# The Gloucester Glass Works Present day Clementon New Jersey.



## Steve/sewell (Feb 9, 2010)

The Gloucester glass works came into existence in the year 1804.
 These works were the fourth in the state of New Jersey behind the 
 first Wistarburgh 1739,the first Stangers in Glassboro 1775 and 
 the second Stangers works in Port Elizabeth.The works were owned by Samuel Clement
 of Haddonfield who has a town and a main road Clements bridge road named after him.
 The works were apparently designed by Thomas Stanger from the original Stanger brothers 
 of Glassboro who had more influence than any other entity,person or business in the developement
 of early glass works spread out over the entire early Eastern United States.Samuel chose his good 
 friend Jonathan Haines to run the Glass works.Haines would later have a hand in the early 
 important and very sucessfull glass works of Waterford, and Hammonton in Southern New jersey.  

 Richard Morcom of Wilmot Flat New Hampshire spent a great deal of time
 in the 1960s digging old glass works sites remains in southern New Jersey.
 One of the sites he spent a great amount of time at was the Gloucester
 glass works in Present day Clementon New Jersey.Through Mr. Morcoms diligent hard work
 and his passion for the hobby a great deal of knowledge was salvaged for future generations 
 of glass historians and collectors.

 The glass works exact location were always a mystery.Richard got a break
 in his detective work of locating the factory when a local historical buff John Fisher an 
 Electronics engineer by trade told him of how his children used to bring home
 bright chunks of glass they reffered to as jewelry.The glass chunks were found on a hill
 a few blocks away.This hill is on present day White Horse Ave. 
 This location is across the street from Clementon Park a family amusement park.
 The park was founded by the Gibbs family in 1905.Part of the Parking lot of the current day park
 were  where the glass storage sheds were located in 1815. 
 These works had become quite extensive as they had 21 pot furnace's.
 Mr. Fisher knew these chunks were glass house slag but was not awhere of any glass
 factory being located in Clementon.He then was able to locate decendants of a glass blower
 who had worked at the Batsto and Atco window light factories who was able to confirm the
 exact location of the glass works on a hill near the intersection of White Horse Ave. and Berlin Road.
 Mr fisher was an artist in his private life and drew the town based on conversations he had with the 
 glass blower.I will show you his drawing of the village later in this post.

 The site excavated was 40 x 150 feet.This small area yeilded over 300 large shards of glass
 and thousands of smaller ones.This proved beyond a doubt that this was the site of the Glass works.
 Clay pots, moils ,furnace covers, ash ,lime,soda and other glass ingredients were also found 
 in a small portion of the hill.Furnace covers of the exact same type were recoverd from Fredrick Amelungs
 glass works during archaelogical digs by the Corning musuem a few years later.

 Because of his tireless work at the site he was able to tell exactly what were
 the types of glass and bottles made at the factory.What surprised Richard 
 the most were the Pitkin type swirled half post method types of  glass he found 
 in abundance along with moils of the same deep green colored glass in the year 1968.
 Other colors found were light amber deep amber,aqua and clear.
 He also found base remnants of Decanturs unscathed meaning they were a product
 of the glass house and not cullet for the glass batch.

 The presence of moils also indicates the glass was not merely cullet but a 
 product of the factory.This was big news in the bottle world as previous thought
 was that Pitkins were a New England product only.Actually the Pitkin type flask
 had it's beginnings in Europe in the low country of present day Germany. 

 It would only seem natural that the early Palintine glass workers in Southern New jersey
 Pennsylvania,and New England would imitate the style of their lineal heritage.
 I beleive that the Pitkin type half post method was introduced in all the colonial
 glass works in the early mid and late 1700s.

 This factory was also known for having many sleigh parties when people from far away
 would get into a sleigh and visit the warm glass house's and purchase uncommon glassware.
 Mr. Morcom found piece's of glass canes,sugar bowls,wine glass stems and other expensive
 in the day glass items.Also found was flint glass in large amounts indicating the making of tablware.
 This factory seemed to have made every type of conceivable glassware imaginable.

 Richard Morcom had read that Dr. Dyott of Philadelphia had purchased the entire out puts 
 of the Olive Glass works in present day Glassboro the Union Glass works in Port Elizabeth
 and the Gloucester works in Clementon. Dyott was offering all types of bottles for sale.
 The works survived until the year 1822 when they were put op for sale.

 The Gloucester works main products were bottles and lots of them.Tulingtons,Dalbys,
 Godfreys,Essence Of Peppermint,Cologne,Capers,Mustards,vials,all of the popular bottles
 of the day were made here.I beleive that through my own historical work the Dyott
 Franklin Flasks long being attributed to the Kennsington glass works were actually a 
 product of either the Gloucester or Olive Glass works.The color of the glass,the lack of 
 embossing and the crudeness of the flask tell me these were some of the first historical flasks 
 made in this country I beleive as early as 1810.Dyott by purchasing the entire out puts of each 
 factory would have acess to the molds which he changed and added inscription to.Thus
 the Franklin Dyott quart and pint flasks with the Latin slogans and the inscription of the 
 Kennsington glass works were added to the flasks not removed as there is no evidence of slug plates
 on the plain GI-95 and GI-97 New Jersey versions. The Kennsington versions of the flasks which in their more
 common color of sivery aqua are easily destinguisable once you have seen and held them in
 person.

 Most of the historical facts listed here in my own words,came from various sources such as original
 newpapers from the day,the web site Oldsouthjerseyglass.com(hank Flowers)A book  The glass Gaffers 
 of New jersey and their creations 1739 to the present  by Adeline Pepper.The Gloucester county historical society, 
 and my own research of the site which I visted in person last year.There was no glass to be found but the view
  from the hill told why it was a perfect spot to have a glass works.Plenty of timber,an abundance of
 Jersey sand,the lakes surrounding the site for eay transportation to the Philadelphia market

 I have here bottles that have come from early New Jersey collections that have solid attribution
 to the Gloucester works.One of these is a Pitkin flask of a beautifull colored deep Jersey emerald green.
 This bottle was passed down through the Clement family from whom the town was eventually named. 
 I purchased the bottle from a woman who was 95 years old in 2007.The bottle was her mothers 
 and before that her mothers father and before that her great and great great granfathers.
 I really like this bottle as it means a lot to me knowing I have preserved a rather important
 and historically significant piece of glass history in our early United States.
 I will post more pictures of glass at a later date as I have aquired a rather bad cold or flu bug 
 and I am not feeling to sporty right now.The first picture is an aerial photo of Clementon New Jersey
 centered at The Clementon Amusement water Park.Other notable area attractions are Al Capones summer home,
 and the world famous Pine valley golf course the number 1 ranked golf course in the world.


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## Steve/sewell (Feb 9, 2010)

Now for my Samuel Clement family Pitkin type flask it is a beauty.


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## Steve/sewell (Feb 9, 2010)

Another picture showing the half post regathered of glass collar at the neck.Simply speaking
 regathering adds a second coating of glass over the initial gather.It almost looks like half post blown 
 bottles are wearing tee shirts.


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## Steve/sewell (Feb 9, 2010)

The bottle with a snow bank back drop.


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## Steve/sewell (Feb 9, 2010)

Not a great picture but the pontil mark.


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## Steve/sewell (Feb 9, 2010)

Here is the drawing done by John Fisher based on a fact gathering mission and some historical records from the 
 Gloucester county historical society.You need to take the present day aerial photo I showed earlier and point noth
 to south as you can see Johns drawing has the north arrow at the bottom middle of his picture.
 Basically my picture is upside down to his drawing.


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## earlyglass (Feb 9, 2010)

Great information Steve, and I love that Pitkin. If you ever need to sell it, please keep me in mind. 

 Only one correction... it was Richmond Morcom. 

 I have quite a few Clementon shards, including a couple of pitkin pieces. I will try to take some pictures tomorrow. 

 Mike


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## Steve/sewell (Feb 9, 2010)

Thanks Mike unfortunatley I cant edit my typo any more thanks for pointing it out though and look forward to your pictures.
 I have a few more bottles I'll be posting tommorrow also as it looks like I will be snowed in again.


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## earlyglass (Feb 9, 2010)

Steve, 

 You really have some great information here. It seems like there may be some opportunity to "investigate" where Mr. Morcom left off? I wonder if Clementon Lake holds any secrets?? 

 Mike


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## southern Maine diver (Feb 10, 2010)

Hey Mike...

 You must have been reading my mind.. maybe a "road trip" is in order...[]

 Wayne


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## sweetrelease (Feb 10, 2010)

is that flask sitting in the snow??? thats ballsy lol. nice info steve.~matt


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## Steve/sewell (Feb 10, 2010)

Yes Matt the flask was in the snow for about 20 seconds.


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## Jimd18 (Oct 20, 2017)

I have found a bottle with Gloucester bott wks Gloucester NJ on it could this possibly be from this glass works? I researched Gloucester bottle works nj and this was the closest possiblity and from the same general area. Looking to find out more info about it and possibly search for more.


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## nhpharm (Oct 20, 2017)

Wrong timeframe for sure...your bottle is from the early 1900's based on what I know of the bottles from that bottling works.  The glasshouse was around in the early 1800's.  If you share a photo we can probably tell you more or you might try posting on the NJ bottle forum.


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