American Glass, 1760-1930

Glassmaking was the American colonies' first manufacturing industry, dating to 1608, when English settlers opened a glassworks near Jamestown, Virginia. Facing European competition, chiefly from Britain, American glassmakers evolved their own distinctive styles, combining purity and simplicity of design with sophisticated artistry and craftsmanship. Whale-oil and burning-fluid lamps; candlesticks; vases; flasks; fine tableware; Tiffany goblets; a powder horn for hunting; rolling pins and funnels are among the multitude of objects displayed in this extraordinary, beautiful catalogue of the Toledo Museum of Art's glass collection. A monumental work of scholarship, it combines 1,949 illustrations (174 in color), including advertisements and engravings, and an absorbing text on glassmaking history, technology and artistry. Wilson, a curator, glass scholar and glass craftsman, follows developments through the early 1930s, when U.S. glassmakers drew inspiration from European modernism while factory techniques based on handcrafts gave way to industrial processes. (Mar.)