Three Rivers Glass Show, April 28-29 2017

Notes from the 2017 Three Rivers Glass Co. show, which marked the 80th anniversary of the factory’s closing. The show draws Crystalvac collectors and Three Rivers historians together for a weekend of display tables, trades, and talks. What follows is a running set of facts picked up between conversations and the historical-marker walk, preserved here in the collector-notebook style we use for history posts.

Ball Glass closure of TRGCo

Ball Glass Company was found guilty of monopoly behavior, including buying competitors in order to shut them down. Acting on inside information, Ball blocked a government loan to Three Rivers Glass Co. and purchased the company in 1936. They fulfilled existing orders until closing the factory in 1938. TRGCo was the last competitor Ball was able to buy and shut down.

Glass molds were sometimes owned by the customer that ordered them, so Crystalvac molds could still exist out in the world — but the stock Three Rivers molds were likely destroyed by Ball when the factory was closed.

Sand, rail, and logistics

Quartzose sand for making glass was sourced from a fourth-generation family quarry in Whitsett, Texas, upstream from Three Rivers. A railroad depot in Three Rivers helped get the town established, and TRGCo had a spur built next to the factory to easily ship glass around the state — including up to San Antonio, where H and H Coffee had its own spur to receive Crystalvac jars. Eventually rail rates were raised by 33% and TRGCo switched to hauling glass on trucks. At the Texas historical marker for the glass factory, now at a gas station, two sets of railroad tracks continue south past a large oil refinery.

Open questions for collectors

• No one has found a TRGCo three-pound Crystalvac jar.
• No one has found a three-pound Crystalvac jar in amber glass.
• There are two shades of TRGCo amber glass, dark and honey.
• The TRGCo promotional calendar from 1932 has a large and a small version.

The Austin one-pound jar

A collector of East Texas soda bottles in Corpus Christi had stumbled on an amber Crystalvac jar that we were able to add to the collection. A few months later he forwarded us a photo of a clear one-pound jar with a paper label, taken at an antique shop in Austin. We called the shop to track it down and sent the photo over, but they couldn’t find it. We’d missed it — but we at least knew one existed, so there could be more.

We found that jar again today, on one of the collector’s display tables at the show. Mac bought the jar in Austin, and it was featured on the front page of The Progress newspaper to announce the show.

Instagram 2017-04-29: Three Rivers Glass historical marker.