Pressed glass (also referred to as pattern glass) is a form of glass made using a plunger to press molten glass into a mold. It was first patented by American inventor John P. Bakewell in 1825 to make knobs for furniture.
The technique was developed in the United States from the 1820s and in Europe, particularly France, Bohemia, and Sweden from the 1830s. By the mid-19th century most inexpensive mass-produced glassware was pressed (1850–1910). One type of pressed glass is carnival glass. Painted pressed glass produced in the early 20th century is often called goofus glass. The method is also used to make beads.
Famous quotes containing the words pressed and/or glass:
“I affect no contempt for the high eminence he [Senator Stephen Douglas] has reached. So reached, that the oppressed of my species, might have shared with me in the elevation, I would rather stand on that eminence, than wear the richest crown that ever pressed a monarch’s brow.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“Like a wild stranger out of wizard-land
He dwelt a little with us, and withdrew;
Black and unblossomed were the ways he knew,
Dark was the glass through which his fire eye shined.”
—Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935)