Hughes Corn Flower

I just saw this on the Wayback Times web site:

Crazy for Corn Flower
by Walter Lemiski M.A.
walt@waltztime.com

If you’ve been out at auctions lately, or at one of the four annual Canadian Depression Glass Shows then you know that folks are still just crazy for Corn Flower! The beautifully cut crystal pieces sell very well and the scarce pre-War coloured items are literally jumping off display tables. It seems somewhat incredible in the first place that a company could not only stay in business, but thrive in business for seventy-five years. For three quarters of a century the W.J. Hughes Company did just that.

That certain 12-petalled floral cut that the young Hughes developed way back in 1912 was to have a very long lasting indeed. The Hughes Corn Flower pattern is distinctive with its petalled flower, grid like interior and elegant sweeping stems. Thanks to the tremendous efforts of the curator of the Dufferin County Museum and Archives, Wayne Townsend, in publishing the first-ever book on this splendid glassware “Corn Flower Creatively Canadian”, so much more is now known about both the Hughes business and family.

One would be well advised not to call any jottings about Corn Flower glass definitive. Although there is much known about the last forty years of the company, much is still shrouded in mystery about the first thirty-five years. We do know that prior to World War II the lion’s share of glass was ordered from the United States. The companies included were New Martinsville, Louie, Fostoria, Imperial, Duncan and Miller, Indiana, Jeannette, West Virginia Glass Specialty, and Tiffin Glass Companies. It is only within past several months that we have found more information about the Duncan and Miller company’s association with Corn Flower, and for the first time there has been uncovered some documentation about purchases from the Jeannette Glass Company.

The Duncan-Miller Glass Company had a very long and successful run. Initially it was formed in 1865, production began in earnest in the 1870′s in Pittsburgh as George Duncan & Sons. The firm joined with the grouping of companies that was known as the United States Glass Company, the firm out of which later in the 1920′s the Tiffin Glass factory emerged as its flagship. In 1892, the factory was destroyed by fire. At that point the owners left the glass combine and opened a new factory in Washington, Pennsylvania. By the turn of the century it became known as the Duncan-Miller Glass Company (named for its principals Harry Duncan, James Duncan and John Miller).

Amongst their major lines were Canterbury, Sandwich, Hobnail and Teardrop. The company was known for its use of colour — green and Rose (pink), cobalt blue, light blue, black and ruby. Duncan-Miller fits in with the group of glass companies that are referred to by collectors and researchers as Elegant Glass producers. The quality of their materials and their care in craftsmanship place them firmly in this category. The most readily recognized Duncan-Miller items cut by the Hughes Corn Flower Company are the Pall Mall No.30 pattern swans. “Pall Mall, by Duncan, has that deep, clear, flawless beauty, which is essential to the plain simple designs of the ‘modern’ style. As such, it lends itself to a myriad of new uses–for home decoration, for the table, for flowers.” — excerpt from a Duncan catalogue (c.1945). The only definitively identified pre-WWII Duncan-Miller blank used for the Corn Flower cut previously identified had been the Three Feather pattern, pattern number 117, designed by their premier designer Robert A. May. A green console set (c.1935), consisting of a pair of candlesticks and a flower bowl, were appraised by this author in a collection in the spring of 2001. In the mid-1950′s the U.S. Glass Company bought out Duncan-Miller. The moulds were used at their Glassport, Pennsylvania factory (one of the Tiffin factories). The Fenton Art Glass Company acquired some of the Duncan moulds in the 1960′s.

The Jeannette Glass Company began production in 1898. In its early days they made such items as “vault lights, prism tile, packers’ ware, and novelties”. In 1927-28 brand-spanking new machinery was installed, an automatic glassmaking system that could mass-produce some 50 tons of glass daily with two continuous tanks. It was at this juncture that the Jeannette Company veered away from so-called hand finished glassware. Unlike the other nine identified firms that Hughes purchased from through the 1920′s and 1930′s who were all Elegant Glass companies producing hand glass, Jeannette is known as one of the major players in Depression Glass, that lower cost, lower quality massed produced glassware that became possible in the mid-1920′s due to revolutionary new technologies. Amongst other innovations, the Jeannette Glass Company suggested that they may very well have been the first company to produce pink and green glassware automatically in a continuous tank.

The Jeannette line #5186 items indicated in the Corn Flower invoices listed from 1927 are amber, crystal, green and topaz (yellow) bowls and bases. The bowl is bell-shaped and the base is black glass. One suspects that only the bowls would have been adorned with the Corn Flower cut. Several years ago a couple of sherbet plates and salad plates in a green Hex Optic, rather badly scratched, were located by this author. From the February 20, 1928 issue of the “China, Glass and Lamps” trade paper we have the following notice that may well have intrigued W.J. Hughes: “Another item of general interest was the machine made salad plate. There were three designs shown including one plain salad plate for use in the decorating trade. Being automatically made these plates are uniform and can be stacked to a height of six feet of more if necessary. This is a great advantage to the decorating trade and also to the department store buyers, because lack of space in various glass departments make it necessary to stack plates and if they are not uniform it not only takes more room but also shows the irregularity of the plate as soon as the customer sees the stack.”

Theories about Hughes only purchasing fine quality elegant glassware appear incorrect. However, very little of this Jeannnette glassware has emerged to date leading one to suspect that their association with Corn Flower may well have been a very short-lived one. Certainly the crystal clear, fine quality that one expects to see in the wares that Hughes generally cut on is not to be found in Jeannette glassware of this era. Who knows what other new exciting information may appear about the early years of W.J. Hughes glassware in the future! Stay tuned as we continue to be crazy for Corn Flower!
Corn Flower fans will have two excellent opportunities to view some of this much loved glassware over the next two months — at the Toronto Depression Glass Show and at the Dufferin County Museum’s Corn Flower Festival. We hope to see you there!

For information call: (905) 846-2835
Dufferin County Museum’s Corn Flower Festival

Special Corn Flower Attractions:
Identification sessions, Hughes family stories, Corn Flower history, Glass talks, Special archival exhibits, Tour of the collections, Glass consignment sale.

The current exhibition of Corn Flower celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Hughes’ Corn Flower design is displayed with artifacts and archival material related to both traditional and modern anniversary gifts. It runs from February through August.

Dufferin County Museum is located at the junction of Highway 89 and Airport Road Admission: $5
For further information call: 1-877-941-7787
Email: collectionsmanager@dufferinmuseum.com

Corn Flower Collectors Club
The Dufferin County Museum & Archives, the home of W.J. Hughes Corn Flower, has formed a national W.J. Hughes Corn Flower Collectors Club. Annual membership or $25 (or two-year membership of $45) supports ongoing DCMA research into the company’s history, product identification, and authentification. Members receive three colour newsletter per year; the Corn Flower Chronicle, which includes identification, classifieds, collecting hints, Hughes family and business history, photographs, and Corn Flower appraisals. The annual meeting will be held each year at the DCMA’s annual Corn Flower Festival, this year held on Sunday, June 9th.

Walt and Kim Lemiski run Waltz Time Antiques – specializing in vintage glassware. They also promote the Toronto Depression Glass Show & Sale. Walt is the Director of the Canadian Depression Glass Association. Since 1976 the CDGA has produced a newsletter, the Canadian Depression Glass Review, providing information about Depression Glass and related topics of interest to fellow “Preservationists of Depression Era Glassware”. Memberships are $17 for one year/$45 for three years. Any inquiries may be directed to Walt Lemiski by…
Phone: (905) 846-2835
Email: walt@waltztime.com

CDGA
P.O. Box 41564
HLRPO, 230 Sandalwood Pkwy.
Brampton, ON L6Z 4R1

By Walter Lemiski M.A.

The founder of the W.J. Hughes Corn Flower Company, William John Hughes, was born in Dufferin County, Ontario in the early 1880′s. As a young man he was employed by Roden Brothers silversmiths of Toronto in the 1890′s. Fortunately for him and for glass collectors, when that firm expanded their lines to include cut lead glass Hughes was asked to learn the art of cutting. Starting in 1912, he began to experiment at his home with his own original “grey” cut glass patterns (shallower cuts on lighter glass). In 1914, Hughes left Roden Brothers to devote himself full time to producing and selling Corn Flower glass.

The Hughes Corn Flower pattern is distinctive with its petalled flower, grid like interior and elegant sweeping stems. Care was taken to maintain the integrity of the pattern throughout the three quarters of a century of production life. The hand-cutting of Corn Flower was done in a five step process:

Five Steps of Corn Flower Cutting

1. “Spotting” – marking out the positioning of the flowers with dash-like cuts
2. “Six-siding” and “stemming” – the interior grid-like design of authentic Corn Flower forms hexagonal patterns; graceful arching stems also were cut in this stage
3. “Leafing” – distinctive leaves formed with a pair of elongated semi-circles that end in a point
4. “Petalling” – a series of shallow cuts usually forming twelve petals, however this number did vary when space was restricted on smaller surfaces. On items with very little room a Corn Flower bud design was used
5. “Fringing” or “nicking” – the tips of the petals were decorated with a series of small cut lines

Identification of the glass blanks that the Hughes Corn Flower Company used proves to be no mean feat since their glass was imported from many different firms over the years. Prior to World War II the lion’s share of glass was ordered from the United States. The companies included were Cambridge, New Martinsville, Louie, Fostoria, Imperial, Duncan and Miller, Indiana, West Virginia Glass Specialty, and Mid-Atlantic Glass Companies. With the onset of WWII American glass became more difficult for the Hughes Corn Flower Company to import. Even after the war, in the mid-1940′s, glass manufacturers in the States could not keep up with the rebound in domestic demand, let alone supply the Canadian market. The Hughes’ were forced to look elsewhere and therefore turned to Europe to take up the slack for mouth-blown glassware. European glass was imported from Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Rumania, and Sweden. Importing from Europe also was not without its challenges. Quality, quantity and timely delivery were all matters of concern for the Hughes Corn Flower Company.

The most constant source of glass blanks for Corn Flower over the years was the Imperial Glass Company, established in 1901, in Bellaire, Ohio. Imperial’s Line #400, best known as Candlewick, was a favourite medium for the Hughes Corn Flower cut. Introduced in 1936, this line flourished until the closure of the Imperial Glass Company in 1986. Three main reasons exist for the long working relationship that Corn Flower enjoyed with Imperial. First of all, the quality of Candlewick in its consistency and clarity made it excellent for cutting. Secondly, the number of items in this huge line of blanks, numbering some three hundred in all over the years, gave a fine selection of pieces with ample smooth surface area for working. Lastly the Candlewick line was in production for an astoundingly long period of time, fifty years. Ed Kleiner, the Imperial Glass Company’s sales representative for Canada through to the mid-1950′s, stated that only once in his career did he receive an order for an entire boxcar-load of Candlewick – that order was shipped to Hughes Corn Flower Limited.

The business had started on a rather small scale. Indeed for most of the first thirty-some years the production of Corn Flower was done from the basement of the family’s home. W.J. Hughes would receive barrel shipment of glass, cut the glass, and then go on the road to sell and deliver the product to various outlets. The retailers of Corn Flower included china and gift shops, jewellers and major department stores such as Eatons and Simpsons. Customers could also visit the showroom at the house to purchase available items. Through the thirties and most of the forties Hughes Corn Flower kept a handful of cutters busy producing their trademark glassware. In 1945, Phillip “Pete” Kayser, W.J. Hughes’ son-in-law, started to work part-time for the firm [he had married W.J.'s daughter Lois]. By 1951, it was Pete who was running the business. The company’s growth from that time on was astounding. By the early fifties, sixteen cutters were on staff at the Kenwood Avenue factory.

At the height of the Hughes Corn Flower Company’s production there were no fewer than thirty cutters, and in all some eighty staff, employed at the company’s Tycos Drive plant.

Thousands upon thousands of households right across Canada have cherished Corn Flower for generations. Many are the stories of Canadians who remember saving to buy pieces of this lovely glassware, being given Corn Flower as a present on special occasions, or having had it handed down to them as a family heirloom. The longevity of this beautiful glassware, in production for three quarters of a century from 1912 to 1988, in itself serves as a tribute to the Hughes Corn Flower Company. W.J. Hughes Corn Flower is indeed a truly amazing Canadian success story.

Walter Lemiski is the Director of the Canadian Depression Glass Association. Since 1976 the CDGA has produced a newsletter, the Canadian Depression Glass Review, providing information about Depression Glass and related topics of interest to fellow “Preservationists of the Depression Glass Era Glassware”. Memberships are $15 for one year/$40 for three years. Any inquiries may be forwarded to Walter Lemiski by phone at (905) 846 – 2835 or by email at walt@waltztime.com