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Near where medical offices now occupy Wayne Street in Marietta used to sit a glass manufacturing factory called Royal Glass, which became part of the National Glass Company.
However, that's not the only glassmaker Royal has a link to.
During a presentation on Thursday at The Castle, Fenton Art Glass historian James Measell, 75, of Marietta, will share information about Fenton and Royal, how they differed and the common bonds they held.
Question: Were these glass companies two completely different entities?
Answer: Yes, but they're linked. Royal Glass was founded in 1898 and it burned to the ground on Thanksgiving Day 1903. One of the people who was a manager there (Jacob Rosenthal) later assisted with getting Fenton started. He was with Fenton from 1906 until he passed away in 1932.
Q: What did he bring with him from Royal?
A: He knew how to do standard glass colors and knew how to do some unique colors but his most important contribution was helping with the design elements as the Fenton factory was being built. He's also credited with recruiting a number of glass workers to come to Fenton.
He was a really important figure for the beginning of the company. The Fenton brothers knew about decorative glass but they didn't know about glass manufacturing. They really needed someone with that knowledge.
Q: Would anyone be able to tell the difference between a Fenton product and a Royal product?
A: Every glass factory makes its own distinctive glass. Often they're marked. Royal pieces aren't marked at all. What's distinctive is the pattern.
Q: Is that pattern something people would recognize?
A: It's almost completely unknown. Royal is obscure. The Royal Glass company is under the radar for most glass collectors. I know some folks locally who have collected some pieces, though. I wrote an article about Royal in 1976 and said I was almost at a complete loss to know exactly what they made. That was the case until the early '90s when I found a catalog that has four pages devoted to Royal. So beginning in the early '90s I began to search for pieces locally, at antique shows, on ebay.
Q: How many pieces do you have?
A: My office has a couple of shelves that go around the wall and I have probably 200 pieces. For the presentation, I have those four catalog sheets blown up to about poster size, so it will be really easy to see them. I'll also have some pictures of the plant itself, some with the stack and one from the 1937 flood where you can see the old stack.
Q: Do they know what caused the fire?
A: There's been a lot of speculation about that because the National Glass Company was in deep financial trouble at that time. The newspaper account at that time says there was some sort of explosion of an engine in the middle of the night. At that time, firefighting apparatus was basic. It was very windy and very cold and the fire spread very quickly.
Q: Why is the company so obscure?
A: It was only around a very short period of time and they didn't make products that made a splash around the world. It wasn't a lot of exotic colorware. It was a pretty ordinary tableware factory.
Q: Do you find that local residents still remember the factory?
A: The stack didn't come down until the '40s so there are still people around who remember that. I tried to find people who lived in that area and found…Jack Malone who lived on Acme Street…he said he didn't think he had any photos but he looked through a family photo album. There was a photo with two boys and the stack in the background. I can imagine there were a lot of kids that played around there.
There was also a woman who remembered as a little girl digging up colored glass pieces there. She had a fishbowl full of the pieces.
Q: Are different people interested in Fenton versus Royal or is there a lot of overlap?
A: Fenton is a whole different collector culture. The people interested in Royal are the local people interested in an aspect of Marietta history or a particular color of glass. Jacob Rosenthal perfected a formula for this opaque brown called chocolate glass.
With Fenton, it was around for a long time and people could go to the factory and watch it being made. The industry changed from utilitarian to decorative and collectible. Fenton quickly evolved and that's why they stayed around as long as they did.
Q: Are you bringing any of your pieces to the presentation?
A: The Castle has a parlor to the right of the front door with a shelf where Royal glass is always on display. I'll be bringing some other things, too.
Q: Is there anything else really interesting about the companies that you'll be sharing?
A: One of the links was that they were both union factories. When Royal formed Local Union No. 40 they had a cloth banner made that said American Flint Glass workers and the seal and it said Marietta, Ohio and No. 40. Somebody hung on to it and it eventually made its way to Fenton. They put cloth patches over it to turn it from Marietta to Williamstown and from 40 to 42. I'm bringing that cloth to The Castle. It's raggedy but it's a great story.
Kate York conducted this interview.