The Glasshouse; Jamestown, Virginia, 1608-1957
Jamestown: Privately Printed by Jamestown Glasshouse Foundation, Incorporated, 1957. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Wraps. 31, [1] pages. Frontis illustration. Footnotes. Illustrations. Includes Introduction and Acknowledgments. Chapters include The First Colonists; The First Industry; An Interlude: 1610-1621; and 1931-1957. In honor of the 350th birthday of the United States, The Color Association of the United States, Incorporated, presented the "Jamestown Festival Colors," based on authentic research at Jamestown Island. Included in these six Festival Colors is Glasshouse Green, shown on the cover of this brochure. Henry Hector Bolitho (28 May 1897 – 12 September 1974) was a New Zealand author, novelist and biographer, who had 59 books published. Widely traveled, he spent most of his career in England. Hector Bolitho was born in Auckland, New Zealand. He traveled in the South Sea Islands in 1919 and then through New Zealand with the Prince of Wales in 1920. Bolitho lived in Sydney from 1921 to 1923, where he became editor of the Shakespearean Quarterly and literary editor and drama critic of the Evening News in Sydney. He settled in Britain where he was to remain for the rest of his life. On his arrival in Britain he worked as a freelance journalist. At the start of World War II he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) as an intelligence officer with the rank of squadron leader, editing the Royal Air Force Weekly Bulletin, which in 1941 became the Royal Air Force Journal. In 1942 he was appointed editor of the Coastal Command Intelligence Review. Bolitho undertook several lecture tours of America (in 1938–39, 1947, 1948, and 1949) and he also revisited Australia in later years. Established in 1607, the Glasshouse was effectively the first factory in America. The Jamestown Glasshouse is located in Jamestown, Virginia, between Jamestown Island, the location of the first permanent English settlement in North America, and Jamestown Settlement. It is currently a part of the Colonial National Historical Park, and associated with Historic Jamestowne, and located near the Colonial Parkway. The original glasshouse was built soon after the first glassblowers, Germans Poles, arrived in Jamestown in 1608. A series of small furnaces were built in the area near the current exhibit. A small crew of glassblowers and laborers not only chopped down hardwood trees for fueling the furnace (sometimes requiring up to two weeks to achieve the 2,300 degrees needed to melt the basic ingredients), they also collected the ingredients, ash, sand, crushed oyster shells, and burned seaweed. Since so much time was required for preparation, it is estimated that actual glassblowing probably only occurred for five or six days a month. These early glassblowers were successful in that they were able to send a sample of their glassware home to England. However, their operations did not likely survive the "Starving Time", when the colonist population dropped from around 500 to 60. A second attempt was made around 1621, when four Italian glassblowers and two assistants attempted to revive operations. However, this attempt was not productive, due to a combination of factors, including bad weather, the Indian massacre of 1622, illness, and emigration. It is believed that the furnace was abandoned in 1624. The current glasshouse building and workshop was re-built in the 1970s. The furnace is much larger than the one of 1608, and uses natural gas for fuel; the glass used is made from a mix they purchase that is similar to that which was used at the time. Local artists blow glass there daily, as well as explain the art and history of glassblowing at Jamestown. The glass they make is available for purchase via Jamestown Glass, the gift shop, on site or online. Additional interpreters are available to answer questions. Condition: Very good.
Keywords: Jamestown, Virginia, Colonial Settlement, Glassblowing, Glassmaking, Powhatan, Glass Furnace, William Norton, George Sandys, Jesse Dimmick, Archaeology
[Book #81116]
Price: $35.00