# Lake Dunmore Salisbury Vermont Glass Factory items.



## Steve/sewell (May 10, 2011)

The first glass manufactory in Vermont was built on the shores of Lake Dunmore.The factory was conceived in 1812 and built during the summer of 1813.  The glass works were located near what is present day Sunset Lodge, 99 percent of the output of these works was window glass.However as is usually the case end of day whimsies were a somewhat common item at a lot of our early glass works and they were made at window glass factories also.These two items became available and I had to have them as no one including the pioneer glass historians really researched these works thoroughly. 

 Henry R. Schoolcraft was born in Albany county, N. Y., in 1793. He  settled into Salisbury in 1812  and assisted in the building and managing of the glass-works of the Vermont Company both in Salisbury and in Middlebury. While living at Lake Dunmore he erected a chemical furnace and experimental laboratory, and at the same time studied chemistry and mineralogy under Professor F. Hall, of Middlebury College. Foreign competition, the over-expansion with a plant in East Middlebury, and a bad fire at the Lake Dunmore facility caused glass production to come to a halt in 1817.  In 1832, the Lake Dunmore Glass Company was formed and glass making continued through 1842 when the factory went idle for the last time. 

  I was truly fortunate recently to be able to secure these two  very historical items. First I have added to my collection an original script money bill and secondly a small but very color full with out a doubt end of day glass hat from the Lake Dunmore glass works 1813 to 1817.In all of the hats in my collection which number over 25 now none of them have the color attributes of this piece.This hat has the following colors mixed into  various random areas.Dark Olive amber,light aqua,yellow olive  green,amber,cobalt blue yes cobalt blue that is not a misprint, deep purple,and orange amber.Someone gathered glass from various pots to achieve this effect.The piece is also free blown as no bottle mold was used.The predominant color is dark olive amber,but the other colors are there scattered through out.Both of these items were in a private collection in Mass. until recently. 

             A unique feature of the Vermont Glass Factory was the issue of its own money (script) in varying values from $1 to 5$.  These notes are rare and quite collectable.The signature of the President of the works Samuel Swift is hand signed on every bill denomination.On this particular bill the 1.50 version, Milo cook is listed as the Clerk and his signature is also on the bill.I cant make out the name of the recipient of the bill.If anyone else here at the forum has any of these bills would you please show them here as they are really quite amazing. 

 Bill Powers has the following web site and I plan to send him this information.  http://www.lakedunmorevt.com/history/default.htm  Hre are the pictures of each item.


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## Steve/sewell (May 10, 2011)

2.


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## Steve/sewell (May 10, 2011)

3.


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## Steve/sewell (May 10, 2011)

4.


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## Steve/sewell (May 10, 2011)

5.


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## Steve/sewell (May 10, 2011)

6.


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## Steve/sewell (May 10, 2011)

7.


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## Steve/sewell (May 10, 2011)

8.These are not reflections they are actual colors in the glass.This is a most amazing piece of glass!!


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## Steve/sewell (May 10, 2011)

9.


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## Steve/sewell (May 10, 2011)

The 1.50 script bill.


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## Steve/sewell (May 10, 2011)

2.


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## Steve/sewell (May 10, 2011)

3.The company clerk Milo Cook.


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## Steve/sewell (May 10, 2011)

4.June 1st 1814


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## Steve/sewell (May 10, 2011)

5.The signature of the President of the company Samuel Swift


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## Steve/sewell (May 10, 2011)

Can anyone here at this forum decipher this name circled in red.  Bill Powers wants to know he has compiled a nice historical list.
 Check out his web site.

http://www.lakedunmorevt.com/history/default.htm


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## cookie (May 13, 2011)

What a great post!  I 'm hoping to head up there in the next few months to see the lake. Your pictures and details about the factory are fabulous.


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## JustGlass (May 14, 2011)

Great finds from that old glass factory. I have seen a couple of them hats in aqua at antique shops here in Vermont that said they where from the Lake Dunmore Glass factory.  I don't know much about them or how to tell where they were made so I have always passed them up. Lake Dumore in Salisbury is a treasure in it's self. I spent many days of my life swimming , camping, sunday cookouts, boating, and fishing there. Beautiful lake that I would love to own a camp or house on when I retire.


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## saratogadriver (May 15, 2011)

Local VT lore growing up was always that they produced virtually nothing but aqua glass there, so I'm interested to hear that, possibly, they made products with colored glass.   At one time, virtually every aqua pontil bottle in VT for sale was alleged to be Dunmore glass.

 Are there verifiable, documented, Dunmore pieces?

 Jim G


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## earlyglass (May 15, 2011)

Steve,

 I really hate to rain on your parade, but the color is olive amber. I'm sorry, but I don't see cobalt or purple, etc.

 Further, Lake Dunsmore produced window glass (cylinder method). It was aqua and light blue green color. This is all well documented with local museums and historians. Besides window glass, some off-hand (aqua) pieces have been documented.  

 Mike


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## kungfufighter (May 15, 2011)

> ORIGINAL:  saratogadriver
> 
> Local VT lore growing up was  always that they produced virtually nothing but aqua glass there, so I'm  interested to hear that, possibly, they made products with colored  glass.   At one time, virtually every aqua pontil bottle in VT for sale  was alleged to be Dunmore glass.
> 
> ...


 
  Wait, you mean that every aqua bottle found in Vermont was not made at one of the nearby glass factories?  Heresy[]

  There is a black glass magnum at the Sheldon Museum that has a long  history of having been made in East Middlebury (the first of the  so-called Lake Dunmore Glass Houses) but I am of the VERY, VERY strong  belief that it is in fact an English made bottle of an earlier period.   (Hence my skepticism of many so-called "Granny notes.")  

  Documented pieces include a number of aqua laboratory type vessels made  for Middlebury College, several distinctively formed compotes with 19  ribs (one can be found in the Bennington Museum), several pattern molded  pans with the same 19 ribs (I own two), a wonderful footed bowl in the  Sheldon Museum and lots of greenish tinged window panes in early local  homes.  I also know of a complete window glass cylinder that was  recovered from the bottom of the Lake many years ago.  There are bunches of  other objects that very well could have been and/or likely were made  locally but I'd hesitate to make any definitive claims.

  Much of the confusion comes from longstanding mis-attributions (e.g. I  highly doubt that the paneled jelly jars were blown here) and the  publication of several books filled with supposition and hope rather  than solid evidence.  

  Colored glass in every shade of blue, green, amber, etc. can be found in  abundance in and around the site but it is the very strong sense of we  locals who care about such things that this was simply cullet and not  actually glass house output.  Any object I know of with strong local  attribution was blown in shades of aquamarine.

  I'll try to post some photos while watching it rain this week


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## Steve/sewell (May 15, 2011)

Mike, glad to hear from you again,I thought you would be checking in eventually,(you usually do when I post),thanks for the info.Just for the record the Glass factory on the lake was called the Vermont Glass Factory like you see on the 1.50 note,second it was located on the shore of lake Dunmore (not Dunsmore) there is no such place ......I know I have had many typos also.When you look at this hat from a short distance the predominant color is dark olive green.Holding it in direct light changes things up big time as there are many shades of colors in the glass and it is truly and end of day, bottom of (pots) plural made item. I have the piece in front of me and have no reason to lie about its color.As for the statement by Jeff (granny notes) I tend to believe them a lot more then disbelieve them as why would someone from a bygone era have any good reason really to make a false claim over a worthless piece of glass.Yes worthless (Remember only a hand full of us nuts in our hobby really give a rats a-s-s about this stuff anyway)The rest of the populace could care less and it very trivial and quite unimportant to them.If a granny or grandpa note appears or a story about an item is passed down through the ages,I believe them,because for them to take the time to state something about the glass or any object shows me they cared as much back then as we collectors do now.  

 First, like Jeff had stated a second factory was completed in 1813 in East Middlebury that did in fact produce window glass and bottles.Epaphras Jones, who had previously, in the name of the Vermont Glass Factory, erected a large establishment for manufacturing window glass, at Lake Dunmore, in Salisbury, as any good business man would he expanded his operations, in the year 1812 he built in the town of  East Middlebury 5 miles away,a large dome shaped brick building 60 feet in height for the manufacture of glass ware. 

 Secondly the following statement took  place in 1840.A bit of testimony regarding bottle making at East Middlebury is to be found in a semi centennial sermon that preached in December, 1840, by Dr. Thomas A. Merrill at the Middlebury Congregational Church of which he was the minister from December 19, 1805, to October 19, 1842. In describing various sections of the town, he designated East Middlebury as the "bottle factory district from the circumstances that it was the site of a spacious building erected in 1814 in which was manufactured various articles of glass and among the rest bottles.I spoke at length with two people one from the Sheldon museum and a patron,a nice elderly gentleman (one of those granny note guys) while I was in Burlington Vermont last week and both concurred bottles were a product at East Middlebury. 

 So the above two thoughts should be considered  fact and a statement by two men who should know that the East Middlebury branch of the Vermont Glass Factory was built, was actually operated, and that bottles were blown there. Some people not conversant with the locality have mistakenly thought that the glasshouse at Lake Dunmore and that at East Middlebury were one and the same. Actually, they are about five miles apart and were once connected by a direct highway now referred to as the Salisbury Plains Road. The warehouse site of the East Middlebury factory is now occupied by an Episcopal Church chapel, and when footings were being dug for its foundations a lots of glass fragments were unearthed. 
 Now why was I in Vermont last weekend? 
  My son Steve had an invitation to attend the Green Mountain Glades Ice hockey  camp this weekend.We were in Canada the previous two weeks and two Fridays past May 6th my Dads sister( My Aunt )  passed away.In talking to my cousins I knew we wouldn't be able to attend the camp held  today, yesterday and Friday because of the Funeral arangements.We left Kingston Ontario very early Saturday morning and stopped for a two hour evaluation at the Green Mountain Glades Ice hockey rink in Burlington.While there we made a day of it and stayed at a Double Tree hotel in Burlington.After my sons evaluation I visited the Sheldon Museum,a very Neat place.I recommend to anyone who travels through the area to make it a point to stop there.  

 When I purchase glass from various sources I lean towards the side of honesty on the sellers part.I also hold old timers with great esteem and respect, if they can tell me enough in great detail about any particular piece of glass from a collection they are selling and that I am contemplating purchasing then their word is as good as gold.Seems Mike I bought a green aqua hat from you three months ago and I took your word for it that it came from Keene because of one of those little old granny notes on the bottom of it said so..You your self said you saw no reason for it not to be from Keene.Granny notes and hearsay in regards to historical objects are just as good as our own modern day research,it is just another source and I tend to believe most of them for there is no good reason not tour hobby really is not important enough in the scheme of things to warrant unequivocal Glass DNA.Unfortunatley for we collectors only this gentleman ( J Victor Owen ) of Saint Mary's University 923 Robie Street Halifax, Nova Scotia, has perfected this technique and he has much larger fish to fry then prove where any one piece of glass in our United States came from on a daily or yearly basis. 

 I only post this info here at this forum for small  reasons,first and foremost never to mislead only to share information recently attained.I also post for healthy debate, enlightenment,enjoyment and historical relevance not for bragging rights or any other selfish  purpose.Glass attribution is not in the top ten list of 99.99999  percent of the American populace minds or sentiments or even in my own mind for that matter. .As for raining on my parade I didn't know there was one (a parade that is) in fact as I write this the sun has come out and I think I will go and cut my grass now which is two weeks tall for I have been a Canuck for the past two weeks.............Did you know our dollar is worth only 91 cents  against the Canadian dollar.That is a very important FACT we should all care about, not glass attribution.I found out the hard way over the last two week period while in Canada. Time to cut the grass as rain will be back in an hour or two. Ill post this when I am done................ GRASS IS CUT AND THEN IT RAINED LIKE LIKE HELL Jeff here is one of those (granny notes) on the bottom of the very nice end of day hat whimsey I purchased from Mike Earlyglass.It says its from Keene and the seller Mike is an  honest and respectable glass historian who said he had no doubt to not believe the attribution on the note.I believe he was correct in his assumption....Cant you guys just post some of your own collection and your knowledge rather then attack my posts a great deal of the time.Your both respected here it would serve the forum and its members a lot better this way.Steve


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## Steve/sewell (May 15, 2011)

Forgot the picture my bad.


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## earlyglass (May 16, 2011)

Steve, 

 There is no doubt that you do a considerable amount of research, especially when it comes to the glass factories, partners, dates, etc. I really enjoy reading much of this! You seem to have a large amount of ephemera, and I find it exciting when you are able to share an obscure article or important reference. These contributions are extremely enlightening to me! 

 That said, I am often confused by some of the glass posted. Instead of trying to prove that a piece is definatively from a specific source... offer your thoughts, and open up a dialogue. This (olive amber) hat for instance... it may have a slight irridescence, but to call it a multicolored object is a far reach. It could have been produced at a dozen glasshouses, however, a Vermont glass house would not have even been a consideration for me. As for the "Keene" example that I sold to you. I bought it with the "Keene Glass" note, and have no reason to doubt that... it is consistent with Keene window glass. That being said, it is also consistent with the Vermont glass as well. If you were trying to prove that it was from Middlebury or Lake Dunmore... I would have found that to be much more plausible than the olive amber hat. 

 I scan posts quickly, and write quickly (terrible Attention Disorder!)... I hope Jeff has a post that makes a little more sense.  

 Mike


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## earlyglass (May 16, 2011)

Steve, 

 I'm sorry to hear about your aunt. 

 If you are ever making a trek north through New England again, please feel free to give me a call. You are welcome to stop by. 

 Mike


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## kungfufighter (May 16, 2011)

> ORIGINAL:  kungfufighter
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
 I am sorry that you are feeling slighted Steve - that was certainly not my intent.  I do appreciate and look forward to your posts - there are times when we have to agree to disagree but that's simply the nature of honest discourse.

 My mention of "granny notes" was not meant to be pointed - I simply like to remind folks that the written word or spoken tradition is not always gospel.  I think we can all remember the game we played as children where a story begins at one end of a chain and how greatly it morphs as it reaches the chain's end.  I can't tell you how many pieces of Depression Glass I have appraised with stories of "it was my Great, Great, Great Grandmother's and she was given it during the Civil War" and/or pieces of obviously modern Mexican Glass with a great family history along with any number of other misleading bits of info that the story teller ABSOLUTELY believes to be true.  With that said, I LOVE reading the Granny notes/hearing family history and do at times find this info to be quite valuable but I like to think of it as only one piece of a broader puzzle.

 I wish I had known that you were in the area.  I live only a few miles form the Sheldon (Holly worked there for several years and we have spoken there on several occasions) and I would have welcomed a visit.


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## annie44 (May 16, 2011)

I have never known Mike or Jeff to "attack" any post on this forum.  In fact, they are incredibly gracious and diplomatic, and very generous in sharing their accumulated knowledge.  I, for one, would pay attention to what they are saying if they pointed out in a very nice way that I was wrong in a post.   I am glad when false attributions/identifications are pointed out so that I am not misled into believing information that has been proven wrong.


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## Steve/sewell (May 16, 2011)

Sorry I didnt mean to go off either,I have had a very stressfull three weeks now.The hat and the note came from a collection in Massachusetts,I was told the hat came from the Lake Dunmore glass works and the notes (I purchased one of them),came from originally a collection of early American script bills,the gentleman has a couple of more notes and a invoice from the later Dunmore works I am considering. I just dont have a lot of cash right now my kid is killin me financially.Annie I have the upmost respect for both Jeff and Mikes opionons and I know both are more learned then I will ever be in regards to New England Glass and New York glass it just seems sometimes they are waitin for me. Life is to short to get upset,my sincere apoligies to both gentlemen and anyone offended by my remarks.....................Now I worked in Millville New Jersey today now do you want to talk about glass works this city had them and still has one Wheaton Industries.I had lunch today at the marina where James Lee founded the first works there in 1806.From there we travelled to Bridgeton New Jersey for a job survey,Brigeton was home to twenty diferent glass works in a 40 year period from 1828 to 1870.There is a ton of glass history in Cumberland County and it is still laid back free from suburbia for the most part.


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## VTdigger (Jan 24, 2013)

I read about this place in the book American Glass by George and Helen McKearin I was wondering what kind of area it's located in, is it possible to look for slag glass and other such waste from the factory or is it posted/developed land? I was thinking of taking a trip there this summer to see if i can find any bits and peaces around.


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## JustGlass (Feb 9, 2013)

I have spent many days of my life camping, having cookouts, hiking and fishing along this lake and never did I know that at one time there was a glass factory located on the lakeside.  I have found some open pontil bases near the lakeshore while looking for arrowheads but Im not sure if they are related to the factory or from another dwelling. I have heard they were a maker of window glass. I have found thin lip pontil puff type pieces but nothing whole and a assortment of broken colored blackglass, olive, cobalt and amber pieces. I have also found many very old pieces of plates and pottery which makes me think that this has nothing to do with the factory. All seem to be in the pontil era. Im sure that there must be documents to pinpoint it's original spot but I have never seen it. My dream would be owning a house or camp on this lake when I retire.


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## JustGlass (Feb 9, 2013)

Here's a nice pic of the lake from rattlesnake lookout. Last time I was at this lookout I think I was 13 years old.


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## JustGlass (Feb 10, 2013)

Did some web searching and found a pic of Sunset Lodge. lt's located at 425 W Shore Rd. When I google earth it the pic showed the lodge on a very small parcel on edge of lake. Might get some better info about the glass factory from locals who live near there.  If you can't get permission to look the land for shards I bet you could look the water.


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## epgorge (Jun 26, 2013)

That appears to be a calligraphy "M". I believe it is a Mr. Sebra or Selra.

 Joel


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