This website is dedicated to our friends Charles and Barbara Coulter, long-time Pairpoint collectors and dealers, and the reason this Pairpoint research project ever came into being. No one, including themselves, could ever know the importance of the role they played in preserving the Pairpoint legacy for all time. Others participated along the way, and played important roles, but the seed was planted when Charlie handed us that first Pairpoint invoice that he had found in the factory ruins before the big fire. Pairpoint enthusiasts everywhere owe Charlie and Barbara a debt of gratitude; we know we do! Our love to you both.

                                                               Marion and Sandy

The appreciation and collecting of Mt. Washington Art Glass, Brilliant-era Heavy Cut Glass, and Pairpoint Corporation's beautiful colored and engraved glass, along with other decorative arts products, has never been stronger than what it is today. I believe it has everything to do with the inherent beauty of design and the flawless execution of manufacture. Anyone that has been hands-on with these products, made 75 to 130 years ago, marvels at the incredible detail and accuracy of the workmanship. Many fail to reflect upon the fact that these products were almost completely hand-made, one at a time, in commercial quantities.

As we launch our website, we know that many people having only the most distant relationship with Pairpoint and its legacy, or none at all, will browse these pages. We know that some visitors will want to pursue their newly discovered passion. We think it is only appropriate, therefore, that our viewers come to understand the driving philosophy that established the excellence that is associated with the Pairpoint name.

In the year 1879, Thomas J. Pairpoint, who gave his name to the newly formed Pairpoint Manufacturing Company, wrote a series of articles for the Jeweler's Circular, a trade publication. From one of the articles written late in 1879, Mr. Pairpoint expressed his philosophy that….

“In art manufactures of all kinds, taste should exercise a controlling influence in every department, visibly asserting itself in ornamental designs, and imparting a character to our industrial productions, which cannot fail to be recognized and appreciated; it enables us to beautify and elevate our works, and is always scrupulously careful to exclude even a suggestion of vulgarity. The natural desire of the human mind is to decorate and adorn, and when this desire is governed and controlled by taste, the result is an unqualified source of pleasure.”… “By the term taste, we mean a carefully cultivated judgment resulting from earnest study and research, in which the several forms and methods of decoration are duly considered; by this study we are enabled to bring together and compare the various styles that have been produced at different periods, and by nations under whose fostering care the fine arts have flourished.”…”In the earlier times of manufacturing, it was simply mechanical suitability that was required, but as society and education advances, it is necessary to combine beauty with fitness, and those who show the evidence of superior taste and elegance in their productions cannot fail to have the merit of their works recognized.”

To those visitors who already have a relationship with Pairpoint and its products, we think you will agree that no profusion of words could say what we know any better than Mr. Pairpoint himself. And as a testament to the veracity of his comments, Mr. Pairpoint's "mandate" for excellence carried on for another 70 years, through several reincarnations of the company and numerous managers. If you are new to the Pairpoint experience, please enjoy yourself and spend some time among these pages. We are very happy to have you as our guest..

Marion E. Frost, Jr.

March 2, 2013

Article No. 13-03-02