Stoddard Glass

One of the most universally-respected American producers of utilitarian glass bottles and jars, Stoddard Glass is a consortium of four glassmaking companies based in Stoddard, New Hampshire. Stoddard Glass dominated the market for more than 30 years producing hand-blown glass vessels for a wide variety of American companies in the 19th century. Today, Stoddard Glass continues to be lusted after by longstanding collectors.

Glassmaking in the town of Stoddard began in the 1840s, and over the subsequent decade, four main companies emerged: the South Stoddard Glass Manufacturing Company, the Granite Glass Company, and the New Granite Glass Works. All of these facilities specialized in practical glass pieces from simple inkwells to medicine bottles in an impressive array of colors derived from the natural mineral elements in Stoddard's sand.

Stoddard glassmakers excelled until the 1870s when the hub went into decline. Today, Stoddard pieces are in unprecedented demand among collectors, as they are pieces of the history and heritage of American glassmaking.

Quick Facts

• During Stoddard's reign as the 19th-century glassmaking capital of New Hampshire, their factories put out more than one million bottles a year
• In addition to standardized commercial glass vessels, Stoddard makers also created some smaller pieces in limited numbers. Known as whimsies, they used the remainder of glass left lingering at the end of the day
• One element that contributed to Stoddard's decline was the very reason the locale became a glassmaking hub in the first place. Its sand, which created such brilliant colors when fired, did not allow for clear glass pieces, which was what American consumers most wanted in the closing years of the 19th century