Rose Amber Glass
Rose Amber Glass
The Mt. Washington Glass Company also produced a shaded glassware in every way similar to Locke's Amberina. Their ware with colors shading into each other was manufactured under the trade name "Rose Amber." While trade-mark papers were granted to Frederick S. Shirley on May 25, 1886, for Rose Amber, and Mr. Shirley stated that the name had been in continuous use by the New Bedford works since August 1, 1884, no patent papers covering the manufacturing process used to produce this parti-colored glassware are on file in the patent offices in Washington D.C. either in the name of the Mt. Washington Glass Company or any of the men connected with this firm at that time.
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The February, 1886, issues of the trade journals ran full-page notices of the injunction granted to the New England Glass Company in their suit against the Mt. Washington Glass Company for the infringement of their patent on "Amberina Glass." The Circuit Court of the United States, District of Massachusetts, handed down an opinion on February 17, 1886, enjoining the New Bedford firm from producing their Rose Amber wares. At no time thereafter was there any release from this injunction noted in any of the trade journals or newspapers. In the opinion of several patent attorney's, Locke could never have patented the method today.
The injunction of 1886 seems not to have prevented the Mt. Washington Glass Company from producing Rose Amber. The following account taken from the pages of the New Bedford Board of Trade Report of 1889 bears us out on this point. "Amberina, also known as rose amber, is a transparent combination of glass, which is shad from ruby to a very delicate amber tint.
Ruby glass receives its coloring from an oxide of gold, comes from the pot, it is amber in color. When manufacturing red glass articles are reheated and the red color is then developed. At the time it was the practice to reheat one end of a vessel and then reheat the other end. When the first end of the item was reheated the result was then commonly referred to as amberina. However, in its current condition it was considered as an unfinished product.
The amount of gold used in the glass is indicated by the fact that the residue at the bottom of the old pots. It is with this glass that is very carefully chipped off, with globules of gold inside valued at thirty to forty dollars and more as gold values increased.
"The success of amberina suggested to F.S. Shirley, the agent of the works, that an opaque shaded ware would be a novelty. The introduction of Burmese ware opened a new era in glass making and created a sensation at once."
Source: Nineteenth Century Glass - It's Genesis and Development
