Hemingray Glass Company is well known for their wide array of insulators, but top notch insulators were not all they made. The non-insulator products are referred to in the insulator hobby as "go-withs". There are a wide variety of these items that they made. A few types are oil lamps, fruit jars, water bottles, glass table ware and much more! 

Cover Photo

This article serves as a brief overview of some of the items made by Hemingray.

WATER BOTTLES
Hemingray's most well know go-with is the refrigerator water bottle They made these water bottles in the early 1930's. They come in 3 sizes (pint, quart and 2-quart) and 4 colors (ice, 7-Up green, amber and carnival glass).  Ice and 7-up are the two most common colors. Amber is a bit scarce and, as of this writing, only one carnival is known. 

Pint, quart and 2-quart sizes.

There are several patterns, too many to list here. The most common two being the "waterfall" and "wishing well" in ice or 7-Up.

There are two design patents for the water bottle, 85,082 (Sept. 15, 1931) and 86,659 (Apr 5, 1932). The ones made by Hemingray at the Muncie, Indiana plant will have one of the following embossings on the bottom "HEMINGRAY", no embossing, just a number, or the Owens Illinois logo () with the number "26". (NOTE: only plant code 26 water bottles are Hemingray all others are not!) 

Occasionally you can find lids that have Hemingray Glass Company, Muncie Indiana Good Housekeeping embossed on the lid, fairly early examples of this now famous seal of approval.

FRUIT JARS
Hemingray made several fruit jars. The most famous one being the Globe jar. They come in aqua, amber, clear, SCA. The amber ones come in many shades, from a light honey amber to an almost black glass amber and every color in between. 

There are three commonly seen sizes, one pint, one quart and two quart. There are also 2 very rare sizes, 1/2 pint and 1/4 pint.

The Globe jar was patented on May 25, 1886 (Patent number 342,602) The Globe jar was designed to directly compete with the "Lightning" jar. There are several other type of jars made by Hemingray including Patent Sept. 18 1860, Royal, Royal of 1876, the "melon" jar and many others.

(Above left) The "Minnehaha" two quart water bottle is one of the hardest 
Hemingray water bottles. To date, there are only two known to exist.

The 7-up green pint size is the popular "Wishing Well" pattern, 
but a difficult size to locate (above right).

(Lower right) A beautiful amber "Waterfall" quart.

The aqua Hemingray "push top" jar (above) is 
a wax sealer. This one has the original lid which 
is very hard to find. It is the 1/2 gallon size.

Pictured above are a Globe fruit jar in orange amber (on the left) 
and a Globe Tobacco Company jar in honey amber (on the right).

Knights of Labor Match Safe in 
Depression glass green.

During the 1870's unionism among glassworkers throughout the upper and middle Ohio Valley took hold. Hemingray was not spared problems with its workers. The March 9,1878 issue of the Covington Journal reads as follows:

The boys at Hemingray s Glass Works struck this morning for higher wages. They want the same price paid as last spring. They threatened destruction of property, etc. until Marshal Bolan talked to them, when the greater number took heed to his advice and resumed work.

Yet it appears that Hemingray Glass Company and the Knights of Labor (K of L), predecessor of the American Flint Glass Workers Union, coexisted remarkably well.

A talented glass designer and longtime Hemingray employee, James C. Gill, was an active unionist who in 1887 assigned letters of patent to his employer for the design of a glass match safe and match strike, a miniature of a blacksmith's anvil (side-embossed with "K of L" initials) resting on a tree stump, one of the recognized symbols of the Knights of Labor.

Peacock blue "Daisy and Button" 
finger lamp.

"Egyptian" lamp in sun-colored amethyst.

Meteor lamp with the 
original bracket.

Peacock blue "Tear Drop" bowl with "Tear Drop" base. (left)
"Dogtooth and Panel" footed finger lamp in green Depression glass. (right)

Basket in a milky blue.

Bird dish in orange amber.

Leaf dish in pink clambroth.

The "Pressed Octagon" syrup is made of white milk glass then painted with a floral pattern. This same type of painted design is also seen on glass lamp shades made by Hemingray. The paint is original and was applied after production at the Hemingray Glass Company in Covington, Kentucky.

The Depression glass green syrup is the
"Daisy and Button Panel" pattern.

An early glass block (above) with welded metal side band and 
two newer styles including a block with a painted glaze and 
one that is smoke-colored.

H. G. CO. black glass beer bottle and C. B. Owen soda 
bottle in cobalt blue both made in Covington, Kentucky.

The outline of a zeppelin embossed on the side of the Graph bottle.

An orange carnival coating enhances the Sun Punch bottle (left) and the Universal Home utility bottle (right).

TOBACCO JARS
Hemingray made all the Globe tobacco jars. These come in several embossed and many shades of amber, from a straw-like amber to almost black glass and everywhere in between! Hemingray also made some of the American Eagle and Hiawatha jars.

MATCH SAFE
One of the most sought after go-withs is the K Of L (Knights Of Labor) match safe. It is a glass anvil on a tree stump. It has a design patent of Mar 1, 1887 (17,148). There is a great explanation of what the K of L match safe is all about in Insulators, a History and Guide to North American Glass Pin type Insulators (John and Carol McDougald, 1990, pp. 70-71). 

To date these are known in depression glass green, yellow amber and peacock blue. They are all the colors that insulators were made in during that time frame!

OIL LAMPS 
Hemingray made quite a lot of different patterns of oil lamps. They come in four major types: stand lamp, finger lamp (also called a "flat lamp"), footed finger, and bracket lamp. There are four standard colors and one not-so-standard one. They are peacock blue, amber, depression glass green and clear. The nonstandard color is an olive green (almost black glass). To date only one of these has been reported. You also see SCA from time to time. 

One of the more desirable stand lamps is the Egyptian pattern (very few of these are known) . It has an Egyptian head in the center, it comes in frosted glass and light SCA (light SCA being the more rare of the two). The most common lamp is the meteor style bracket lamp.

BASKET
The glass basket is quite an interesting piece. It has two patent dates on the bottom, July 21st 1874 and April 5th 1881 awarded to the designer. It comes in many of the same colors as the bird dishes.

BIRD DISHES
The bird dish is a bird shaped dish with a detailed pattern of feathers on it. This dish has a design patent of Feb 1 1876 (Design patent #8,942) and comes in about 16 different colors! These include: amber, yellow amber, clear, light blue, peacock blue, peacock milk glass, clam broth, pink clam broth, dark pink milk glass, purplish pink milk glass, and white milk glass.

LEAF DISHES
There is little known about the leaf dish. It has not been 100% proven to be of Hemingray origin, but it most likely is. This piece shares attributes of both Hemingray Glass Co. and Atterbury Glass Co. If I had to guess, I would say, "yes, these are Hemingray," because they come in the same colors as the bird dishes.

SYRUP PITCHER 
Hemingray Syrup pitchers come in a couple of shapes, sizes and colors. The most common of these being the white milk pressed octagon. The pressed octagon has been found in white milk, blue milk, painted green milk and amber. The pressed octagon has a wide variety of painted patterns on it. The daisy and button pattern syrup has the same pattern as the Hemingray made lamp does! It comes in amber, depression glass green, and peacock blue.

WHITE HOUSE VINEGAR
Hemingray made some of the White House vinegar jugs and the "onion bottle". The jugs have a nice graphic representation of the White House on them and are an ice aqua color. Some of the jugs have a patent date of Mar 6 1909. The clear ones are NOT Hemingray made.

GLASS BLOCKS
Hemingray glass blocks come in a variety of sizes and patterns. The blocks made at the Hemingray Muncie plant have an 86 embossed on them to the left of the Owens Illinois logo (). The older ones have a welded metal band along the side The newer style doesn't have the metal band. They come in ice aqua, off clear, smoked colored and a painted glaze.

BOTTLES
Hemingray also produced a wide range of bottles. The Hemingray black glass beer was made in Covington, Kentucky. It has the same embossing, "H.G.CO." on the base as seen on insulators. The C.B. Owen soda bottle was also made in Covington in the same time frame as the black glass H.G.Co. beer. 

They also made ice colored bottles in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Two interesting bottles are the Graph Zep bottle from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the Sun Punch beverage bottle. 

The Universal Home Bottle was a utility bottle made in the late 1920s to early 1930's. It is an ice colored bottle with a carnival coating.

There are many more things that Hemingray made and this is just a sampling. To find out more about Hemingray Go-Withs and how to identify them, visit:

The Hemingray on-Line Museum at: 
http://www.hemingray.net.
You will find hundreds of photos of 
Hemingray-made glass items!