Jane Shadel Spillman and Suzanne K. Frantz

This book, which was produced by Crown Publishers Inc. in 1990, has been reprinted exclusively for The Corning Museum of Glass. It traces the history of American glassmaking -- the nation's first manufacturing industry -- from its 17th-century beginnings in Jamestown, Virginia, to the present day.

It tells the story of how this industry emerged from the stage where nearly everything made of glass was functional to the dramatic new phase when artists began to use glass to create art. Masterpieces of American Glass discusses the influence of the English Aesthetic and Art Nouveau movements on the design and shape of modern American glass.

It highlights the work of great glass innovators and designers such as Louis Comfort Tiffany and Frederick Carder. It also features more than 100 color illustrations of objects from two of the most comprehensive collections in the world--The Corning Museum of Glass and The Toledo Museum of Art--and from Lillian Nassau Ltd., a leading dealer in Art Nouveau glass.