Is This Blenko? Part Zero

You may have found your way to us through a cherished heirloom handed down from generation to generation. Maybe our kaleidoscope of colors caught your eye! Maybe someone gave you a 384 Water Bottle as a housewarming gift, and you’ve cherished it ever since.

However you got here - welcome! We’ve made richly colored handmade art glass tableware and decor for more than a century, and with a history of innovative and delightful, functional design.

West Virginia was once an epicenter of America’s glass industry, but Blenko Glass Company is one of the only factories left after all these years. Good news — that means that anything you buy from us keeps that long legacy intact, forward facing, and regaining momentum!

 

But there’s also a lot of Blenko out there in the world. We’ve long been the bellwether of good taste in colored glass. So you’ve caught the bug! You want more! New and old!

Our website is the focal point now and in the future to answer your questions, provide information about our work, our workers, our designs, our wares. The ‘Learn’ tab of our website has archives of blogs and press releases, and a visual archive of our West Virginia Day pieces, among other resources.

Perhaps most critically, though, good Blenko collectors have our PDF catalogs bookmarked on their smartphones for easy antique mall reference. We’ve recently begun plugging in some of the gaps in our catalog coverage — and invite you to make new discoveries in our old catalogs! The Rakow Library at the Corning Museum of Glass did us a solid and scanned the ‘55 & ‘56 catalogs, and we’ve added some of the pre-1952 catalogs we were missing - as well as 2016-17! (Rumour has it, though, that 2006 just doesn’t exist. If you have a tip - email creative@blenko.com)

We have not printed a formal paper catalog since 2020 and COVID - and since then our business model has changed, from primarily wholesale to direct to you, the consumer. (Hi!) But we are at work on a PDF of our offerings — line wares and special and limited editions - for 2021 and 2022, as well as on a retrospective Yearbook to do the same for 2023.

Creative Director at Blenko

-James Arnett