Though William H. Blenko Sr. did have the good sense to give the Historic Period designers the opportunity to do their great work, he and the company were lost without them and had little choice but to allow the designers to do their thing. William Blenko Sr. did not even personally choose the designers, they were selected for him by the faculty of Alfred University, he just said "yes" to their selection. Of course knowing how to delegate is an important skill and Mr. Blenko did it very well. In addition it goes without saying that there would be no company if he hadn't also been an incredibly good salesman and a manager with a plan. But his plan hung entirely on having good designers and crumbled without it as the current state of the company proves.

It was the designers who conjured the products that became the company's hallmark. It was the designers who insisted on quality control to ensure the proper production of their designs. It was the designers who took charge of promoting the company with advertising and trade fairs. It was the designers who brought a cosmopolitan and sophisticated worldview to the rough little factory in Milton, West Virginia. Without the designers Blenko would have been no different than it's rivals Rainbow, Pilgrim or Bischoff - largely irrelevant companies producing pretty tchotchkes. But without Blenko the designers would (and did!) still produce many great works. In short, Blenko is the least important element of this equation while Winslow Anderson, Wayne Husted, Joel Philip Myers and John Nickerson are the true stars. I am cutting the Blenko out of Blenko because it distracts from what is important.

This is why my website is now organized according to designers. One page each for the available work of Winslow Anderson, John Nickerson, Wayne Husted and Joel Philip Myers. In addition, the items on each page are now displayed in rough chronological order. I say "rough" because it can only be organized by year - contrary to what many people think the third and fourth numerals in the design numbers assigned by the Blenko Glass Company did not relate to the order the pieces were designed in, they were usually just randomly applied. Regardless, organizing items by year of design does give a clear picture of the aesthetic development when you are looking at an inventory as large as mine.

As most of you know I am one of the Directors of the Blenko Museum (formerly of Seattle , now exclusively online). The Museum's mission is to promote understanding of the history and work of the Blenko Glass Company. When we re-built the website the other year, after much planning and debate, we realized just how central the four aforementioned designers are to the history of the Blenko Glass Company, and in fact that these designers are the source of the company's reputation and collector interest. In light of that we broke down the company's history into three main areas. These three areas best explain the history and collectors already intuitively understand it; The Early Years (1921-46), The Historic Period (1947-74), and the Post-Historic Period (1975 onwards). In terms of collector interest, basically you have the four first designers from 1947-74 and then somewhere in the distance lagging far behind in all respects, is everything else. We expanded upon this concept with the launch of The Blenko Archive website.
 
Well, I take that one tiny step further by ditching the "everything else" part. In my past articles I have consistently focused on the importance of the four Historic Period designers and made a case for why they are so important. For your reference on this matter I suggest reading  my last article appearing Modernism Magazine.

But wait, what does the Historic Period work of the Blenko Glass Company have to do with glasshouse's other main interest, Empoli glass??

Small "mushroom" or barbell shaped decanter designed in 1956 by Wayne Husted, #563 in Charcoal, 13.5in.H x 6in.D,	Unusual amber barbell shaped Italian Empoli cased glass decanter, circa 1950's, 14in.H x 5in.D

Although I do sell more than just Blenko the core of this site is The Blenko Glass Company and the four Historic Period Designers and Empoli glass is very much related. The glass produced in Empoli, Itlaly - cased as well as the earlier "Verde" glass - is very intertwined with that of the Blenko Glass Company's. Empoli glass was what the Blenko Glass Company first emulated in 1929 when they did not have a designer, and later when Blenko found success with its innovative designers, Empoli companies copied Blenko. Wayne Husted even produced some designs for them after leaving the Blenko Glass Company. So here we have it all on glasshouse; Historic Period Blenko and Empoli glass brought together again.

There are a few other related companies that I admire and used to handle with regularity, including Erickson Glassworks, as Carl Erickson was the earliest "proto-designer" at Blenko prior to Winslow Anderson. And interestingly enough Erickson produced a Blenko look-alike line in the 1950's, called Holiday, to try to edge in on Blenko's market share. I also find Tom Connaly's work for Greenwich Flint Craft to be interesting but GFC is to the Blenko Glass Company what Quezal Glass is to Tiffany; a Johnny-come-lately "me-too" company with a limited output, but it's very pretty. Unfortunately I have learned that to offer my customers only the best I must focus ruthlessly, and so only Blenko and Empoli are available for sale on glasshouse.

Damon Crain

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