Hankies & Heisey

About the time my grandmother, Hattie Griffith,  was making lace to decorate her hankies, construction on the Heisey factory began. It was 1895, the factory later opened in April 1896. They produced fine quality pressed glass. Below is an example of one of the patterns they made called Bead Swag.  Today we call this type of glass, milk glass, but early Heisey trade catalogs referred to it as opal glass.

The opalware glass pieces were bought from Heisey and decorated by The Oriental Glass Company. They decorated the opalware with three different designs. The water pitcher and tumbler set show the cornflower decoration. The butter dish, salt and pepper shakers and toothpick are decorated with the rose pattern. The cream pitcher and spoon holder are decorated with the daisy pattern. My husband's grandparents used this table set in their old farmhouse. If you would like to see more examples of table sets and pressed glass please go to the Reuzeit Emporium store to browse other great patterns.