(11) Tiffin Franciscan Pattern Etched Cocktail Glasses. All matching and extravagant. 

Condition: Minor chips on a few pieces. 

Size: 5 1/2 x 3 in. 

The United States Glass Company was a trust formed by the combination of numerous glass companies. The seventeen factories were located from western Pennsylvania to Indiana, and the trust was founded on February 9th, 1891. After the companies combined two new plants were built, one an automatic facility in Gas City, Indiana and the other a hand-worked glass operation in Tiffin, Ohio, the site of the former A.J. Beatty & Sons Glass Factory that had first opened in 1888. The plants all received a letter designation, A through S, with T, U, and the designation GP (for Glassport, Pennsylvania) added in the next four years. The main office moved from the Ripley Glass Factory in Pittsburgh to Tiffin in 1938 to cope with several closures during the Great Depression, and over the next twenty years all the other factories closed until only the Tiffin and Glassport plant survived. The company went bankrupt in 1963, with the Tiffin plant reorganizing as the Tiffin Art Glass Company. Plans were drawn up to continue working with the Glassport plant, but it was closed in August of 1963 when a storm resulted in the factory’s water tower collapsing through the roof, cooling and hardening all the glass furnaces and causing irreparable damage. Tiffin produced quality glassware with delicate etchings, and were already well known for their use of color. They added a few of the styles of the other facilities, such as the kitchen and dinnerware in colored glass made at Gas City and the decorated lamps and crystal tableware from Pittsburgh. In 1966 the company was sold to the Continental Can Company and renamed the Tiffin Glass Company, Inc., with stemware their major focus until 1968 when they were bought once again, this time by Interpace. Interpace combined their style with the Franciscan line they already owned, as well as their Shenango China line. In 1979 the factory was sold for the final time to Towle Silversmiths, operating as a division of their portfolio called Tiffin Crystal for less than a year before being shuttered for good. The Outlet Store and a decorating shop remained open until 1984, and the space was completely demolished two years later. Today, a museum dedicated to the history of the glass facility sits on the grounds, and collectors seek out pieces from all the different eras of production, with some of their earliest gold-ringed stemware fetching good prices at auctions.

Minor chips on a few pieces.