Libbey Glass Company Sold at Auction Prices

Libbey Glass had its origin in East Cambridge, MA, in 1818 as The New England Glass Company with exclusive rights to a lead glass patent that closed out competition with other glass factories. By the 1873 depression, however, the firm was nearly bankrupt. To assist the company, William L. Libbey was called in to manage. He convinced the board to not close the Company and helped reorganize its structure. His son, Edward, had joined the company in 1872. Upon his father’s death in 1883, Edward assumed control of the company and by 1888 moved it to Toledo, Ohio, where natural gas was available. By 1892, the New England Glass Company was renamed The Libbey Glass Company. After moving to Toledo the Libbey Glass Company established its factory production of practical and attractive formal glassware, barware, and daily table ware, including mugs, carafes, water glasses, pitchers and cocktail glasses. By the late 1890s, Libbey had become the largest glass producer in the world. Its products are available in downtown Toledo, the “Glass Capital of the World,” in a Libbey Glass Factory Outlet. Libbey tableware is now often marked with a capital “L” in script on the center bottom with the word “LIBBEY” and DURA TUFF TM USA” around the bottom of the foot of the beaker or glass. A superb museum of worldwide glass is in Toledo in addition to and nearby the Toledo Museum of Art. An altogether different company, Libbey-Owens-Ford produces flat glass for the automotive industries—the first company to make laminated safety glass for auto windshields in 1928. This is an industrial giant of considerable ownership complexity having been sold to the Pilkington group and later to Nippon Sheet Glass and others.