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Imperial Glass Company was established in 1901 by an ex-riverboat
captain and experienced glassmaker Edward Muhleman, although they
didn't begin producing the iridescent Carnival
glass for which they became best known until 1909. In the
early days of its formation it made pressed glass as was the fashion
of the day, glasses, compotes, bowls, and other household tableware
and accessories. In 1904, Imperial moved into a new facility on
the river in Bellaire, Ohio, already a center of American glassmaking.
When they began making Carnival glass, it immediately became their
most popular production line and it was produced in huge quantities
for middle America and beyond. Imperial was closely identified
with more sculptural and geometric forms than contemporaries like
Fenton
and Northwood,
who became better known for evoking nature through grapes, leaves,
and other natural shapes. Imperial produced a much wider variety
of glass than simply Carnival glass however, although they always
made more utilitarian pieces than their contemporaries and as
such bring in general slightly lower prices in today's market.
They produced new colors such as "smoke", a light blueish-grey
color, and "clambroth", much the color of ginger ale, and they
produced marigold glass in huge quantities. In their Carnival
glass lines, they were particularly well known for the rich iridescence
of their pieces and especially their purple glass which was much
less commonly found from other manufacturers.
Many of the staffers
at Imperial were German and Bohemian craftsmen who had been
influenced and skilled in the work of Austrian and Bohemian
producers of the period such as Loetz,
and they sought to bring ever more highly skilled techniques
to Imperial production. They produced almost the total spectrum
of American glass styles of the era including slag glass, stretch
glass, opalescent glass, milk glass, black glass, and novelty
glass animals. Imperial was more successful than most other
American manufacturer's of Carnival glass in exporting to Europe,
and they continued to operate through the depression years of
the 1930s in producing a cheaper range of green, pink, and blue
Depression
glass from earlier Imperial Glass molds. Candlewick glass
was a pattern of elegant depression era glass produced in the
1930's by the Imperial Glass Company, still popular for entertaining
because of the sheer variety of service pieces available. Candlewick
glassware is recognized by the bead work, usually found at the
edges of a plate or on the stem of a cake plate. What sets it
apart from other, similar glassware of the era is the quality
and clarity of the glass.
Imperial stayed in business
through the hears of World War II and even began producing reproduction
Carnival glass in the 1960s as collector interest began to be
revived. They also acquired other struggling but formerly well
known glass companies including A. H. Heisey in 1958 and Cambridge
Glass Works in 1960. Using the old molds, Imperial continued
to produce Heisey and Cambridge designs marketed as Heisey or
Cambridge "by Imperial." Lenox bought the company in 1973, beginning
a period of decline until finally ceasing operations in 1983.
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