Friday, January 9, 2015

Old New England Glassware in the Home - Part Five - "Old New England Propensity"


Old New England Glassware in the Home

Part Five

"Old New England Propensity"



            The
            Propensity... of Anglo-Irish glassware... in the old New England home
            Fries me.
            I...
            WELL IF IT WERE NOT THERE THEN IT WOULD NOT BE THERE.
            Right?
            BUT IT IS THERE:  It is a glassware in the old New England home.  Until.
            “Until what?”
            ...
            ...
            Until a ‘someone’ ‘cleans out’ (usually either a ‘kitchen’ or a ‘dining room’) cupboard.  And that someone IS you (including ‘a man’s job’) or... is your mother... is your grandmother.... ?  IS IT?
            No.  It’s usually me or my  ilk who ‘get it’ ‘in the end’.  “In the end” is that brief window of time where an ‘old home’ is ‘cleaned out’.  If one has a two hundred and fifty year old home that one is ‘cleaning out’ to “SELL” (‘the house’), the three day “YARD SALE (or et al) IS a ‘brief window’.
            Now... by fair reckoning, that single odd iota of beat-up, chipped and worn glassware IS STILL ‘in there’ before the... ‘brief moment’ so:
            SO?
            Someone... or someones... did once... know and care and did consciously ‘keep that”?  The propensity of survival in the cupboards of old New England homes of Anglo-Irish glassware is... that... and is... doing just fine until some idiot comes along and... either ‘throws it out’ or ‘abandons it’.  Beats me but carrying the same ratio as the two hundred fifty year old house to the home’s three day tag sale (‘brief window’)... the propensity WAS... this ratio shows... ‘to keep’ ‘it’ (“that single odd iota of beat-up, chipped and worn glassware”)...
            And I have found this out
            Over the years
            Of doing this (an antiquarian finding Anglo-Irish glassware in old New England homes).




            Most of it; this Anglo-Irish glassware that I find, is from the ‘Federal Period’ of New England ‘settlement’.  That is, by date, 1790-1815.  The better homestead (‘center chimney cape’) pushed ‘log cabin’ ‘out’ (of New England).  Federal era Anglo-Irish glassware was... intentionally... imported... intentionally... as middle class accessible glassware... intentionally... to be sold to those homes.
            Where it was used, stored and saved
            Ever after
            Unless it was broken.
            A lot of times even after ‘broken’ ‘it’ was ‘kept’.
            That is the propensity of Anglo-Irish glassware
            In the old New England home.




            The propensity
            Of the ‘NEW’ (our current; today) New England home is to
            “Get rid of that”.
            This is not conscious choice or ‘any else’.
            It is ‘just done’
            Eve and Bing (Part One)... if they ‘had’ a ‘that’... did
            “Get rid of that”.
            ...
            What if they do ‘have’ a ‘that’; an ‘it’?
            How could that be?




            Well... a long, long, time ago when glassware in the old New England home was (first era) ‘cleaned out’... the ‘they’ ‘moved’....(note that word).... ‘everything’.  Or ‘they’ just stayed in their THIS house... ‘with everything’.  The ‘NEW’ New England intellectual imperative of ‘cleaning out’ and ‘get rid of it’ was a ‘not’ back then (first era clean out).  That’s how Anglo-Irish glassware became a ‘still in there’ of old New England homes.  It was... ‘still there’.  The first glassware in New England was... and is... still here.  One... just has to ‘know’
            That maybe...
            Just maybe...
            THAT old looking old beat up and looking beat up and old is
            An ‘is something’
            “I should keep?”
            I don’t care if you keep it or not.  Just don’t make me drink out of your
            Crummy
            Juice glasses. (Part One)




            Propensity... in old New England glassware in ...1815...:
            Starts with Anglo-Irish glassware, as a design form, appearing in
            The old New England home ah...
            HEARD OF THAT you say?
            What is THAT you say?
            Anglo-Irish glassware is ...clear...; again... clear... glass... metal... hand ‘blown’ and shaped, cooled and then decorated by ‘cutting’ to create
            Anglo-Irish clear lead glass glassware with cut glass decoration “I
            Like it” she said.  In her New England Federal era home.





            Propensity in old New England glassware in ...1815...
            WAS THIS and... the
            Propensity of “I
            Can too make... clear... glassware... too.”
            ?
            The stumbling block of old New England glassware in the home:  “Clear”
            Glassware.  “Ah...:  I don’t know about that.”




            We are talking about a metal made with sand, wood, rum and men.  I mean... the MEN pee behind trees at the edge of the forest.  For clear glass metal one requires ‘pure’.  That means the peeing men need to wash their hands when they ‘come back’.  That
            Is impossible, including rum, to do; wash the hands
            Wash the sand
            Note the wood bark flakes
            Dropping in the mouton metal that
            Turns clear into, well... ‘colored’ glass metal.  “BOTTLE GLASS” “color”; the ‘olive-amber-green-ish-is’ from NOT controlling the dropping in.  That’s is why the bottle glass is ‘that color’.  A substitute of NEAR perfection of ‘clear’ was accepted with ‘bottle glass’ “soda lime” ‘aqua’ that kept most of the bark flakes out but, ah... there was always problems with the ‘pure’ sand... on the beach
            Or from a river bank.  “Bottle glass aqua” is the blue and green ‘tints’ to, ah... NOT clear glass.
            Propensity of clear glass you say?
            “Crazy man.” you say?
            I got one





            By propensity... at age seventeen and with a Union College degree, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft matriculated, sort of, to Middlebury College and, more precisely, to Lake Dunmore that is just south east of East Middlebury, in the woods, at the base of the mountains and has... a sandy beach.  Schoolcraft is, then, a young New England crazy man whose father was a ‘glass maker’.  He liked, was interested in and pursued chemistry and chemists while... responding to the use of ‘available natural resources’ that could be used by a chemist to
            Make glass metal to
            Make CLEAR glassware
            “Just like in England”
            Propensity... of a crazy young chemist in the New England woods influenced by his glass maker father and ...chemists at Middlebury and ‘at Yale’:  “WE CAN MAKE
            Clear glassware
            Just like they do in England”.
            “Ok.”
            So... and out of the slot... to “make” ‘CLEAR’ glass metal is at LEAST five times as hard to make... five times as LITTLE... of that metal... than it is to make ‘hot buckets’ of ‘dirty’ ‘bottle glass’ metal... especially by a lake in the New England woods.
            OK so they did make ‘some’ clear metal.  And... like... Schoolcraft made some ALMOST clear glass chemistry equipment for the chemist at Middlebury and ah... they made a bunch of regular bottle glass bottles too ‘good luck with that’.











            The up-beat about doing this was over pretty quick and the down beat of LOOSE MONEY guided the venture to an ‘it failed’.  JUST in the nick of time a New Hampshire glass making venture notably including Schoolcraft’s father... hired Henry to go at it (make clear glass) there (Keene, NH, Marlboro Street Glassworks).  Again... the word is ‘clear’.
            WHY clear?
            Because that is what the ENGLISH are SELLING and... ah... “I
like it” she said.  In her New England Federal era home” (quoted from above).
            Henry ...went to Keene and made clear... glass
            With the same results; pounding debt and poor product production.  Bark, leaves, bugs, rum soaked men, horse manure and ‘everything else’ was always tainting the skimpy mush of clear glass metal.  BUT they (“KEENE”) DID MAKE
            Clear glass... ware; mostly bottles (“Decanters”)
            That are now and WERE THEN TOO... unique productions... in absolutely
            New Hampshire forest made... ‘brilliant’ clear ‘flint’ glass... for her:
            “I like it” she said.  In her New England Federal era home.
            Anyone, may, today, purchase ‘one of these’ or, like I... actually
            FIND ‘one of these’
            For pittance at a ...three day tag sale... at a old New England home.  (the last two I purchased for $1.00 and $2.00 respectively.  No one ‘batted an eyelash’.
            “Of course not, Dear.”




            Two years later, at Keene, (1817), Schoolcraft was ‘gone’... ‘out west’ to write his famous book “A View of the Lead Mines of Missouri” (1819 with two lithographed and ‘folk-art-ish’[“little jewels”] plates).  That is what he is known for in the ‘Goggle that’ world.  His father was deeply in debt past ‘broke’.  Keene glass making turned to ‘bottles’ and bottle glass and... there after did turn a profit for a decade or two but ...no.... clear... glass.  And
            No more Schoolcraft-of-glass.  He turned to “Lead” on the Mississippi River; he remained a chemist to the end.  Soooo...









            Back to
            The propensity of
            Clear-glass-why.
            And then clear glass what.
            And then the clear glass
            Propensity of
            Why that what.





1 comment:

  1. Oh yes, this does go a bit beyond the yellow painted red lettered wood case of old empty Coca-Cola bottles, found in the barn back a while ago.

    ReplyDelete