J.P.F. Inkwell

J.P.F. inkwell, Pitkin Glass Works. "J.P.F." with stars and dots side. 

This square inkwell embossed "J.P.F." is a representative of the only inkwell type that is attributed uniquely to the Pitkin Glass Works in Manchester Ct. The initials are thought to stand for John P. Foster, a superintendent at the Pitkin factory, and shards of this inkwell have been excavated at the glass works ruins. An eagle/cornucopia flask blown at the Pitkin Glass Works also includes the initials J.P.F. 

J.P.F. inkwell, eagle side. 

Each side of the square inkwell has a different design. The side with the initials also include dots and stars, similar to markings seen on some Masonic flasks. The other sides feature an abstract lattice and dots pattern, a basket with abundant fruits, and a bald eagle. The corners of the inkwell are beveled, with ribbing that is also reminiscent of early Connecticut Masonic and sunburst flasks. The J.P.F. inkwell was blown in a two part mold.

J.P.F. inkwell, basket of fruit side. 

The J.P.F. inkwell is extremely rare, and is probably the most valuable inkwell in existence. The example pictured here was auctioned by Norman C. Heckler and Co. this month for more than $30,000. It has a faint crack in the lip, which was likely present but not noted on at least one prior occasion when this example was sold. The Mattatuck Museum has another example, as do the Manchester Historical Society and the Connecticut Historical Society. There are another couple in collections, for a total of maybe half a dozen extant inkwells.

J.P.F. inkwell, crosshatching and dots side. 

In other inkwell news, the Museum of Connecticut Glass hosted a special exhibit from the collection of Tom Marshall this month, including dozens of early free blown, Pitkin-type pattern molded, and blown in mold inkwells, of likely Connecticut or New England origin. Tom also displayed a selection of modern reproductions of Pitkin-type inks, from Pairpoint Glass, Red Fern Glass and others.  Most of these didn't really have the finesse of the antique inks, and the shapes and forms (especially of the lips) were generally pretty wonky, but some might have caused an expert some temporary confusion. 

A portion of Tom Marshall's remarkable inkwell collection. 

According to MoCG president Noel Tomas, many years ago a member of the general public actually brought a J.P.F. inkwell in to a museum open house, in order to ask what it was. The ink had been purchased at a tag sale in East Hartford. After explanations of the origins and rarity of the inkwell, the visitor apparently left and was not heard from again. It seems to be unclear whether this example wound up in a museum or a known private collection, or is sitting, possibly forgotten, on a shelf in a house somewhere around Hartford.

Early Glass at the MoCG

Free blown and dip mold glassware in the Marshall collection.

 The September open house at the Museum of Connecticut Glass featured a display by Tom Marshall, who specializes in unusual and early free blown, dip molded and pattern molded glass, of the type that could have been made by the eighteenth and early nineteenth century glass works of Eastern Connecticut. Many Museum regulars turned out to admire some spectacular antique bottles and tableware, and there was also a slow but steady stream of visitors from the general public.

Crude free blown inkwell, bottles and tableware.

Pattern molded corner, with Pitkin-type flasks, inkwell, and an extremely rare Pitkin hat (likely a salt cellar, or possibly a whimsey).

Early, flat-bottomed case-gin bottle whatzit with a plain sheared lip. Smaller than the common Continental case gins, in a more Connecticut-ish or New England-y glass color, with a very rare mouth treatment for this sort of bottle.

Large (baseball-sized) free blown inkwell.

"Coventry Glass Works" sign, likely not period.

Aside from the special glass from Tom Marshall, the Museum had a recent acquisition on display: a large blue painted wooden sign reading "Coventry Glass Works." This doesn't look all that old to me; it's pretty clean and the blocky sans-serif lettering looks kind of modern. Others who have examined the sign are also of the opinion that it's a twentieth century fantasy reproduction, not something that was ever hung outside the factory 200 years ago. Apparently a similar (also possibly not authentic) sign exists for the Willington Glass Co., in a private collection in the area.

Pitkin Display at the Old Manchester Museum

Pitkin-type flask, decanter and utility bottles possibly made at the Pitkin Glass Works.

 The Old Manchester Museum, located on Cedar Street in Manchester Connecticut, is home to quite a nice educational display dealing with the Pitkin Glass Works. It includes bottles that are attributed with varying degrees of certainty to Pitkin, as well as associated artifacts, photographs, modern commemorative items and paintings, all labelled with useful explanations and donor information.

The Museum building.

 The Old Manchester Museum is operated by the Manchester Historical Society, and is currently open only one afternoon per month, on the second Sunday, although school group tours occur at other times and it is possible to arrange for special access. Exhibits include areas focusing on town schools, local sports figures, Bon Ami soap (based for a time in Manchester), the once extensive silk industry, quarries and dinosaur fossils, and the Spencer Repeating Rifle, the world's first practical multi-shot rifle, which was invented in Manchester and proved instrumental in winning the Civil War for the Union. All of this was informative, but I was mainly there for the Pitkin display.

The Museum has the massive iron lock to the glass factory door.

A free blown demijohn, 2-3 gallon capacity, donated in 1991 by Hazel Cooper. According to Cooper, this bottle was blown at the Pitkin Glass Works and passed down by descendants of the Pitkin family.

A "J.P.F." mold-blown inkwell, known from archaeological evidence to be a Pitkin product.

A miniature free blown chestnut flask, 1.8 inches high, side and bottom views. This flask was excavated by middle school students working with Connecticut State Archaeologist Nick Bellantoni at the Pitkin ruins, on May 14, 2003. This is truly a unique item, both in terms of its tiny size and impeccable Pitkin attribution. It also seems to be extremely unusual to find intact glassware actually on the site of an old glass factory. A 2012 article in the Manchester Journal Inquirer recounts collectors at the time of the dig offering $5,000, and then $20,000, for this odd little bottle, which has fortunately remained on public display.

Some shards from the Pitkin Glass Works site, with the pontiled base of a big free blown bottle in light blue-green, almost aquamarine, glass at left, and the base of an olive-green figured flask at right. The figured flask fragment included just a few non-distinctive portions of ribbed sides, and could be from any of a number of molds, such as one of the pint Pitkin sunbursts.

Photographs of archaeological digs at the Pitkin site, with images of the miniature chestnut flask in situ.

Early 20th century photograph of children playing on the Pitkin ruins, by John Knoll (1887-1955).

1965 oil painting of the Pitkin Glass Works by Nora Addy Drake, who also painted the (charmingly weird) murals at the nearby Shady Glen cheeseburger and milkshake joints.

 Admission to the Old Manchester Museum is by donation ($5 suggested). It's well worth a trip if you can catch the Museum during its open hours, particularly if you are interested in the rich lore surrounding what is perhaps America's most storied early glass factory.

Museum of Connecticut Glass Open House

Free blown and dip mold New England glass.

 The Museum of Connecticut Glass held one of its monthly open houses this weekend. The Museum has a very limited, all-volunteer staff, but they are trying to have regular public educational events and shows during the warmer months. The main event for June was a spectacular display of early glassware and bottles from the collection of Tom Marshal. Tom has been acquiring his glass since the 1980s, and focuses on primitive free blown bottles and tableware, particularly forms and colors that can be associated with Connecticut, or at least the general New England area. Many of these objects are quite unusual and rare, and it was a treat to see so many in one place. Tom and other Museum volunteers gave informative talks about antique glass and glassmaking, and there was also a bottle sales area set up to benefit the Museum.

Bruce Mitchell and Alan Lagocki talk about glass making and early glass factories in Connecticut in the Museum's barn display area. The famous $3 bottle tables are by the window, with some real bargains to be had.

More of Tom Marshal's pre-1840 Connecticut-ish tableware, utilities and unique "end-of-day" items, in the kitchen window of the Capt. John Turner house.

A small display of later 19th and early 20th Century decorative glass, mostly made by the Meriden Flint Glass Company, from Bruce Mitchell's collection.

Freeblown and pattern molded inkwells, attributable to the Pitkin Glass Works or possibly other contemporaneous Connecticut factories. The "Pitkin hat" at left is a bit cracked, but one of the few known examples of an exceedingly rare and desirable end-of-day type item.

Awesome Seventeen-Eighties Work Escape Wayback Weekend

The Pitkin Glass Works ruins.

 The 1783~1830 Pitkin Glass Works ruins were open to the public this weekend, in conjunction with Manchester Pride Week and the Connecticut tourism open house day. It was a rare chance to see the ruins up close, although they are located in a residential neighborhood and can be viewed from the street over a fence at any time. The Pitkin factory is the oldest of Connecticut's glass works, and also, by some fluke of history, the only early Connecticut glass factory where significant portions of the factory building itself are still standing (there are still some visible foundations at the site of the Westford Glass Company, but all of the other factories have been completely leveled).

Waste glass drips and broken bottles in a bald spot in the lawn on the Pitkin grounds. The glass is mostly olive-green-amber, but notice the two light blue-green shards at center, examples of an uncommon but legitimate Pitkin color.

Even on the surface of the soil around the ruins there are occasional pieces of glass and other factory waste. Early glass works were pretty messy affairs, apparently, and Pitkin debris can be found all around the area. Several neighbors stopped in during the open house to talk to the staff of the Manchester Historical Society and donate pieces of glass that they had unearthed when gardening or having old oil tanks removed.

Excavations inside the walls of the factory ruins, with some possible foundation stones exposed.

A number of archaeological digs have been conducted at the Pitkin Glass Works, including extensive investigations by Fredrick Warner and his students from Central Connecticut State University in 1984 (summarized in A History of the Pitkin Glass Works by William E. Buckley), as well as more recent and ongoing excavations carried out by Manchester middle school students.

Stones and old bricks exposed by school group excavations.

The walls of the Pitkin factory building are primarily made of grey gneiss. The local bedrock in most of Manchester is Triassic sedimentary "red beds" and basalt, so construction materials were probably carted in, perhaps from the quarries at Bolton Notch, east of Manchester.

Artifacts excavated at the Pitkin site by Tom Duff. Two pontiled bases of Pitkin-type pattern molded flasks in olive green; the side of an umbrella inkwell in dark olive amber; and a large fragment of a ceramic pot for melting glass.

Archaeological excavations at glass factory sites provide some of the strongest evidence for attributing particular products to a given glass works. Pitkin-type flasks, with swirled or broken swirl pattern-molded embossings and blown in the German half-post method, are indeed fairly abundantly represented among shards from the Pitkin Glass Works. Extremely similar flasks were also blown at other contemporaneous New England glass works, however. Tom Duff has an interesting shard in his collection of Pitkin materials, picked up near the ruins many years ago, that is clearly from a Coventry Lafayette figured flask. Glass factories incorporate old broken glass, or cullet, into new batches to hasten melting, so the Lafayette shard was probably left behind from a pile of broken bottles collected from the community for recycling. Care must be taken when interpreting finds from factory sites; clear patterns certainly emerge and provide solid links between certain types of bottles and certain factories where multiple fragments of those bottles have been recovered, but odd one-off shards could be misleading.

Tom Duff's display of glass factory tools and New England bottles representative of the likely products of the Pitkin Glass Works.

Representatives of the Manchester Historical Society and the Pitkin Glass Works organization were on hand to answer questions, with displays of bottles and other artifacts. Tom Duff brought in Pitkin-type flasks and inkwells, as well as figured flasks, case gin bottles and other glassware typical of the goods that were likely produced by Pitkin. He also had blow pipes and other glass house tools, including a ribbed iron mold used to make pattern molded glass, along with a modern teal-colored Pitkin-type flask blown in his mold by Pairpoint Glass on Cape Cod. The 32 rib mold was recovered from a warehouse in New Jersey, but could conceivably be an eighteenth or early nineteenth century antique from New England.

The Mattatuck Museum

 The Mattatuck Museum in downtown Waterbury, Connecticut specializes in the industrial history of the "Brass City," and also has notable collections from Connecticut artists as well as antique furniture. They also hold one of the best public collections of early Connecticut glass. It's not a huge location, and part of the building is closed for renovations at the moment, so only a fraction of the collections are on display at any given time, but there were still some remarkable bottles to be seen on my recent visit. 

Inkwells: GII-29 three mold and "J.P.F."

 One of the current displays at the Mattatuck Museum is of documents and signatures from famous figures in 18th and 19th century American History. There were a couple of inkwells among the papers: one common New Hampshire well from the GII-29 three part mold, and a beautiful square "J.P.F." well, in dark olive green, made at the Pitkin Glass Works. John P. Foster was a superintendent at the Pitkin factory; fragments of this type of inkwell have also been found at the Pitkin ruins in Manchester.

Three Coventry flasks: GI-84, GI-86 and GI-80, with violet Mid-Atlantic (?) pattern molded flasks in the background.

There was also a display of just early glass, mostly flasks, with some remarkable bottles. The GI-84 La Fayette / Masonic arch is particularly nice: an "extremely rare" bottle according to McKearin and Wilson, with this example looking to be in just about perfect condition, in an unusually clear pure green color, with nary a trace of the olive shades that are typical of Coventry Glass Works material. The other two Coventry flasks aren't bad either, with good examples of the more common variant of the La Fayette / liberty cap half pint, and one of my favorites, a big pint-plus La Fayette / De Witt Clinton.

Certain exhibits, including the area with the flasks, weren't much labeled by the museum, if at all. There was a touch-screen information station in the area, but that didn't seem to be working. I can't imagine most visitors would have any idea of what they're looking at with this display, and it really would have been nice if there were signs with at least a basic explanation of the bottles.

Coventry and Pitkin Glass Works figured flasks (GI-85, GII-57 and likely GI-81) with New England Pitkin-type pattern molded flasks

The other really special flask on display at the Mattatuck was the "J.P.F. - CONN" Eagle / Cornucopia pint, pictured at center above. McKearin and Wilson list this extremely rare (three extant examples) bottle as number five in their list of the 42 most desirable flasks. As with the J.P.F. inkwell, this flask was almost certainly blown at the Pitkin Glass Works in Manchester (part of East Hartford before 1823).

Not quite on that level of rarity, but still not the sort of things that would turn up at your average estate sale, there are also two nice figured flasks in this photo from "Covetry [sic] C-T": the pint La Fayette / liberty cap (somewhat scarcer than the half pint), and a half pint La Fayette / De Witt Clinton. The two Pitkin-type flasks in the background are possibly Connecticut glass as well (certainly New England); the larger, nearly pure green example is especially good.

There were other interesting things going on at the Mattatuck Museum, even with portions closed because of construction, including a photography exhibit from the ominous Gates of Hell in Turkmenistan, and a really large collection of antique buttons. It was well worth the modest price of admission.