Maine glass on exhibit at state museum

AUGUSTA – Stained-glass windows, glass lampshades, patent-medicine bottles, antique marbles and even glass-beaded Native American clothing are among 2,000 items on display in a new exhibition at the Maine State Museum.

“It’s a gorgeous exhibit,” said Edwin Churchill, the museum’s chief curator. “The unifying element is simply the use of glass in Maine.”

“Reflections of Maine: Glass from the Maine State Museum” opened Saturday and will remain on display for five years.

The items, all either made in Maine or used here, date from the late 17th century through the mid-20th century.

Pieces made by the Portland Glass Co., which folded in 1873 after only a decade in operation, are featured, as well as lanterns, mirrors, candlesticks, ink bottles and so-called figural bottles – a type of sculpture in glass.

The original sign from the defunct but legendary E. Klaman bottle shop in Portland, which held several floors of used bottles until a few years ago, is on display near a collection of bottles from the shop itself.

Three massive stained-glass windows, including a 10-foot-wide circular window from a Bath church and two 16-foot windows that graced the Senate chamber in the State House until 1911, provide a dazzling focal point along one wall.

Although the exhibit is sure to appeal to aficionados of antique glass, museum officials are confident it will prove popular with a broader audience.

“It’s going to open eyes and bring audiences into the museum that normally wouldn’t come,” said Denis Thoet of the Friends of the Maine State Museum.

Planning for the exhibit began three years ago and actual construction got under way this spring, Churchill said.

The range of the exhibition – both in the time frame it covers and in the objects that it includes – is sweeping. The display covers 1,400 square feet.

“If you spend less than an hour [touring the exhibit], you’re going to miss so much” because of the exhibit’s size and variety, Churchill said. “If you spend more, you’re going to keep discovering things.”