Fenton Glass is the product of the Fenton Art Glass Company, an American glassmaker founded in the early twentieth century by Frank L. Fenton and his brother John. The firm began by decorating glass made by others in Ohio, then moved to Williamstown, West Virginia, where it established its own glassworks and remained a family business for generations.
Fenton is best known as one of the pioneers of carnival glass, the iridescent pressed glass that became hugely popular in America and Britain in the years before the First World War, and its early carnival patterns are keenly collected. The company went on to produce a wide range of coloured and opalescent glass, including stretch glass, hobnail, milk glass, crests, hand-painted pieces and Burmese-type wares, much of it pressed in moulds and finished by hand. Earlier pieces are usually unmarked or carried paper labels, while a moulded Fenton mark was introduced on later production. After more than a century of manufacture, the company ceased its traditional glassmaking in the early twenty-first century. Collectors look for rare colours and patterns, strong iridescence, crisp moulding and freedom from chips, and early carnival pieces generally command the highest prices.
