Houston Museum welcomes glass expert Anne Madarasz for their Antiques Show & Sale
Most people don’t think about American history when they think about glass, but the featured speaker at the 2017 Houston Museum’s Antiques Show & Sale says that glass production made Pittsburgh the national center of the glass industry, as well as one of the nation’s first gateways to the West. And those westward travelers transported Pittsburgh glass—both industrial and art forms—as they made their trek across the country.
“In fact, at one time, Pennsylvania produced more than 40 percent of the entire nation’s glass supply, with the first two factories opening in 1797,” says Anne Madarasz, director of the curatorial division and chief historian and director of the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum at the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, Penn. “With more than 200 years of production in the region, it’s very easy to see the interplay between the glass objects and the larger context of history.”
Visitors have an opportunity to meet Madarasz at the Houston Museum’s most popular fundraiser this weekend at Stratton Hall. Both professional and novice antiques collectors from all over the region flock to Chattanooga each February to shop at and hear from glass experts.
“Pennsylvania was the hotspot for first adapting coal and natural gas for fuel, leading to the innovation in manufacturing, design and marketing of glass,” says Amy Autenreith, Houston Museum executive director. “You also see the development of pressing of glass on a mass consumer scale in the 1830s and 40s that really changed the customer for glass in America that lead to its ubiquity.”
She also will conduct limited periods of glass identification for attendees who bring pieces with them to the show and sell.
Unlike pottery and silver, glass is a challenge to identify because it is rarely marked, says Madarasz. “Learning about glass is like learning a new language; It takes hard work to be fluent. I look for clues into how each piece is made—its color and design help me research it to find out who made it and when.”
There are several ways to create glass: Handmade blown glass, pressed glass (which is the first machine technology) and automated machine-made glass.
“Some of the extraordinary blown and cut art pieces in the Houston’s collection have inspired pattern glass for a mass market,” Madarasz explains. “The collection is impressive. I’m looking forward to seeing it for myself and learning from it.”
The lecture draws in many visitors, Autenreith said, but most attendees come to the show and sale to shop at the dozens of richly adorned booths from some of the country’s top antiques dealers and specialists. Attendees will find everything from pottery to furniture, books and maps, china and silver, linens, blown glass and many other artistic creations.
Tindell’s Restoration also will be on hand at this year’s show. The Nashville-area team will perform repairs to glass and ceramics onsite and also take items back to their offices to work on them there. Glass and ceramics are only a portion of what they repair; they also repair metal, sculptures and paintings.
For lecture times and more information about the Antiques Show & Sale, please visit thehoustonmuseum.org