Fenton is now the largest handmade glass company in the United States, and it is still family owned and operated.

When Scott Fenton was growing up, he had two powder blue lamps in his bedroom from the company that bears his surname. He has passed those lamps on to his own two-year-old son, along with a rich tradition in the family business.

Fenton Art Glass was founded in 1905 by Frank L. Fenton and his brother John in an old glass factory in Martins Ferry, Ohio, the company says. Fenton began by painting decorations on blank glass made by other companies. Fenton is now the largest handmade glass company in the United States, and it is still family owned and operated.

Fenton Art Glass commands the market for handmade decorative glassware made in the U.S. and has gained popularity in the gift and collectibles industry during the last 15 years. Although Scott Fenton says the collectibles industry has suffered recently, collectible products in the Fenton line continue to be highly sought after.

"Fenton will always be collectible, and it can be spread all throughout the home," Fenton says. "Our designs are useful, beautiful to display and certainly collectible. There's a unique story about each piece we make."

Vast Product Line
The company has thrived in the last 100 years by developing new designs and colors every year. Fenton says his aunt, Nancy Fenton, director of design, has the most challenging job in the company. Fenton credits his aunt for separating the company from its competition with her creative designs and ability to reinvent the Fenton line each year.

"We have roughly 500 items in our catalog, and Nancy's team updates nearly 60 percent of it each year," says Fenton, who is vice president of sales. "This is very difficult but our ability to introduce new and exciting colors and designs is important to our success."

Nancy Fenton is always on the lookout for new colors, as well. The company's color palette is what separates its glassware from its competitors, especially when considering the company has produced more than 60 shades of blue in its history.

"We take shapes from the past and put them in the colors of today," Fenton says. "The unique part of our glassware is what we put into it, as well. We put silver, 22-karat gold, fluoride, depleted uranium and other rare materials in the glass batch to get our unique treatments."

Fenton still creates its products in an old-fashioned manner. Fenton says the company is continuously making new iron molds by hand chipping them into shape. It is this old-time tradition that, Fenton believes, keeps the company among the industry leaders in the collectibles and home decor industries.

Market Changes
Through the up and down years the decorative glassware industry has experienced, Fenton could always depend on staples like the mom-and-pop furniture dealers and antique and home decor stores to keep products on its shelves. But Fenton says big-box retailers have gobbled up a substantial portion of this market share and the company now uses various channels of distribution for sales, including direct-mail catalogs and the Internet.

Fenton says the company still has approximately 4,000 independent stores around the United States. Some of Fenton's largest customers outside the stores are QVC, Lenox Catalogs and Cracker Barrel.

Global Market
Globalization is affecting Fenton Art Glass in much the same way it affects most American businesses: pricing. Fenton believes Fenton glass is still on top in terms of quality of designs and range of colors, but the price is something the company still fights every day.

"One thing that sets us apart from any import is quality because of our stringent standards," Fenton says. "I would hope a glass connoisseur familiar with Fenton could easily select a piece of Fenton vs. an import when holding one in each hand. The main difference being color and quality."

As an example, "Most of the time air bubbles and seeds in our glass are considered defects, when it's acceptable in most imported ware. We want our glass to be clean and crisp, and air bubbles are just one of many different defects in glass. We do not accept those defects where others would."

Fenton has been acknowledged by its innovation in designs and quality work by the gift and collectibles industry. Fenton says in the last three years, Frances Burton, Robin Spindler and Kim Barley, all designers at Fenton, have been recognized with a variety of gift and collectibles awards.

100 Years of Family
Fenton Art Glass is still owned and operated by the Fenton family, as it has been through its first 100 years of business. Fenton takes pride in producing an American-made product with 350 workers in its plant in Williamstown, W.V., which is staffed by union steelworkers.

The company has a variety of training programs that support each crafting method. For example, a normal training period to sculpt glass could last around five years.

Trainees must have the ability to perform a number of crafting techniques before graduating to a "skilled" level. Glass decorators are trained on specific patterns as they are developed. Fenton says training for the different patterns can take weeks.

Centennial Celebration
Fenton Art Glass will be celebrating its centennial anniversary this year with a five-day celebration from July 29 to Aug. 5 at its plant in Williamstown. Events will include chances for collectors to make and decorate their own art glass and to watch master craftsmen making glass live. Ebay University will be on hand to discuss the Fenton market on its auction Web site, and QVC will broadcast live from the events.