American Glass Cup Plates
Below are links to the charted Cup Plates in my personal collection. Ruth Webb Lee and James H Rose spent years assigning numbers and names to all of these cup plates to make it easier for future collectors to identify these early cup plates.
William Henry Harrison
Fort Meigs, Ohio's War Of 1812 Battlefield
General William Henry Harrison assumed command of the Army of the Northwest shortly after the surrender of General William Hull's army at Detroit in the year 1812. Harrison's army was an assortment of United States Regular infantrymen and state militias from Ohio and Pennsylvania.Harrison's objective was to defend at all cost the American Northwest from further British advances. Harrison strategically placed his army near the Maumee River rapids in February 1813 and soon began the construction of a ten-acre fortification. The site was named Fort Meigs in honor of Ohio's governor at the time Jonathan Meigs.
General Harrison commanded the army and the Americans were successful in turning back the British forces besieging Fort Meigs in May 1813. Harrison then turned over command of the fort to Brigadier General Green Clay of the state of Kentucky. Harrison continued to defend the Old Northwest culminating in his army defeating the British in October 1813 at the Battle of the Thames and ensuring the security of the Old Northwest. The Pittsburgh Glass factory's that had glass pressing capability were busy making memorabilia for the citizens of the day. This key battle victory at Fort Meigs for the Young United States was immortalized on Cup Plates. They were most likely made at either the Bakewells Glass Works, the Old Fort Pitt Glass works or the Stourbridge Flint glass works as each of these were the leaders from the Pittsburgh district in regards to pressed glass.
Here are two Fort Meig Cup Plates probably made in 1826 celebrating the 50th year of Independence from Britain. The plates could not have been made any sooner as glass pressing was founded the year before by John Bakewell in 1825 These are quite rare and mint examples are extremely hard to find.
General Harrison commanded the army and the Americans were successful in turning back the British forces besieging Fort Meigs in May 1813. Harrison then turned over command of the fort to Brigadier General Green Clay of the state of Kentucky. Harrison continued to defend the Old Northwest culminating in his army defeating the British in October 1813 at the Battle of the Thames and ensuring the security of the Old Northwest. The Pittsburgh Glass factory's that had glass pressing capability were busy making memorabilia for the citizens of the day. This key battle victory at Fort Meigs for the Young United States was immortalized on Cup Plates. They were most likely made at either the Bakewells Glass Works, the Old Fort Pitt Glass works or the Stourbridge Flint glass works as each of these were the leaders from the Pittsburgh district in regards to pressed glass.
Here are two Fort Meig Cup Plates probably made in 1826 celebrating the 50th year of Independence from Britain. The plates could not have been made any sooner as glass pressing was founded the year before by John Bakewell in 1825 These are quite rare and mint examples are extremely hard to find.
William Henry Harrison
The Election of 1840
Henry Clay felt his time had finally arrived and anticipated receiving the Whig nomination for the Presidency. Unfortunately forces in the Whig party, however, knew that Clay's prominence over the years had earned him many enemies and they instead backed William Henry Harrison once again.Harrison was an old war hero and had made few pronouncements on public issue.The issues in this election were very similar to Andrew Jackson's in 1824. For regional balance, John Tyler of Virginia was selected as the vice-presidential candidate.Tyler was a former Democrat and little did the Whig party know that he would later return to many of his earlier beliefs as a Democrat.
The campaign slogan was, "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too!"On the Campaign Trail "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" was the campaign song for Whig party candidate William Henry Harrison and his running mate, John Tyler, during their run for the 1840 presidential election. Harrison was also known as "Old Tippecanoe" for his victory over Shawnee chief Tecumseh at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. Although Harrison was considered a hero, the battle resulted in the deaths of 188 American soldiers and an unknown number of Native Americans. Some historians have noted that Not much good came from the battle, which resulted in an alliance between the British and the Indians.
Hard Cider Campaign
Twenty-nine years later, Harrison's nickname was resurrected and used in a campaign song that would be remembered for generations. Alexander Coffman Ross wrote the lyrics, set to the tune of an old minstrel song. The song was rousing and humorous, and attempted to paint Harrison as a simple, hard working hero in contrast to the wealthy incumbent Martin Van Buren. This contrast was the main focus of Harrison's campaign, which was known as the Log Cabin Campaign because of a newspaper editorial that said of Harrison, "Give him a barrel of hard cider, and a pension of two thousand dollars a year and he will sit the remainder of his days in his log cabin."
While these statements were meant to be derogatory, The Whigs turned this contemptuous statement to their advantage and launched the "log cabin and hard cider" campaign, playing up Harrison's appeal to the masses and serving large quantities of hard cider at rallies. On the other side Van Buren was attacked for alleged elitism; he was a well-dressed dandy and consumer of fine wines and exotic foods. Aspiring political poets of the day offered such verse as:
Let Van from his coolers of silver drink wine
And lounge on his cushioned settee,
Our man on a buckeye bench can recline,
Content with hard cider is he.
Ironically, Van Buren was the one born into a working class family, while Harrison was from a wealthy political family, his father one of the original signers of the declaration of Independence.The campaign of 1840 was heavy on image-making, less so on substance—a harbinger of things to come.The election results appeared to be a landslide in the Electoral College as Harrison won 264 Electoral votes to Van Burens 60, the popular vote was close as Harrison gathered 1,275,612 votes to Van Burens 1,130,033. Glass memorabilia was used quite extensively in this campaign by Harrison's Whig Party. Rare Flasks were made at Mt Vernon New York's Glass Factory for the Whig Party's portrayal of Harrison as a common man. Other glass pieces were being made in the Pittsburgh factory's who again had the ability to press glass. Here are two examples of cup plates that were made just before during and after the 1840 Presidential Campaign in which Harrison was victorious.
The campaign slogan was, "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too!"On the Campaign Trail "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" was the campaign song for Whig party candidate William Henry Harrison and his running mate, John Tyler, during their run for the 1840 presidential election. Harrison was also known as "Old Tippecanoe" for his victory over Shawnee chief Tecumseh at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. Although Harrison was considered a hero, the battle resulted in the deaths of 188 American soldiers and an unknown number of Native Americans. Some historians have noted that Not much good came from the battle, which resulted in an alliance between the British and the Indians.
Hard Cider Campaign
Twenty-nine years later, Harrison's nickname was resurrected and used in a campaign song that would be remembered for generations. Alexander Coffman Ross wrote the lyrics, set to the tune of an old minstrel song. The song was rousing and humorous, and attempted to paint Harrison as a simple, hard working hero in contrast to the wealthy incumbent Martin Van Buren. This contrast was the main focus of Harrison's campaign, which was known as the Log Cabin Campaign because of a newspaper editorial that said of Harrison, "Give him a barrel of hard cider, and a pension of two thousand dollars a year and he will sit the remainder of his days in his log cabin."
While these statements were meant to be derogatory, The Whigs turned this contemptuous statement to their advantage and launched the "log cabin and hard cider" campaign, playing up Harrison's appeal to the masses and serving large quantities of hard cider at rallies. On the other side Van Buren was attacked for alleged elitism; he was a well-dressed dandy and consumer of fine wines and exotic foods. Aspiring political poets of the day offered such verse as:
Let Van from his coolers of silver drink wine
And lounge on his cushioned settee,
Our man on a buckeye bench can recline,
Content with hard cider is he.
Ironically, Van Buren was the one born into a working class family, while Harrison was from a wealthy political family, his father one of the original signers of the declaration of Independence.The campaign of 1840 was heavy on image-making, less so on substance—a harbinger of things to come.The election results appeared to be a landslide in the Electoral College as Harrison won 264 Electoral votes to Van Burens 60, the popular vote was close as Harrison gathered 1,275,612 votes to Van Burens 1,130,033. Glass memorabilia was used quite extensively in this campaign by Harrison's Whig Party. Rare Flasks were made at Mt Vernon New York's Glass Factory for the Whig Party's portrayal of Harrison as a common man. Other glass pieces were being made in the Pittsburgh factory's who again had the ability to press glass. Here are two examples of cup plates that were made just before during and after the 1840 Presidential Campaign in which Harrison was victorious.