As fate would have it the 19th century ushered in a radically new process for forming glass that would forever change the look and feel of the finished product.

Instead of the centuries-old method of blown glass, a form of automation was at work at last. They called it pressed glass.

Essentially molten glass was dropped into a mold. A long-handled lever or plunger or 'follower' was then used to force liquid glass into all parts of the mold. The  plunger meanwhile had a smooth surface thus assuring that when the plunger was abruptly pulled down the resulting inside remained unmarked. The outside of the liquid however was then forced up against the mold for forming and eventually patterning.

In terms of  glass production the simply pouring was immediately quicker than blowing glass had been. It took less skill than the traditional blowing glass, and was less expensive. Finally it was at least a baby-step toward mass production.

"The artistry was passed from the man working the molten metal to the designer of the mold," observed Marvin Schwartz author of Collectors' Guide to Antique American Glass. "The new technique inspired new esthetics, and overall patterns which were begun in imitation of cut glass were soon created in textures peculiar to the new process."

Although most historians agree the remarkable transformation in glass making generally began in the 1820s. Just who did what and when is still at issue.

The Benjamin Bakewell Company obtained a patent for press-glass furniture knobs in 1826 and within a few years full-scale experiments on pressed glass were underway at glass factories in Massachusetts. Early patens on the process, in addition to Bakewell, came from Phineas Dummer, Enoch Robinson, and Demming Jarves. Years later a British industrialist would write in Curiosities of Glass Making that "the invention of pressing glass by machine has been introduced in England from the United States." However Jarves  wrote still later in Reminiscences of Glass Making, "although it is commonly believed here that the invention (pressed glass) originated in this country, the claim cannot be fully sustained....America can claim the credit of great improvements in the needful machinery which has advanced the art to is present form."

Besides furniture knobs and cup plates, salts were among some of the earlier pressed glass pieces produced. Initial examples were rectangular in shape with a open box and columns at the corners. Some such salts had relief ornamentation applied to the sides. These salts were particularly typical of the New England Glass Company and the Jersey Glass Company.

Most all early pressed glass was simple in design and heavy in weight. Moreover it was generally much thicker than previous mold-blown glass. At times detailed relief on the pressed glass extended to include a recognizable figure, the classical lyre, or a sheaf of wheat.

As things worked out a problem in production of  pressed glass became a highly desired asset.

Glass makers found that there was some difficulty in guiding the basic metal plunger in a perfectly straight up-and-down course. As the plunger varied slightly in its descent the edges were left uneven.

Schwartz suggests that technically the real problem was in controlling the flow of glass into the mold leading to inconsistent results. Other scholars have offered varying opinions In order to counteract imperfect edges and other irregularities in the glass, makers developed a stippling or rippled effect on the glass. Basically this amounted to punching or drilling a great number of tiny dots which became nearly an art form.

The resulting  intricate lace-like molds became known early in the 1830 as lacy glass, and proved to be extremely popular. Probably the leading maker of lacy glass during that period was the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company, however more than a dozen other glass factories were also known to incorporate the process.

Pressed lacy glass was "highly Victorian in its almost fussy insistence on covering every square inch of glass with decoration," notes Emma Papert author of The Illustrated Guide to American Glass. "It proved to be beautifully effective since its many reflective surfaces used every bid of available light to the best possible advantage."

The upper side of a distinctive glass platter, for example, "was plain and smooth, but the underside bore both the design and stippling," concludes Papert. "The ornamentation was viewed, therefore, through the plain layer of glass, and its silvery sparkle was truly lovely."

By the 1840s however lacy was less of an option for glass makers. It was increasingly expensive at a time when the economic depression which had begun in 1837 continued to linger in the glass industry. Although it continued to be produced into the 1850s,the delicate designs of lacy pressed glass was seen less and less in decade of the 1840s.

Still overall the method and manner of  producing pressed glass continued to reign throughout the United States as the nation approached the middle of the 19th century. By several accounts more than 75 percent of the country's entire glass production in the 1850s was pressed glass.

"The number of patterns used and their variations were almost without end," observed Harold Bond in the early volume, An Encyclopedia of Antiques. "The low price of glass, compared to blown glass, and demand for it gave manufacturers opportunity for quantity production and they took advantage of it."

In 1850 an advertisement in a Boston newspaper proudly boasted: "American glassware made to order from metal, of uncommon brilliancy to match any pattern desired whether foreign or domestic manufacture."

At the time the "uncommon brilliancy" was derived in part from the use of basic lead flint added to glass manufactured in the United States. In 1864 a somewhat less expensive alternative to flint glass was developed at the Wheeling Glass Factory in West Virginia. Through the efforts of William Leighton the lead flint was replaced with a lime soda derivative. It didn't have the bell-like ring of flint based glass but it was considerably less expensive.

Some factories like Wheeling readily adopted the 'new' technique and consequently began producing greater numbers of glassware products for comparatively lower investments. Factories in New England and elsewhere, on the other hand, were reluctant to change. They clung to what they felt was a better quality though less economical flint-based production process.

For all practical purposes the mass production of press glass had generally ended with the close of the 19th century. Manufacture was maintained in a few locations, and some plants dove-tailed it into other operations, but for the most part the wonderful world of pressed glass had came with promise and disappeared with progress.

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