Description
Rainbow Art Glass Company (1942-1973);Rainbow Art Glass Co Hand Blown Deep Purple, Amethyst Insert Ribbed Round Vase. Made in West Virginia, USAPhotography fails to capture the simple elegant illumination provided by this vase.From the late 19th century and through much of the twentieth century, glass manufacture was one of West Virginia’s and the Ohio Valley’s most important industries. Huntington was once home to several glass factories itself, including Rainbow Art Glass Company (later Rainbow-Viking Glass). The company was founded in New York by Henry P. Manus and J. Goudaker in 1940, but relocated to Huntington two years later. Originally, the company decorated glassware that it purchased from other companies, before it began manufacturing its own colorful, hand-blown glass in 1954. In 1973, Rainbow Art Glass was purchased by Viking Glass, which began in 1901 as the New Martinsville Glass Manufacturing Company. When the Rainbow-Viking Glass factory and adjacent retail shop were destroyed by fire in 1983, the company decided not to rebuild the plant. Viking Glass continued manufacturing glass from its New Martinsville facility until 1998, when rising production costs and foreign competition caused the company to shut down.
