|
|
Clevenger Bros. Glass works was founded
1930 by three brothers, Tom, Reno and Allie Clevenger. I have read
that the original furnace was built in a stable. The original
building was partially destroyed in 1957 by fire. The factory was
rebuilt on the original location and the furnace continued in operation
until August 24th, 1999, when it was shut down. During those years
many great South Jersey glassblowers worked at this furnace. Among
them are such greats as August Hofbauer, Otis Coleman, Harry Robb and
Vermont Frie.
In the early years most of the Clevenger glass was freeblown.
Freeblown glass was still being made on occasion up to 1960. Each
piece was hand blown and finished with no two exactly alike.
Each batch of glass often varied in color. They made copies of
earlier pieces such as lily pad pitchers and bowls, creamers and sugar
bowls and vases just to name a few. Some of the great glassworkers
could make virtually identical copies of earlier glass. These pieces
are becoming very collectable, and to my line of thinking, are not to be
considered reproductions since they were hand made Freeblown pieces.
These pieces are unmarked and at times even fool the experts as to the time
period in which they were produced!
It is my understanding that in the early 1930's Clevenger Brothers began to
do mold blown items. Some of the most famous pieces of glass
reproductions were the Jenny Lind Calabash, the Booz bottle, Washington
Taylor flask and the Eagle and Grape flask. I hesitate to use the
word reproductions because very few of the molds used by Clevenger's were
the original molds. Most of the copies of the famous pieces were
variations of the originals. The first catalog to appear showing
nothing but mold blown items came out around the end of World War II.
All of the pieces, with a few rare exceptions, were made without any
identification marks on them before 1966. I have been told that if a
change was made in a mold, starting in the mid 1950's, that a small CB was
sometimes added to the mold. I have found examples of this on some
pitchers where the original mold was used to make lamp fonts, such as the
Star & Shield and the Moon & Star pitchers.
In 1960 the last of the three original Clevenger brothers, Allie, passed
away. His widow, Myrtle Clevenger, continued to operate the
factory until it was sold in 1966. Myrtle sold the factory to a
gentleman by the name of Mr. Jim Travis on May 8th, 1966.
He continued to operate the factory and continued to produce hand blow
glass but he majority of the glass now blown became mold blown. Many
of the original molds for bottles were modified to accept a “slug”. These slugs could be made to
commemorate anything he chose such as town anniversaries or special
events. The slug was then
inserted into the mold allowing a bottle to be blown with this on the
front, back or both sides. He
used the old original Moore Bros. Glass Works formulas to produce the
different colors of glass. During the 1990”s Mr. Travis started
blowing gazing balls for gardeners.
This was due largely because of the low demand for custom bottles
and imported glass from overseas.
Mr. Travis when in his 80's decided to retire. He shut the
furnace down on August 24th, 1999 and he told me he doesn't ever
expect the furnace to be in operation again. Nr. Jim Travis passed away on July 3rd, 2007.
This means Clevenger Brothers glass most likely will never be produced
again. It is my feeling that all the Clevenger glass is going
to become very collectable and increase in value. It is already
becoming very hard to find some of the items they made.
Clevenger Brothers was, I believe, the last "Green System"
glass blowing shop of its kind in America. It is a shame because some
beautiful glass has come out of this factory over the last 71 years!
During the last few years the buildings
at the glass works have become in very poor condition such as the roof
collapsing over part of it. A
few of the locals have been working on purchasing the glass works, some
with thoughts of restoring it and others thinking of using it for other
crafts. My personal thoughts
are the furnace, which was oil fired, will never be fired up again.
In December of 2007 another glass works
was put into operation in Clayton only a few blocks away from
Clevenger. It is owned by Jeff
Vanaman and is called “The New Fislerville Glassworks”. I have seen some of Jeff’s freeblown
work and it is impressive!
Keep an eye out for a few pieces of his to show up in my glass for
sale pages.
Some historical information courtesy
of Tom Haunton, Clevenger glass historian.
|
|
