Fenton Art Glass Turns 100!

Take a look in Grandma's curio cabinet, and

chances are you'll find a piece of Fenton Art Glass.

Roberta Messner

Country Almanac

pp. 74, 75 - Spring 2005 Issue

While touring The Fenton Art Glass Company in Williamstown, West Virginia, you just might spot a factory worker pointing to a piece on display and whispering to the wife or child at his side: "I made that!" with the pride of 100 years of craftsmanship in his voice. Director of Design Nancy Fenton explains: "We make a product, and have been making it for 100 years, that has retained its value. People have Fenton glassware in their homes from the Teens, Twenties, Thirties and Forties, and it hasn't lost its value. There's a heritage to it as well as a financial value...It's something that you buy and you have for a long time, and you can hand it down from generation to generation."

What is equally compelling is the company's story of humble beginnings, of an American dream realized. It all started back in 1905 when Frank L. Fenton, who had worked in glass factories since his high school graduation, decided that if he could work for someone else, he could just as well work for himself. When Frank recruited his older brother John's help, John quickly got to the bottom line: "How much money do you have saved?"

"$280.00," Frank told him.

"Good," John answered. "Between us we have $284.46."

In the early years at Fenton, Frank and John purchased blanks from local glass factories and then applied their own designs, firing pieces in a small kiln in an abandoned factory they rented. The day the local factories stopped supplying their new competitor with blanks was a turning point for the brothers; John and Frank then set about finding a location to build a plant where they could make their own. They broke ground on October 7, 1906. And the rest, as they say, is history.

To enter Fenton's Hot Metal Shop is to become a part of a world where the lines between past and present disappear. Approximately 14 ingredients are utilized in the making of Fenton glass, largely sand, soda ash and lime. Fenton's beloved cranberry glass, prized for its rich glow, even contains particles of pure gold. Yet the actual recipes are top secret, many originating in the glassworking guilds of Europe as well as with 19th-century American glassmakers. "Molten glass is 'hot metal' to the glassworkers," writes Alan Linn in The Fenton Story of Glass Making. "They twirl it and handle it in the Hot Metal Shop like a red hot baton, but every move is calculated and every man a part of the team."

"When my grandfather and his brother started Fenton Art Glass at the turn of the last century," reflects President George Fenton, "it was their desire to enhance the glass making industry. That mission and dedication to quality workmanship has carried through to the present day, where we have multiple generations working together to produce high-quality decorative glass in the tradition that my grandfather started." Today, that mission lives on with the essentials of Fenton glass continuing to be color, craftsmanship, shape and a distinct artistry in decoration.

A product borne of a flame, Fenton Art Glass is also a product that keeps on giving. "One of the wonderful mysteries of glass," observes Alan Linn, "is its talent to store up those intense bright flames and dole them out in minute bits of flashes, reflections and warming glints for all the years of its life."

Editor's Note: For more information about The Fenton Art Glass Company's 100th anniversary, go to fentonartglass.com