The SGAA Offices received this incredible video courtesy of member Daniel Oppliger to share with our community. The approximately 15 minute video shows the entire process of creating a window from concept to construction and packing for transport at Jacoby Art Glass based in St Louis.
We will premiere the video LIVE on YouTube on November 17, 2021 at 4pm Eastern Standard Time. Join us to watch and we can comment and chat about what we're seeing in the comment section. "See" you at the Movies!
This video was submitted to our archives this summer – huge thanks to Daniel Oppliger for helping bring it to light and identify some of the gentlemen in the video with the help of his father, past President Fred Oppliger.
Fred Oppliger learned glass painting, worked as a Shop Superintendent, Salesman, and General Manager; then in 1928 he became President of Jacoby Art Glass. He attended his first SGAA convention in 1922, and never missed a meeting from 1922 to 1959. He served as President from 1927 to 1928 and was elected General Secretary in 1930, a position he continued to hold until 1959.
Many photos, slides and sketches are from the archives at the Carondelet Historical Society, St. Louis, MO—this was filmed in the late 1940's by the American Manufacturers Association.
More on Jacoby Art Glass
This video shows the Jacoby Art Glass firm in the building they purchased in 1945 and operated out of for the next 25+ years at 822 Wilmington, St. Louis, MO. Jacoby Art Glass was founded in St. Louis, Missouri in 1869. Around 1900 records show a change in leadership and the company was renamed Jacoby Art Glass Company. In 1922 after the deaths of H.H. and Charles Jacoby, the Oppliger family took the helm of the company and oversaw operations until 1970. Jacoby Art Glass was a major pioneer of dalle de verre work.
“Faceted glass was coming in, and after first rejecting it as too cumbersome (requiring steel reinforcing for the concrete). We were introduced to epoxy compounds by Bob Benes, who was a chemist with our cement (waterproofing) and putty supplier. He was starting his Benesco Company, and we made a number of samples to learn the technique. Now all we had to do was convince a client to utilize this new material, and more importantly, with us. Our first such installation was in a small Methodist Church in Chillicothe, Missouri. Not long thereafter, in 1961, we furnished and installed the 23 ft. diameter faceted glass skylight in the S1. Louis Chancery Office, designed by Ernoe Koch.”
Following are some screenshots from the video.
