Italy





The Virginia Company of London made a second attempt to produce glass at Jamestown in the 1620s when a group of Italian glassmakers arrived in the colony. This group of craftsmen planned to make drinking vessels. It is likely that they wanted to produce clear glasses instead of vessels that were green because of the large amount of iron oxide in the beach sand used as the source of silica. Another item that the Italians intended to manufacture was glass beads that the colonists would trade to the Indians. It is probable that the glass beads used in the Indian trade came from Venice, the center of glass production. The Spanish purchased beads that they exchanged with Indians in Venice.

The Italian glassmakers did not have much luck in their attempts to produce glass at Jamestown. First, they either built or rebuilt a glass house. A hurricane blew down this structure. Next, one of the couples had a fight and the husband decided to use an iron rod to attack his wife. This glassmaker hit the furnace instead of his wife. Later, the furnace exploded because of a crack that it received when the glassmaker struck it with an iron rod. The 1622 Indian attack also limited efforts to make glass. Finally, the Italians informed George Sandys that the sand near Jamestown did not produce good glass. Sandys did not locate a source of better sand and the glass makers were sent back to Italy.