Mary Gregory Primer, The Real Story

The "Legend", the Known "Facts", and the "Truth"(?)... As gathered by Jim Hill of Collectables Unlimited, Danville, Pa.

While most everyone "loves" a good story, it is rare for that story to be surrounded by so much intrigue, seemingly willful misdirection and apparent blatant disregard of chronological events. This yarn is not represented to be absolute but is provided to enlighten and, hopefully, spark some additional investigation into how a method of decorating came to be known as "Mary Gregory". And, genuine Mary Gregory is claimed to be of the mid to late nineteenth century in origin by many (mostly in the sales field). We will begin with the basics. Where was it developed, when, by whom and what constitutes the accepted notion of what it is. This last question, of course, is open to everyone's belief perhaps gleaned from information provided by sales oriented, story weaving concessionaires at antique shops, auctions, flea markets etc. So, let us establish what it is that has become universally known as "Mary Gregory Glass".

Here is the first "rub"! What is hyped to be the "original" Mary Gregory glass is dated to the last half of the 1800's or even earlier. That prized glass was claimed to be made well before there was a Mary Gregory so it literally cannot be called Mary Gregory at all!. The "romantic" notion to the story provides that a glass decorator, employed in the closing years of the nineteenth century, developed a decorating style of applying thick, three dimensional white frit enamel to glass. Further, her subjects were exclusively children at play and always painted in profile. Boy...does that narrow the window for identification.

Now for a few "facts". Was there a real Mary Gregory? Absolutely! Did she work as a decorator for a glass company? Absolutely! Where and when? A decorator named Mary Gregory worked for the Boston & Sandwich Glass Company at their Sandwich, Cape Cod plant in the late 1880's She was a spinster who had a love for children and it is claimed, admired paintings of children done only in white paint over a colored background. (I know not where that last little bit of information originated). What is known and documented by plant records and just plain intense investigation of the glass shards embedded in the plants "dump heap" disclose these facts. The Boston and Sandwich Glass Company never produced a line of glass done in this decorating treatment and featuring children (or any other subject). No records or even glass shards were found to support such a phantom line. Mary did love children but no painting on glass or any other medium remains that could lend any support to the legend. Mary died just after the turn of the century and her Cape Cod  grave is marked.

Some background information is offered on the origins of the White Enameled decorating of glass. In a region known as Bohemia in what is now the Czech Republic and beginning in the early to mid 1800's. An enterprising family group of artisans developed the then unique method of painting on glass using only white enamel but in a wide variety of designs. This close knit group passed this exacting decorating treatment down through the generations. It became known as "Quarkman" (white people) style of decorating. Strangely, this treatment did not get adopted by other glass makers due, perhaps, to the fact that it was so exacting and time consuming and the glass industry was adopting more efficient techniques as the Industrial Revolution picked up speed. Subjects ranged from people to scenery and most anything in between.

Eventually, other glass makers did get involved with wider acceptance of this style and soon other countries offered their versions. It made its way across the ocean and (it is assumed) was imitated by additional glass artisans.

The name "Mary Gregory" did not surface until the mid to late 1920's. Who originated this "stroke of merchandising genius" has not been preserved. Unofficially, Westmoreland is acknowledged as its probable source for they seem to be the first to offer "Quarkman" styled glass but using the Mary Gregory name to describe its distinctive style of decorating. However, a new "twist" was added in that the subjects featured were children engaged in typical activities in dress of the day and most often done in profile.

Of course many, if not all, of those that may have offered "Mary Gregory" styled glass have since ceased operation resulting in a considerable product hiatus until Fenton re-introduced this styled glass in 1991. A full background story of their development can be found in the book "Fenton, the 90's decade" on page 191.

The final "rub" is everyone, including the present glass artisans of Bohemia, have since come to refer to this three dimensional application of white frit enamel decoration of glass as "Mary Gregory"! Proof that if a story is repeated often enough, it is presumed to be fact. The complete story may even be more surprising if it is ever uncovered.

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