No. 9352 Ship Bookends by U.S. Glass / Tiffin Glass

Here you will find images of an advertisement for the No. 9352 Ship Bookends with the black satin finish by US Glass and a photo of the actual bookend that I inherited. These were produced around circa 1924-1934 and can be found in black or amber satin finish over glass.  Similar bookends can be found in clear glass made by New Martinsville Glass, circa 1938 but the mold is slightly different.

There's a little story that goes with my pair of Black Ship Bookends.  Originally, I never thought of the bookends as being glass.  The finish is so thick and I just figured they were heavy like most weighted bookends and must be ceramic.  Unfortunately, one day cleaning, I dropped one of them and it chipped on the corner.  When I looked at the damage, I was shocked to find that they were made of glass.  So that day I learned that if you ever have what you think is a piece of porcelain or ceramic, and it has a thick painted finish or lots of embellishments, think twice; there just might be glass under all that decoration.

When I found out they were glass, I scoured my library for an ID.   I found the advertisement in a tiny obscure section of Hazel Marie Weatherman's Depression Glass II book and found that they were made by U. S. Glass.  I was so happy to have found all this out.

 

Many years go by and of course I'm now involved in the Glass Lovers Glass Database project and every month I try to get a book to help with identifications for the database.  There are so many books I need to get and yet there is so little money to buy books so I have to be careful what I buy but I felt we really needed a book on Tiffin Glass, so I finally bought it and received it in the mail a few weeks ago.  Low and behold, I'm looking through the book and there I see my bookends as being made by U. S. Glass, Tiffin Factory R....

Glass lesson number 2:  If a piece of glass is made by U. S. Glass, chances are it was made by one of the sub-companies that formed U.S. Glass also so you may have two company attributions in your research.  The United States Glass Company was formed when 18 or more glass companies combined in 1891 to try to survive trying times as a combined unit.  Several of those companies didn't survive past 1900 (red=survivors) and the rest failed during the Great Depression leaving Tiffin Factory R as the sole survivor under the official name of U. S. Glass Company.

  " Factory A -  Adams & Co.
    Factory B -  Bryce Brothers
    Factory C -  Challinor, Taylor & Co.
    Factory D -  George Duncan & Sons Glass
    Factory E -   Richards & Hartley
    Factory F -   Ripley Glass
    Factory G -   Gillinder
    Factory H -   Hobbs Glass Co.
    Factory J -    Columbia Glass
    Factory K -   King Glass
    Factory L -   O'Hara Glass Co.
    Factory M -  Bellaire Goblet Co.
    Factory N -  Nickel Plate Glass
    Factory O -  Central Glass
    Factory P -   Doyle & Co.
    Factory R -   A. J. Beatty & Sons, Tiffin, Ohio; later Tiffin Glass
    Factory S -   A. J. Beatty & Sons, Steubenville, Ohio
    Factory T -   Novelty Glass Company
    Factory U -   Gas City, Indiana
    Factory GP - Glassport, Pennsylvania"(1)
 
They're great bookends with some substantial weight to them.  If you know anything more about early 20th Century glass bookends, we love to hear from you.

Reference:  (1) http://carnivalglass101.carnivalheaven.com/id118.htm