Tiffin Glass

The History of Tiffin Glass Company:

In 1888 A.J. Beatty & Sons glass factory in Steubenville, OH relocated to Tiffin. Mr. Beatty worked closely with the Tiffin community to set up his new factory getting free gas for five years, free land, and a $35,000 stipend for making his move! This allowed him to create a glass factory with three furnaces that put out as many as 500,000 pieces of glass weekly.

When Mr. Beatty’s company merged with US Glass in 1892, they called the factory by a letter (United States Glass had factories all over the nation – this made it easier to track acquisitions). So Factory R kept running until it was burned down. The people of Tiffin were not to be deterred – they offered two more years of free glass if US Glass would rebuild.

Come the 1900s Factory R was running well and began to produce blown tableware. This was still under the US Glass name. It wasn’t until 1927 that Tiffin began being used as a designation for the household goods line. The basic gold label for which to look is a shield with a capital T and the word Tiffin inside the shield across the larger T.

Tiffin would become the home for the US Glass Companies offices in 1938. Two years later everything from Factory R bore the Tiffin label even though the company was still being called the United States Glass Company. During the 1940s this factory produced a variety of stemware and china, including what would become known as the Tiffin Modern line – designed with heavier materials and unique expressionism.

Tiffin began to have financial troubles in the 1950s. The firm had to sell its assets to another company, and eventually they went bankrupt in 1962. The factory finally closed in 1963. This actually proved to be a boon for some earlier employees who decided to buy the factory and call it Tiffin Art Glass Company. Three years later the company was re-sold and re-named Tiffin Glass Company. Throughout this time the factory continued focusing on blown and pressed stemware as its keynote item.

The factory changed hands several more times until it finally closed in the 1980s, the factory being torn down in 1985. Tiffin’s residence did not forget their beloved factory however. In 1998 they set up the Tiffin Glass Museum to preserve the tradition of craftsmen and artisans throughout the company’s history.

Tiffin did not manufacture any Depression Glass patterns. They did however make Elegant Glass during the Depression Era and beyond. Their Elegant Glass Patterns included:
Cadena
Cherokee Rose
Classic
Flanders
Fuchsia

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