1182. Henry Skinner10 Fillebrown (Samuel9, Samuel Sprague8, James7, Richard6, Isaac5, Thomas4, Thomas3, Humpfrey2 Phillibrowne, Robert1 ffilebrowne)(11600) was born in Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts April 10, 1839.(11601) His son's Death Certificate states the birth place to be Meridan, Connecticut but his birth is recorded in the Vital Statistics of Cambridge. Henry died circa 1910. His body was interred circa 1910 in Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. He was buried at the Cambridge Cemetery located at 76 Coolidge Avenue.

Henry married Emily A. Burdakin June 19, 1864.(11602) Emily was born October 18, 1843 in Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.(11603) She lived in the area known as "East Cambridge". Emily(11604) was the daughter of Joseph Burdakin and Hannah R. Southwick.

Emily died circa 1921. Her body was interred circa 1921 in Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. She was buried at the Cambridge Cemetery located at 76 Coolidge Avenue.

When Emily was age 21 and Henry Skinner Fillebrown was age 26 they became the parents of Sylvestus Lincoln Fillebrown May 4, 1865 in Somerville, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.(11605) His Death Certificate states the place of birth to have been East Cambridge. It is noted that he was born 19 days after Abraham Lincoln died and this leads to the speculation that his middle name was chosen to honor the President.

Emily, as Henry's wife, resided with him in Meriden, New Haven County, Connecticut circa 1878.(11606) He resided in Meriden for ten years.

This is a family picture.(11607) This was probably taken at their home at 52 Hillside Drive Medford, Massachusetts before 1909. Note that Henry is not with the family and also note the "52" on the door frame and the fact that it was their address on the 1910 U.S. Population Census but not on the 1900 census.

Emily was listed as Henry Skinner Fillebrown's wife on the 1910 Census in Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.(11608) Emily, as Henry's wife, resided with him in Medford Hillside, Middlesex County, Massachusetts circa 1910.(11609) The address was 52 Hillside Road where the family had lived for about fifteen years by 1910. At the time of the 1910 Census Henry and Emily owned the house and their son, Sylvestus and his family lived there as renters.

Henry was employed at New England Glass Works as a Glass Engraver in Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts circa 1854.(11610) He served his apprenticeship, as a glass engraver, in East Cambridge followed by ten years at Meriden, CT. The following article: "A glass engraver's design book, 1860-1880.(Henry S. Fillebrown ) in The Magazine Antiques | August 1, 2005 | Spillman, Jane Shadel" reported that "In the third quarter of the nineteenth century, engraved glass became very popular in the United States. While it was certainly produced in this country earlier in the century, it was expensive and probably not available at most tableware factories. Engravers in several eastern cities advertised that they decorated glass with monograms and crests, but in practice, not much engraving was done here in the earliest part of the century except at the Pittsburgh factory established by Benjamin Bakewell (1767-1844) in 1808, where it is well documented. However, this had changed by mid-century. By the 1840s, factories that produced fashionable tablewares, such as the New England Glass Company in East Cambridge, Massachusetts, had more than one engraver on staff. By the 1860s, several Midwestern glasshouses even offered their customers the option of having inexpensive pressed tablewares decorated with engraving. The growing taste for engraved decoration was not unique to the United States. It originated in Bohemia, which seems to have had the greatest number of engravers in the middle of the nineteenth century, and spread to England, the rest of continental Europe, and the United States. Indeed, most of the engravers who were in the United States were born and trained in Europe and emigrated in search of better wages and living conditions. Most of the glass cutters were also trained abroad, in England and France, and came to the United States for the same reasons. Identifying the work of individual engravers is difficult, and attributing designs to specific glasshouses is nearly impossible because some popular motifs, such as grapes and grape leaves, were made everywhere. However, a very few nineteenth-century engravers' design books do survive, and they make it possible to identify some patterns. The most complete such book yet found documents the patterns of the New England Glass Company and last belonged to an engraver there named Henry S. Fillebrown. Using this hand-drawn book and a number of glasses that have descended in the families of three New England Glass Company engravers, it is possible to identify some of the patterns made by the company. Fillebrown was born in 1839, the son of Samuel Fillebrown, an Englishman who was a glass cutter at the New England Glass Company. In 1854 or 1855, when he was fifteen or sixteen, Henry was apprenticed to Franz Doms, an engraver at New England. Because Doms left in 1857, Fillebrown's training lasted only two or three years, which was short by European standards. Information about Doms is sketchy, but Louis Vaupel, another engraver at the company, mentions Doms and his apprentice several times in his brief autobiography. He referred to Doms as a German from Bohemia and says that he worked intermittently at the New England Glass Company in the 1840s and 1850s. Fillebrown's career as an engraver was peripatetic. Vaupel mentions him as one of the company's engravers in 1858, and states that he was rehired in 1863 without saying when he left or where he went (to be continued)."

"Vaupel was an experienced German engraver who worked at the New England Glass Company from 1851 until about 1885 and held the title first engraver from 1853. (4) While Doms was training Fillebrown, between 1853 and 1856, Vaupel was training Henry Barnes Leighton. Leighton was the son of John Hamilton Leighton (1814-1879), the foreman of the blowing room, and the grandson of the firm's first superintendent, Thomas H. Leighton (1786-1849). When Henry Leighton finished his engraving apprenticeship with Vaupel at the age of nineteen, he worked for the New England Glass Company for several years. He later served in the army during and after the Civil War, then returned to the Boston area, where he worked as an engraver at one or more of the local glasshouses before moving to the Meriden Flint Glass Company in 1876."

This is a bit of history. Carl U. Fauster writing in American Glass about Louis Vaupel and the New England Glass Company referred to Mr. Fillebrown. "Vaupel was superintendent of the engraving department, which included, during the 1860's and 1870's, such highly skilled engravers as Henry S. Fillebrown and Henry Leighton, both of whom did exquisite work."

When Henry was age 26 and Emily A. Burdakin was age 21 they became the parents of Sylvestus Lincoln Fillebrown May 4, 1865 in Somerville, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.(11611) His Death Certificate states the place of birth to have been East Cambridge. It is noted that he was born 19 days after Abraham Lincoln died and this leads to the speculation that his middle name was chosen to honor the President.

Henry was employed at organization unknown as occupation unknown in Wheeling, Ohio County, West Virginia circa 1865.(11612) Continued ... "From 1865 to 1870 he was at Hobbs, Brockunier and Company (1845-1891) in Wheeling, West Virginia, a glasshouse that had been established by workers who left the New England Glass Company in the 1840s and maintained many contacts with that firm. From 1870 to 1877 Fillebrown was back at the New England Glass Company; then in 1878" (to be continued).

Henry was employed at New England Glass Works as a glass engraver in Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts circa 1870.(11613) Continued... "From 1870 to 1877 Fillebrown was back at the New England Glass Company; (to be continued).

Henry resided in Meriden, New Haven County, Connecticut circa 1878.(11614) He resided in Meriden for ten years.

Henry was employed at Meriden Flint Glass Company as a glass engraver in Meriden, New Haven County, Connecticut circa 1878.(11615) Continued.... "then in 1878, at the age of thirty-nine, he went to Meriden, Connecticut, to engrave for the Meriden Flint Glass Company (1874-1888). In 1880, he left glass engraving entirely."

"The Fillebrown design book is the most extensive known record for engraved glass tableware produced in the United States in the period from 1850 to 1880. Although it is not helpful in distinguishing the work of specific engravers, it is a useful tool for identifying New England Glass Company pieces and glass styles of that time. Although the book is still in the possession of Fillebrown's family, a microfilm copy is available to researchers in the Juliette K. and Leonard S. Rakow Research Library of the Corning Museum of Glass."

Henry was listed as the head of a family on the 1910 Census in Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.(11616) Henry resided in Medford Hillside, Middlesex County, Massachusetts circa 1910.(11617) The address was 52 Hillside Road where the family had lived for about fifteen years by 1910. At the time of the 1910 Census Henry and Emily owned the house and their son, Sylvestus and his family lived there as renters.

Henry was employed at his own business as a glass engraver in Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts circa 1910.(11618) This is a bit of history. In his book, New England Glass and Glassmaking, Kenneth M. Wilson wrote about Mr. Fillebrown and shows an example of his work. "Among the many skillful cutters and engravers employed by the New England Glass Company, three were especially outstanding: Louis Vaupel, Henry Leighton, and Henry S. Fillebrown." "Fillebrown's work at the New England Glass Company is well represented by the finely engraved pitcher shown in Figs. 280A and 280B (pg. 334). The engraving is done through a casing of gold-ruby-red glass to colorless glass on the interior."

This is a bit of history.(11619) "Fillebrown's design book, which is now owned by his great-grandson, contains 477 numbered drawings, mostly of borders and cartouches (see Pls. VI, X, and Figs. 1-3). The cover and twelve pages of a similar book owned by Vaupel were given to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, by his granddaughter in 1976. (7) A comparison of the two reveals that the numbered designs in both are identical, which means that they were company patterns, not individual ones. It is truly amazing to think that a glass company at this time offered 477 different border designs from which a customer could choose, and, in practice, it may be that relatively few were actually used. Each book also contains a separate section of unnumbered designs, which were probably created by the individual engraver. In addition, at the back of Fillebrown's book are some drawings of birds and animals, as well as some pictures pasted in, probably things the artist thought might be inspirational.

Interestingly one page of the numbered designs in Fillebrown's design book is initialed HL at the lower right, and the initials HBL are found in the unnumbered section as well. This raises the possibility that the book was originally created by Henry Barnes Leighton, rather than by Fillebrown, whose name or initials do not appear anywhere in it. Leighton and Fillebrown were only a couple of years apart in age, they served their apprenticeships at the same time, and they both worked at the Meriden Flint Glass Company in 1878, apparently overlapping there for about six months before Leighton's death at the age of forty-one. Perhaps because they had been colleagues at the New England Glass Company, Leighton's book was simply given to Fillebrown after Leighton's death.

Whatever the history of the design book, it seems likely that the apprentice engravers at the New England Glass Company were required to draw the patterns as part of their training. Each workman owned his own treadle-operated engraving apparatus and a set of wheels, and the drawings would have been part of their equipment. Thus, although Fillebrown's book is undated, it was probably completed in the mid-to late 1850s, the period of his (and Leighton's) apprenticeship and early work. The twelve surviving pages of Vaupel's book contain the address where he lived from 1872 to 1877, but he presumably began drawing in his book when he was first hired in 1851 and used it until the New England Glass Company closed in 1888."

Henry Skinner Fillebrown and Emily A. Burdakin had the following child:

Photo

Sylvestus Lincoln Fillebrown
1865 - 1959
Undated

Provided by Tim Badger
Sylvestus' Step-Great-Grandson


child + 1607 i. Sylvestus Lincoln11 Fillebrown was born May 4, 1865.

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