Brian Lonsway's Hand Blown Decanter

Waterville Historical Society has recently acquired a collectable handblown glass decanter by Brian Lonsway. Brian was Waterville’s well known hot glass artist who renovated and lived in the old Wabash Tavern on Second Street and had his glass works in the back yard. Brian was also an active member of Waterville Historical Society and in 1983 while we were still working on the recently renovated Robbins House Museum, Brian created a Roche de Boeuf design on a glass disk which he incorporated into a squared blown glass decanter (see photo). He created just fifty of these collectables, signed, dated and numbered on the bottom for WHS, which were sold for $25 each in 1983. Such was Brian’s generosity since creating fifty hot glass objects requires much time and labor. Some of our readers may have one of these. They are all alike but not exactly alike. As you all know, a hand made piece of art is always slightly different even though made in the same pattern. For instance our decanter is slightly pink, some others are perfectly clear. We are happy to have Brian Lonsway’s Roche de Boeuf decanter in our Archives for display.

Author’s note: 1983 was a busy WHS year, as noted in the November 1983 newsletter. The old Haley Cobbler Shop was moved to the museum grounds, the Pekin Mill millstone was moved to the museum, the brick sidewalk to the Robbins House porch was built and a canal stone block was acquired and set in the yard, and these are only a sampling of 1983 projects