Founded by English chemist, William J. Blenko as Eureka Art Glass Company, in Milton, West Virginia in 1921, the Blenko Glass Company assumed its name in 1930. Blenko understood not only the glass process, but color, a key impact of glass design. Initially, the firm specialized in plate glass, patenting a ruby red color that could be re-fired for stained glass enamellists. Blenko introduced tableware in 1929; during the 1930’s it inclined towards a Swedish aesthetic, especially under foreman Carl Ebert Erickson from 1937-42. In 1947, Blenko hired Winslow Anderson as its first credited full-time, in-house designer. Anderson (1947-53) at Blenko was succeeded by Wayne Husted (1953-63), Joel Philipi Myers (1963-70), John Nickerson (1970-74), Don Shepherd (1974-88), Hank Adams (1988-94), Matt Carter (1995-2002), Richard Blenko (1980-2007), and Arlen Bayliss (2007-2012) as artistic directors.
Blenko Glass Company
Works associated with this person or group
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#5929S Decanter And Stopper, 1959
“Nile” green, exaggerated, almost anthropomorphic baluster form, with bell-shaped base rising with undulating profile to everted top, the tapered conical stopper resting with half in the long neck for support.
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Design # 7220S Vase, 1972
In olive -almost chartreuse- green, with cylindrical base before an angled bottle-form bulbous upper body cut on the diagonal.
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Design # 566 Decanter And Stopper, 1956
The flattened, undulating body incorporating multi-fired tangerine color above a lemon yellow, with uneven applied clear glass shoulders and neck, below a red stopper.
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Design #R497 Vase, ca. 1940
sea green, the everted body with cinched waist applied with a spiral coil above a weighted base
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Design #374 Vase, 1932–35
Amethyst coil wrapped baluster body, the coil applied on the cylindrical upper portion above a bulbous base.