GIFT IDEA - Membership, Imperial Glass Collectors

Mr. Jim Swanson, the Publicity chair of NIGCS, graciously provided the following information about the National Imperial Glass Collectors Society.

THE NATIONAL IMPERIAL GLASS COLLECTORS SOCIETY (NIGCS)

NIGCS is an organization made up of Imperial Glass Collectors. The society has approximately 1100 members from all over the country and Canada. Primary yearly membership dues are $18; Associate members, occupying the same house, $3 each; and new this year is the provision that a student has free membership until graduating from college.

The organization is governed by a Board of Trustees elected by the general membership. A convention is held every June and includes an Imperial glass auction, a banquet, various workshops, seminars, and a Glass Sale and Show. This event averages approximately 250 attendees each year and is held in St. Clairsville, Ohio. This past year the organization celebrated its 30th Anniversary. In October, a fall auction is held in Bellaire, Ohio.

The Imperial Glass factory in Bellaire, Ohio, is no longer standing after having created glass items for eighty years. At the onset, production ranged from utilitarian glassware to electric and gas lampshades. Then, over the next twenty years, the company transitioned to making pressed patterns, Iridescent Ware (early Carnival), Free Hand and Lead Lustre. Depression and Elegant patterns, beverage ware, Cathay and Milk Glass would follow from the 1930’s to 1950’s. Slag Glass, reissued Carnival, Collectors Crystal, Peachblow, and numerous gift-type glassware would be made before the company closed its doors in l984.

In the 1930’s, two of Imperial’s best known designs were originated. The first was Cape Cod in 1931, followed by Candlewick in 1936. These two pattern lines proved to be exceedingly popular with buyers for nearly fifty years. In fact, Candlewick became one of the company’s biggest success stories. Today Candlewick is the line most people readily equate with the Imperial Glass Corporation.

In June of 2003, NIGCS opened the National Imperial Glass Museum located at 3200 Belmont Street, Bellaire, Ohio, which is open April through October each year. The museum is dedicated to the glassware and the people who worked at Imperial. The National Glass Collectors Society hopes that, by creating the museum, they can keep alive the story of Imperial, one of the largest and most diverse of the companies that made up the American hand-made glass industry. On display at the museum are many fine examples of Imperial glassware, created from 1904 to 1984.