The name Blenko is nearly synonymous with the tradition of glassmaking in America. Still a family-operated business today, the Blenko Glass Company began nearly one hundred years ago as Eureka Glass Company.

Founded in 1921 by William J. Blenko (1854-1933), an English-born immigrant who began learning his trade as a young boy working in London glass houses and later worked for a time at the Tiffany Studios, the company was apparently William’s fourth attempt to begin his own glassmaking operation in America; the first three all failed.

His son, William H. Blenko Sr. joined the company in 1924, followed in 1969 by William H. Blenko Jr. as the company’s president. Richard Blenko then joined the company in 1976 and later became the forth generation family member to run the company.

Truly, there is no other glassmaker in the United States still in operation with such a long and rich family heritage of high quality and innovation in the craft!

Glass fish with crackled glass finish produced by Blenko Glass Company.

Blenko originally made antique sheet glass for stained glass windows and the company nearly failed yet again with the Depression, which entirely devastated the market for stained glass. Yet Blenko was able to shift production to tableware and stemware, which quickly became the company’s staple.

Initially sold by Carbone and Sons of Boston, Blenko glassware was know as “Kenova glass”, owing its name to the town of Kenova, which is located 28 miles west of Blenko’s Milton, West Virginia plant.

Influenced and styled to look like Italian glass, Blenko was not able to compete with the quality of Carbone’s other suppliers, but promoted as a hallmark the tooling marks and other flaws which could not be eliminated. The strategy was successful and became part of the Blenko identity.

A Scandinavian style also emerged within Blenko when two very skilled Swedish glassworkers, brothers Axel Mueller and Louie Miller were hired to help make hand blown glass items beginning in about 1930.

Blenko was honored by being selected to provide stained glass for St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York and continued to grow in the years following World War II. Until the late 1940s, Blenko’s products had been primarily functional table and stemware, but in 1947, they hired Winslow Anderson as the design director and began moving into the modern American studio glass movement, producing more decorative hand blown glass pieces.

A succession of well known, innovative designers followed Anderson, including Wayne Husted, Joel Myers, John Nickerson, Don Shepard, Hank Adams and Matt Carter.

Blenko is one of the oldest remaining family-run American glassmakers.

Characteristics of Blenko Glass Pieces:

• Mouth blown, glass quality is high, owing to the origins of Blenko’s stained glass formulas
• Pontil mark on base is a hallmark
• Heavy, thick-walled vessels are typical of Blenko
• Rims typically fire polished, round, slightly uneven
• Vintage Blenko pieces are porous and will stain evenly if used to contain liquids
• Pieces are rarely signed, except during the brief period of 1958 to 1960