Federal Glass mark (F in a shield)

How to read it

Federal Glass was chartered in 1900 and broke ground for its Columbus factory on 1 June that year. It made jars, bottles and tableware at first and had turned entirely to tableware, especially tumblers, by 1927 (Bill Lockhart and colleagues, Society for Historical Archaeology). The shield mark was in Federal’s catalogues by at least 1927. A Federal sales representative, John C. Peters, suggested it as a mark for fruit jars, but the registration covered glass tumblers, tableware and kitchenware and excluded bottles and jars, and collectors have found no jars with it. The USPTO record gives 1 August 1932 as the first use. By the 1920s its tableware patterns included Madrid, and the National Depression Glass Association, which collects them as Depression glass, shows Federal advertisements for Patrician and Sharon from 1936.

Also searched as: federal glass, federal glass mark, f in a shield.

When it was registered

The SHA researchers say Federal obtained the trademark on 6 December 1944. The USPTO record shows that was the date of the application: registration no. 437,890 was issued on 6 April 1948. It was not renewed and has expired.

Federal after 1958

On 30 June 1958 the company became the Federal Glassware Division of Federal Paper Board Co. By the early 1970s 40% of its business was tumblers for oil companies, given away at gas stations with a fill-up, until the 1973 oil embargo ended the promotions. Its general manager announced the end of glassmaking on 31 January 1979 and the plant closed on 1 April 1979, the SHA researchers write; the NDGA gives 1980. For the 1976 Bicentennial, Federal reissued Madrid as Recollection, with 76 added to each mould. Indiana Glass bought the moulds and took the 76 out, the NDGA says.

Mistaken for other marks

The Anchor Hocking Glass Museum notes that the F in a shield is often taken for Anchor Hocking’s Fire-King. Shields with letters on old mouth-blown Mason jars are a different matter: the jars are too early for Federal’s mark, and the SHA researchers think those shields are almost certainly not makers’ marks at all.