Fenton: 100 Years...Art Glass on Display at Mansion Museum

By Linda Comins
Arts & Living Editor
Sunday News-Register, Wheeling, WV

A century's worth of beautiful art glass, created by a West Virginia firm with roots in the Upper Ohio Valley, is on display for a special exhibition in Wheeling.

"Fragile Art: 100 Years of Fenton Art Glass," continues through Saturday, Oct. 15, at Oglebay Institute's Mansion Museum in Oglebay Park.

With more than 250 pierces of glass on display, this centennial exhibit is "the largest and most comprehensive of the different Fenton retrospectives in the country," said Holly McCluskey, Oglebay Institute curator of glass. The Oglebay exhibit includes pieces from Fenton's "very, very earliest" days to ones produced this year for its platinum and collectors' collections, she said.

Fenton glass, which is known internationally for its quality and beauty, is "very colorful, very eye-catching," McCluskey observed, adding, "That's one thing about glass - it's beautiful to look at."

Officials at Fenton began planning in 2003 for a series of centennial exhibitions, said Dr. James Measell, Fenton historian and guest curator for the Oglebay Institute exhibit. "We wanted to involve museums across the country in displaying Fenton glass. The first one I contacted was Oglebay Institute," he said.

McCluskey remarked, "I was really honored that Jim (Measell) contacted us ... It was a real honor to be asked to host this retrospective ... We are delighted to be able to host the exhibition."

Measell commented, "It looks terrific. Holly (McCluskey) has done a wonderful job with the way the cases are displayed."

The Fenton historian also is impressed with the explanatory panels created by Paul Kramer of Paul Jay Associates in Bellaire and with the way in which historic artifacts, such as actual Fenton catalogue pages from 1905 and 1907, are incorporated in the glass displays.

The exhibition includes a four- by seven-foot picture of the Fenton factory. "The original of that (picture) is a postcard. It was blown up and tinkered to restore the background. It's really impressive. We are going to bring it to our (Fenton) gift shop and put behind our tour station ... We're going to be real happy to have it here in our gift shop," Measell said.

Oglebay Institute was a natural location for the exhibition because of the Upper Ohio Valley's unique connection to Fenton Art Glass, both curators agreed. Fenton Art Glass, which has operated in Williamstown, W.Va., since the early 1900s, was started as a glass decorating company in Martins Ferry in 1905.

Its founder, Frank L. Fenton, gained early experience working as a glass decorator for Harry Northwood at the latter's firm in Indiana, Pa., and later at his H. Northwood company in Wheeling, Measell said.

Oglebay Institute's Glass Museum contains "the largest and most comprehensive exhibit of Northwood glass anywhere in the country," McCluskey said. To show the earlier glassmaker's influences on Fenton's wares, Northwood pieces - including some that may have been decorated by Fenton and his brothers - are featured in the current exhibit at Oglebay Institute.

The exhibit traces "the history of Fenton Art Glass and how it ties into Northwood. We are the only venue in the country that can do that," McCluskey said.

The opening part of the exhibit features "all things that Mr. Fenton may have painted and worked on while he was there (at Northwood's plant)," she said. "It's a real unique glimpse into the history of Fenton and the Ohio Valley."

Visitors to the exhibit can see what glassmaking trends influenced both Northwood and Fenton, she said. Measell has brought the Northwood-Fenton connection to light, McCluskey said.

In addition to the unique opportunity to showcase both the Northwood and Fenton lines, the exhibit offers the museum a chance to share "a West Virginia success story with Fenton Art Glass," McCluskey said.

Both curators expressed thanks to the Jackson-Kelly law firm for sponsoring the exhibit. "They (the law firm) like to sponsor things that are West Virginia-related," McCluskey said.

The Fenton centennial is particularly significant because "very few glass companies make it to 100," she said. From its humble roots in Martins Ferry, Fenton Art Glass has grown into being the largest handmade art glass plant in operation in the United States today, she noted.

Among the world's foremost producers of handmade art glass, Fenton Art Glass products are "known by thousands and thousands of people," from art glass and collectibles circles to viewers of QVC, McCluskey said

Measell and McCluskey will offer a glass identification session at the Mansion Museum 10 a.m. Saturday, May 21. Entrance to the identification session is included in admission to see the mansion and the Fenton exhibit.

McCluskey also is conducting a series of gallery talks on Thursday nights and Saturdays, continuing through the exhibition's closing day of Oct. 15.

Noting the universal appeal of glass, McCluskey said Oglebay Institute officials are excited about an upcoming visit by a group of British glass curators who will be traveling by bus from Pittsburgh to the Fenton plant in Williamstown and making a stop in Wheeling. The British visitors are "very prominent glass historians. It's a really big deal for us," she said.

"Ohio Valley glassmakers were influenced so much by English glassmakers," McCluskey commented. "The British are excited to see these American examples because their precursors were all English glassmakers."

As curators organizing an exhibition, Measell and McCluskey "tend to think in terms of chronological order," she said. "We thought we needed to start at very beginning, by theme and design concepts and influences."

To add a touch of whimsy to the exhibition, one of Fenton's largest papier-mache glassmaker figures - known affectionately as Clarence - also is on display. Measell explained that the figure was created by an advertising agency with which Fenton was working in the 1950s and it was displayed at the Marshall Field department store in Chicago.

"He's always a great attention-getter," Measell said about Clarence. "He is, in fact, one of our company symbols. Because of Clarence, folks really get a sense that glassmaking, the way Fenton does it, has not changed in a century."

Finding glassware for the exhibition was not a problem. "We have a lot of vintage Fenton in our museum storage area (at the Williamstown complex)," Measell said. "We have 2,000 pieces on display and 3,000 to 4,000 pieces in museum storage. We have plenty of pieces to choose from."

To make the best use of display cases available for the gallery, he said, "Ultimately, we decided we would represent different eras or different kinds of glass that Fenton makes."

Demonstrating the wide range of Fenton's product line, the exhibition includes examples of glass made for sale on QVC between 1987 and the present; glass made for the connoisseur's line between 1983 and 2004; stretch glass from the 1920s and hobnail glass from the 1930s.

The first wall case features decorated glassware that was made at the Northwood company in Indiana, Pa., in the late 1890s and at H. Northwood in Wheeling in 1904-05, Measell said. All of this glass dates from the time frame when Frank L. Fenton was working for Northwood, the glass historian said.

At age 17, Fenton began working as decorator for Northwood in Indiana, Pa., Measell said. Fenton's brothers, Charles and John, "probably were working there also. We know Charles was there in 1900," Measell added.

"When Harry Northwood went to England, Fenton went to work for Steuben Glass in Coudersport, Pa., in mid-1904. That factory burned down," Measell related. "Harry (Northwood) was back in Wheeling at that time and the Fentons became decorators at H. Northwood in Wheeling."

The Oglebay exhibition includes items that the Fentons "probably" decorated. The certainty of that theory is unknown, Measell explained, because "in those days, decorators didn't sign their pieces. We know they (the Fentons) were decorators then. It is glass that was made in that period."

The Northwood pieces in the exhibit are all owned by Oglebay Institute. "Many were purchased as part of glassware that Miss Elizabeth Robb (Harry Northwood's granddaughter) acquired over a period of 15 years," Measell said. "The collection really increased dramatically because of her generosity."

Two Northwood and Fenton pieces, displayed side by side, show only subtle differences. They were decorated "in a slightly different way," while Northwood's version was made in a four-part mould and Fenton's was produced in a two-part mould, Measell said.

Design influences were common, he said, as "every glassmaking company was looking at what all of their competitors were doing and were often making very similar things."

The exhibit includes a large wall case of carnival glass, and Measell notes that Fenton's carnival line tended to be darker than Northwood's carnival glass. "In the 1920s, they came together again with some similar opaque colors," he said. "Northwood was out of business in the mid-'20s. Fenton continued to make opaque colors such as Mongolian green, lilac (which was an opaque pink) and periwinkle."

In the 1930s, Fenton began making hobnail glass, which became popular in the 1940s and "took off" in milk glass in the 1950s and 1960s, Measell said. Hobnail continued to be popular until the early 1980s, he said, adding that milk glass is still made for the Fenton gift shop to accommodate special orders.

At Fenton Art Glass, Measell said, "We make not merely making glass the old-fashioned way, but actually using tools and techniques that were used over a century ago. The tools are exactly the same ... You take good care of tools and moulds will last forever."

Fenton's official birthday is May 4, so festivities are planned for Wednesday, with a visit by West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin who will be "doing some glassmaking and decorating" during the afternoon, Measell said.

A five-day centennial celebration is planned for July 29 to Aug. 2, with events in Williamstown, Marietta and Parkersburg. The Fenton Art Glass Collectors of American and the National Fenton Glass Society will be holding their national conventions in the area at that time. A river cruise, an auction, seminars, talks and special tours of the Fenton museum and gift shop will be offered, Measell said.

PROGRAMS SCHEDULED:
To complement "Fragile Art: 100 Years of Fenton Art Glass," currently on display at Oglebay Institute's Mansion Museum, several public programs designed to enhance visitors' knowledge and enjoyment of the exhibit are being held.

Coming events include:
* Saturday, May 21, 10 a.m., Glass Identification with Dr. James Measell, Fenton historian and guest curator for the exhibit, and Holly McClusky, Oglebay Institute curator of glass.
* Thursday, May 26, 7 p.m., Gallery Talk with McClusky.
* Saturday, June 18, 1 p.m., Gallery Talk with McClusky.
* Thursday, July 28, 7 p.m., Gallery Talk with McClusky.
* Saturday, Aug. 20, 1 p.m., Gallery Talk with McClusky.
* Thursday, Sept. 22, 7 p.m., Gallery Talk with McClusky.
* Saturday, Oct. 15, 1 p.m., Gallery Talk with McClusky.

All events will be held at the Mansion Museum located in Oglebay Park.

The exhibit, which continues through Saturday, Oct. 15, in the Sauder Gallery of the Mansion Museum, celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Fenton Art Glass Company. More than 200 pieces of stunning glass products made from 1905 through the 2005 Platinum Collection are on display.

For more information, call the Mansion Museum at (304) 242-7272.