Bakewell Glass
[2] The company was founded by English businessman Benjamin Bakewell when he saw future success in the industry in the early 1800s.
[3] Because Bakewell was born in England and worked as a merchant and importer of French goods before coming to America, he knew the European style.
By 1809, he had hired skilled glassmakers, including Englishmen and Frenchmen, to better imitate English glass trends.
[3] Although the company produced practical glasswork for tables, lamps, and apothecary equipment, it was renowned for its pressed/engraved patterns, especially the pieces they made for prominent public figures or presidents.
[6] The title for who made the first pressed glassware in America was contested among John P. Bakewell, Enoch Robinson, and Henry Whitney.
It was later decided that the other glasshouses during that time had distributed a significant amount of glass that they had made with designs blatantly copied from Boston and Sandwich.
Sandwich and the New England Glass Co were fierce competitors in distribution, and it would not be until years later that Bakewell's company would have a reputation.
[5] Along with the advancements in technology, the glass industry was discovering useful natural resource deposits in America: clay beds found in New Jersey, Missouri and Pennsylvania meant another ingredient in certain glassmaking processes that was readily available.
[2][4] Bakewell & Co made portraits of Marquis de Lafayette, Andrew Jackson, Quincy Adams, and George Washington in tumblers.
These tumblers were bought by presidents, historical celebrities, and the wealthy and were considered to be valuable and exceptional pieces because of the quality in design and make of the glass.
[15] Sulfide portraits were especially difficult to make because a glassblower would need to avoid letting any air bubbles exist between the glass and the ceramic substance.
When the bubble bursts, the ceramic piece is enveloped by glass, and what is left is a silvery image of the relief.
[15] The name "sulphide portrait" was made when potters studying 19th century ceramics and glass were unaware of the process in making sulfide portraits and concluded that the silver-looking cameos were due to silver sulfide rather than a clay material.
