Posts Tagged ‘Maryland’

Antique American Glass The Native Americans had not made glass before the Spanish conquered Mexico and established a glassworks there. The ingredients of sand, lime, and soda were present in abundance. The native Americans did make arrow heads and amulets of quartz and obsidian. The first colonists discovered that the native people liked to use coloured glass beads for their wampum or necklaces. Wampum were made of beads, stones, and shells which were also used as a form of currency. The first efforts to make glass in the colonies was therefore directed at making coloured glass beads. The first group of professional glassblowers consisted of eight Dutch and Polish settlers who were invited by the businessman John Smith to carry on their trade in Jamestown, Virginia ...