West Virginia (and Ohio and Western Pennsylvania) was a center of American glass-making from the Nineteenth Century. Blenko Glass, founded in 1922, is still operating in Milton, West Virginia.
William Blenko, an English immigrant to the United States, founded his first American glass company in 1893. His workshop created window panes by blowing cylinders of molten glass, cutting them open, and flattening them (in an oven). He made clear glass and colored glass (to be used in stained glass windows). His first company (and two more, after that) failed. His fourth company, Blenko (as we know it today), succeeded. During the Great Depression, when many building projects (the source of his revenue) were sidelined, Blenko broadened his product line to include decorative and useful glass items for household use. These items saw him through the tough times; "art glass" creations continued to be an important part of the company's output—even to this day. Blenko is best known by collectors for their Mid-Century Modernist creations from the Sixties and Seventies.
The vase above, while Modernist in form, was made at the Turn-of-the-Millennium. Designed by Hank Adams, this form was produced from 1994 until 2003. This individual piece, however, was blown in 1999 or 2000—the two years when Blenko used this particular sticker. Sapphire glass was blown into a "diamond-optic" textured mould, after which ribbed and curling emerald glass handles were hand-applied. This sassy vase is reminiscent of a person standing with hands-on-hips.
Click on the photo above to learn more about this handsome vase.
Though our Greenwich Village store is now permanently closed, LEO Design is still alive and well! Please visit our on-line store where we continue to sell Handsome Gifts (www.LEOdesignNYC.com).
We also can be found in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, at The Antique Center of Strabane (www.antiquecenterofstrabane.com).
Or call to arrange to visit our Pittsburgh showroom (by private appointment only). 917-446-4248