Ask Indiana Glass

Indiana Glass made 200,000 pieces of glass a DAY! 75 million pieces a YEAR!

Indiana Glass work shifts: 8-4, 4-midnight, midnight-8. They worked 5 days rotating each shift every week. So 1 week days, 1 weeks eves, and 1 week mids... repeat

Tiara Exclusives offered tours of the Indiana Glass factory to the high selling consultants 

Indiana Glass had a room they called "The Morgue."  Dead products went there, also products that never went into full production.

Indiana Glass Company had a Factory Outlet Store in Dunkirk, Indiana.  Located on Main Street in Dunkirk, Indiana.

 
The Outlet Store sold Factory Seconds, and other oddities that make great collector items today.  

(Section removed) 

It has come to my attention that some of the information I had about the Indiana Glass Hands Shop, Greenwich Flint Craft ,and the names and dates involved, was incorrect.  So this section is removed now until further notice.

Sapulpa, OK (Bartlett Collins) was part of Lancaster Colony from 1982 to June 2008.  They made “Indiana Glass” during those years.

Sapulpa and Dunkirk did not make each others' wares.  Sapulpa had different kinds of machines, the glass they made was thinner.

All of the contemporary Oil Lamps were made in OK.

In the Catalogs F.O.B. Sapulpa meant it was made at the Bartlett Collins factory.  F.O.B. Dunkirk meant it was made at the Indiana Glass factory.

F.O.B. means Freight on Board.  It was where the shipment came from if you ordered from the company.  (And also today helps clue collectors and researchers in on what was made where)

Prior to the 1960s, Indiana Glass used Line Numbers.. i.e. Line 300 (Constellation Pattern), Line 301 (Garland Pattern), etc.

After the 1960s, Indiana Glass started using individual item numbers for each product.  For example #7155 Milk Glass Hen on Nest, #2245 Olive Green Mt. Vernon 3-Piece Chip & Dip Set, etc.

The individual item numbers were called IBM Numbers internally, and some of the earlier boxes even say "IBM XXXX" on the box.

IBM stood for International Business Machines (Yes, THAT IBM) and they were the maker of the computer system that Indiana Glass used.

The IBM Number was associated to the computer design for that product.

Why did Item Numbers change?  It could indicate a change in the mold, but also could have just been that the packaging changed.

Indiana Glass frosted their glass by placing it on large metal baskets, and dipping them in a big vat of acid.  The acid causes a chemical reaction that leaches the alkalies out of the glass.  This leaves the surface of the glass granulated, and that granulation causes glass to diffuse and reflect light, making it appear opaque to our eyes.  This overall process is called "etching" in the industry, and frosted glass made this way is called "etched glass."

Indiana Glass made their "Iridescent Carnival Glass" products by firing metallic compounds into the surface of the glass.  This creates a permanently iridescent finish that can't be scrubbed off or removed.  The metallic compounds they used were salt solutions (iron chloride) and the glass workers called it "salting" the glass.

Any product Indiana Glass made that was etched, salted, or stained; also made it out of the factory without those finishes, though they may not have appeared in a catalog.

Amber Colored Sandwich glass made for Tiara Exclusives was the #1 product made at Indiana Glass in terms of sales.

Diamond Point (in general) was also a top seller at Indiana Glass and was the company's flagship product line for many years.

Hen on Nest covered dishes which are highly collectible today were ironically very insignificant to Indiana Glass.  They were dirt cheap to make, and sold very cheap.  They would use surplus Hens to fill an order in case a pallet dropped, or to save cost on shipping.  In that sense they practically gave the hens away for free to retailers!

The Indiana Glass Plum and Yellow Crown (often called "King's Crown" by collectors) was not made at Dunkirk, Indiana.  It was made at Lancaster and sold by Indiana Glass, in the 1960s.  This is why the stemware pieces in those specific colors do not have the same flared rims.

The Bronze Kettle (from Miniatures line) was actually olive green glass with black paint over it!

Indiana Glass made Sunset, Horizon Blue, and Lime Green sandwich glass for Montogmery Ward in 1972.  They used the Duncan & Miller molds that Lancaster Colony bought in the 1960s for this line, and not the usual pattern #170 Indiana Glass Sandwich molds.

The color of the Amber glass Indiana made was all over the place, ranging from a light honey-like amber color, all the way to deep beer bottle amber.

The sand Indiana used was inconsistent, and you had to use different additives in the batch to make the color come out the same.

They had a formula for every color they made, but if the silica (sand) was inconsistent you had to add more additives to make the color come out the same.

It all had to be done by eye, and the glass did not look the same color molten as it did when it cooled, so you had to have a good eye for it.

[The guy who mixed the amber glass] did not have a good eye for it.

On the older glass baskets Indiana made, is a pattern of five dots where the handle joins the basket

On newer pieces, instead of the five dots, you will see initials of the Handler (finisher) who attached the handle.

The reason for this change:  they were getting bad handles made, so they switched to the initials to see who was producing the bad craftsmanship.  Needless to say bad ones stopped for the most part after that.

Here's the known initials:

Darrell Templeton (DT)

Ed Templeton (ET)

Jim Dunlavy (JD)

John Thompson (JT)

Mike Robinson (MR)

Benton McCowan (BM)

Jim Clay (JC)

Paul White (PW)

Marlene Baker (MB)

Tom Walker (TW)

Milford Davis (MD)

David Bales (DB)

Sam Cooper (SC)

Tom Jones (TJ)

Rick Jones (RJ)