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I'm afraid I know nothing about the business registration side of things. It's such a shame that so many glassmakers' records have been lost. A lot of the information about glassmakers and their products here came from their ads and catalogues, and as you point out, that's not much help for ACG. There's probably more information about Haley because of his association (direct and familial) with other makers.
I didn't find out much more than you already know. Here are a couple comments:
(Ken, AKA gma) "Haley designed or made the models of the figures from which the molds were made & they were produced by the American Glass Company as an affiliate of General Glassware who distributed & sold the items. I can tell you that Kemple ended up with some of the molds years later...where they got them from I have no idea. I bought twp pairs of the Angelfish bookends, one pair in ruby & one pair in cobalt (fire polished to perfection) that came from the Kemple estate sale (notorized statement) at Clum's auction in Rushville & both had the original Kemple labels...that was around 2000."
(Tom Felt) "I'm not sure how this fits in with what you've already uncovered, but in 1946 Kenneth Haley started the K. R. Haley Glassware Company, Inc., in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, which operated until 1973. It is my understanding that this was a continuation of the General Glassware Company (meaning that it was also just a distributor of glass made elsewhere). I have always assumed that American Glass Co. continued to supply glass to the new K. R. Haley Glassware Co., though I know it also sold glass made by Phoenix Glass Co. in at least one instance."
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So that suggests that the manufacture might have carried past 1946 and only fizzled out at a later date. People that worked there are the only possible source and this thread should appear in Google soon.... so we wait and see.
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Frank the problem with the American Glass Company is its history which is somewhat vague to say the least. K.R. Haley. & Herman Lowerwitz were business partners involved in the creation of the company in Carney, Kansas, but no date has ever been discovered as to when AGC was founded. They used molds designed by K.R. Haley who in the early 30’s was working for Overmeyer mould in PA. . Then in 1939 Haley & Lowerwitz started the General Glass Company in Greensburg PA. that distributed AGC products so evidently AGC was founded prior to this date. In 1945 Lowerwitz passed, Haley dissolved General & then reincorporated it under K.R. Haley Glassware in business until 1973, but again K.R. Haley was only a distributor. AGC made animals, lying & sitting boxers, jumping horse bookends, angelfish bookends, etc. & all the other animals you find listed under K.R. Haley since Haley never produced glass under his compay name. Haley stated in correspondence with Evelyn Zemel that many of the animals were introduced in 1945 & continued into the 60’s, however he did not state which animals & who produced them although we do know that Phoenix Glass produced the Reuben line that Haley distributed in the late 1960’s. All the sketchy information presents a major problem because L.E. Smith produced the Jumping HorseBookends in 1945-46 & had other AGC molds they produced later so did Haley sell the original AGC molds to L.E. Smith or has this animal been incorrectly attributed all these years?. Kemple Glass also ended up with some of the AGC molds. On the U.S. ChataboutDG board we have not included a history on AGC because of the lack of solid information & I doubt we will ever know much more & I'll tell you why. There is no such place as Carney, Kansas. We have Caney, Kansas, Kearny County, Kansas, but Carney, Kansas simply does not seem to exist. Ken
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..There is no such place as Carney, Kansas. We have Caney, Kansas, Kearny County, Kansas, but Carney, Kansas simply does not seem to exist....
That does not help :huh: was that my mistype... no Garmon & Spencer. Thanks for clearing things up a bit more Ken.
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Frank that was not your mistype. Spencer & others do have Carney, KS so I decided last night to attempt to search the historical database for KS to find AGC, however the database had no such location as Carney, KS so I left the database to Google Carney, KS & imagine my suprise why nothing came up except two possibilities, Kearney & Caney KS so my belief is that we have been duped for a number of years regarding the AGC location. Nothing like a known reference screwing up a manufacturer's location where a geographical location (city, town, village, etc.) doesn't even exist. Rather stunning to me anyway. I'll see later what I can find under the other two possibilities. Ken
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Maybe you can trace Haley or Lowerwitz's descendants?
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Sorry if this is a repeat, I haven't had a good nights sleep for 3 nights...[LINK REMOVED].
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Thomas E. A. Dugan was in Caney, Kansas, after Lonaconing, Maryland, and prior to joining the Anchor-Hocking firm. I recall seeing this in an issue of the American Flint magazine.
One might query the staff at the Rakow Library at Corning and have them look in the files compiled by J. Stanley Brothers.
Incidentally, the "information" on Dugan on the knottywood-treasures web site is really rubbish, simply copied from an early edition of an inaccurate Carnival book.
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I emailed the Caney City Administrator & The County historical society as I found at one time at the turn of the century when KS natural gas was dirt cheap Caney did have six glass operations, but three were window glass. Hopefully I'll get a response either way.
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I am beginning to believe this entire "American Glass Company" deal is fictitious. While I did find a couple of companies by this name they had all come & gone prior to 1920. The Caney Valley Historical Society only were able to locate four glas companies that existed from the 20's until the late 50's: Cheynne, Baker Brothers, Caney Window, and Caney Glass Plant & none of these it seems produced glass animals & no record of an "American Glass Company" in or near Caney. Haley had connections with Consolidated & Phoenix (he married the president of Consolidated's daughter) as he worked as a design engineer there from 1928 to 1934 & from 1933 to 1936 he had an agreement with Phoenix for a percentage of sales from the Consolidated molds as he legally owned them when his father Reuben passed in 1933. Phoenix made some Reuben line pieces for him later on for his & Herman Lowerwitz's General Glassware distibution company plus Herman is listed as the President of the American Glass Company so I'm beginning to think AGC is simply an in name only company & not a glass producer unless Lowerwitz was involved somehow with one of the glass plants in Caney & invented AGC as a paper trail entity. I'll speculate that Haley simply farmed out the pours to whomever could produce for his distribution company, not unlike an L.G. Wright operation. What is amusing is that several resources excluding Spencer's cite AGC as being located in Carney KS, a town that simply does not exist. Of course there is the possibility that Dorothy & Toto were from Carney & only Dorothy & Toto made it back. Ken