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More On Sandwich Glass

There are a number of popular misconceptions about Sandwich glass. Sandwich glass was not, as some imagine, a rare or expensive product. On the contrary, it was mostly cheap, pressed glass, manufactured for mass sale.

However, the glassmakers who formed the backbone of the working force, in their spare time created some pieces that had esthetic, as well as antiquarian, value. The glassworks was not located at Sandwich because of an abundance of sand at nearby beaches. Local beach or other sand was never used to make Sandwich glass. Raw material was all imported, some of it from abroad. The glassworks was set up at Sandwich because of an abundance of cheap cordwood fuel for the furnaces available in the surrounding pitch pine and white pine woods.

A wage dispute caused the shut-down of the glass works. The owner warned that if the men allowed the furnace fires to go out, he would see they were never relit. The fires went out, and the owner lived up to his word.

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