Bust
Object number96.14.14
Designer
Fred A. Vuillement
Manufacturer
A.H. Heisey and Company
Retailer
Libbey Glass Company
Date1927
MediumGlass
Credit LineMuseum Purchase with funds from the Hillman Foundation Funds
DescriptionPressed frosted colorless glass bust of Michael Owens. Bust of a man's head and shoulders, dressed in suit and tie, hollow underside through shoulders. Relief lettering at base.Dimensions5.25 x 3 x 5.25 in. (13.3 x 7.6 x 13.3 cm)Markson base, "1859 M.J. OWENS 1923"
Label TextIn America’s glass capital, glassmakers had the wealth to purchase new technology. Even innovations created elsewhere were often first applied in Western Pennsylvania. When Michael Owens invented an automatic machine that blew lamp chimneys, it was Pittsburgh industrialists George Macbeth and Thomas Evans who each paid $300,000 in patent fees to use the machinery in their factories. Their 1899 purchase made them the largest producers of lamp chimneys and illuminating glassware in the world. Macbeth-Evans plants in Pittsburgh and Charleroi, Pa., and in Indiana and Ohio, turned out over 20 million chimneys a year.
Related person
Michael Owens
On View
On viewCollections
Unknown
