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Heart of Glass - Blenko Glass

Blenko Glass is a West Virginia treasure that spans generations. Nothing symbolizes the state of West Virginia better or more beautifully than Blenko Glass. We will discuss current and former craftsmen and designers and how important it is that Blenko and West Virginia glass be appreciated and valued by the younger generation.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

1951 Charcoal Blenko

1951 Blenko Charcoal Glass
What else was happening? . . . . . . thanks to webmaster S.Rowe we have a list of what was going on in 1951 other than Blenko Glass making Charcoal . This glass is from the collection of Bruce Specht Family.


January 9 - The new United Nations headquarters officially opens in New York City.

January 9: United Nations headquarters opened.
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January 17 - Korean War: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul.
January 27 - Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with a 1-kiloton bomb dropped on Frenchman Flats, northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada.
February 1 - The United Nations General Assembly declares that China is the aggressor in the Korean War.
February 27 - The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.

March 29: Rosenbergs.
March 6 - The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins.
March 12 - The comic strip Dennis the Menace appears in newspapers across the U.S. for the first time.
March 14 - Korean War: For the second time, United Nations troops recapture Seoul.
March 29 - Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I opens on Broadway and runs for 3 years. It is the first Rodgers and Hammerstein show specifically written for an actress (Gertrude Lawrence). Lawrence is stricken with cancer during the run of the show and dies halfway through its run. The show makes a star of Yul Brynner.
April 1 - Female suffrage begins in Greece.
April 11 - U.S. President Harry S. Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur of his Far Eastern commands.
May 3 - The U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services and U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations begins its closed door hearings into the dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry S. Truman.
May 23 - Tibetans are forced to sign the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet with the People's Republic of China.
May 25 - The first atomic bomb "boosted" by the inclusion of thermonuclear materials, is tested in the "Item" test on Enewetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands by the U.S.

July 30 - David Lean's Oliver Twist is finally shown in the United States, after 10 minutes of supposedly anti-Semitic references and closeups of Alec Guinness as Fagin are cut. The film is a critical success, but a financial flop in the United States, and receives few bookings in U.S. theatres, mostly due to the anti-Semitic charges leveled against it. The film is not shown uncut in the U.S. until 1970.

August 12 - The Catcher in the Rye is first published.

September 3 - The American soap opera Search for Tomorrow debuts on CBS. After over 30 years, the show switches to NBC on March 26, 1982. Search for Tomorrow airs its final episode on NBC on September 18 - The film A Streetcar Named Desire premieres, becoming a critical and box-office smash.
September 20 - NATO accepts Greece and Turkey as members.
September 2628 - A blue sun is seen over Europe: the effect is due to ash coming from the Canadian forest fires 4 months previously.

October 3 - "Shot Heard 'Round the World": One of the greatest moments in Major League Baseball history occurs when the New York Giants' Bobby Thomson hits a game winning home run in the bottom of the 9th inning off of Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca, to win the National League pennant after being down 14 games.
October 4 - The Gene Kelly film An American in Paris premieres in New York.
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October 16 - Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan of Pakistan is assassinated.
October 17 - CBS' Eye logo premieres on air.
October 24 - U.S. President Harry Truman declares an official end to war with Germany.

November 1 - The first military exercises for nuclear war, with infantry troops included, are held in the Nevada desert.
December 6 - A state of emergency is declared in Egypt due to increasing riots.
December 13 - A water storage tank collapses in Tucumcari, New Mexico, resulting in 4 deaths, and 200 buildings destroyed.
December 16 - Salar Jung Museum is opened to the public by Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru.
December 20 - EBR-1, the world's first (experimental) nuclear power plant, opens.
December 20 - A chartered C46 Curtis Commando crash lands in Cobourg, Ontario Canada; all on board survived.
December 23 - The film The African Queen, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, premieres in Hollywood.
December 24 - Libya becomes independent from Italy.
December 24 - Gian-Carlo Menotti's 45-minute opera Amahl and the Night Visitors premieres live on NBC, becoming the first opera written especially for television.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

This charcoal is the best, I am going to buy charcoal before the years end will you publish again the web address for the sellers you recommend of high end Blenko.
Sol

Phani said...

I love this color.

Anonymous said...

Damn that glass is old
reading the world history of the time makes you realize the age of the glass god its old stuff.

Anonymous said...

I know West Virginia Janis did this one. I recognize the wonderful photography.
Margie Hale

sweetdoc said...

Margie
I also like WV Jan's photos but this one was from Texas.

GlassCollector said...

Great picture but I would like to say the decanter is a 6210 which was not put into the Blenko line until 1962 and the vase is a 609 which was put in the line in 1960. The color Charcoal was added in 1954.

Heart of Glass said...

Thank you. We like having correct informaton.
Can you assit with the Who made this vase?
HJH

Anonymous said...

Glass collector,
Thank you for letting Hillary know of the error. The post had already been up for awhile before I logged on today. I even went back to make sure I hadn't mistyped my original message. I want to say "Thank you" to Hillary for all the hard work she puts into this blog so the occational error is easily forgiven. I was certain someone would make the correction, but wasn't it fun to read all the interesting facts that she added. Amazing what can transpire in just ten years, or fifty? What is especially fun is that the 6210 shouldn't even have been produced in this color of Charcoal.
Bruce Specht

Anonymous said...

I like linking the events with the glass. Something about charcoal as a color seems to fit with the era. Also, the bubbly stopper for the decanter looks, well, atomic.

Margie: I haven't submitted any photographs lately so, this one isn't mine. How thrilling to enjoy this wonderful photography. Where did you end up donating your glass?

WV Janis

GlassCollector said...

The 6210 is in the 1961/1962 Charcoal which happens to be my favorite Charcoal.

Unknown said...

>>What is especially fun is that the 6210 shouldn't even have been produced in this color of Charcoal.<<

Huh? I don't understand that.

Anyway:

Charcoal was introduced to the Blenko line with some trepidation--and over internal protests--in 1954 by Wayne Husted and was in the catalogs through '58. A different charcoal--which was more of a blue--was in the line from '61-'62 and was reintroduced in '89 or so as Slate. Charcoal came back for one year in the early '70s in a formulation closer to (or the same as the '50s version). Although the '50s charcoal could, at times, appear black, it was not the same formulation as Blenko's much-later Ebony.

Anonymous said...

HUSTED? THE HUSTED?
OH MY GOD!
I THINK YOU ARE THE BEST THING TO EVER STEP FOOT INTO BLENKO THEY CAN HAVE THAT WINSEY AND MAYER GUYS YOU DID THE THINGS THAT STILL ROCK MY BOAT AND REMIND ME OF MY DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES AND A LITTLE WEED. I WAS YOUNG. DONT HAVE MUCH TO SHOW FOR THAT DECADE OTHER THAN MEMORIES BUT I LEARNED A LOT.
THANK YOU MR HUSTED. YOUR DESIGNS WILL LAST FOREVER. YOU SHOULD ALSO.
MOUNTAIN RITA
WILL YOU BE COMING BACK TO WV?
I BOUGHT A PIECE OF YOURS AT OSBURN AND WOULD LOVE TO MEET YOU.

Anonymous said...

I heard they (blenko) also didn't like your Rialto or Regal line is this true?
What was it like to work for them?
When you were creative and knew charcoal and Rialto and wild designs would make it also what was living in Milton like for you and your family?
Sue M.

Anonymous said...

I heard they (blenko) also didn't like your Rialto or Regal line is this true?
What was it like to work for them?
When you were creative and knew charcoal and Rialto and wild designs would make it also what was living in Milton like for you and your family?
Sue M.

Anonymous said...

I heard they (blenko) also didn't like your Rialto or Regal line is this true?
What was it like to work for them?
When you were creative and knew charcoal and Rialto and wild designs would make it also what was living in Milton like for you and your family?
Sue M.

Phani said...

I love this collection.