American artist Mary Gregory (1856-1909) was born in Providence, Rhode Island, to John and Hannah A. Gregory. Her mother was a schoolteacher. and Mary also taught school from 1876 to 1879. She left her teaching career to work as a glass painter at the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company (B&SGC, a glass company in Cape Cod, Massachusetts), beginning in January 1880.

Mary worked at the factory for only four years, painting glassware, table lamps, and decorative panels, but it was this work that made her name so famous that her painting style was picked up by a variety of manufacturers in the Old and New Worlds, and became known as the Mary Gregory style. The production of Mary Gregory style glassware at the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company continued after her departure.

Mary, her sister and probably her students used white enamel (crushed glass with thickeners and dye) in their work. After painting, the piece was fired, which caused the paint layer to firmly fuse with the glass base.

The Mary Gregory style was revived in the twenties of the twentieth century. Mary Gregory glassware was produced by various glass companies in the USA, Bohemia, England, Italy. And some manufacturers produce it to this day. The name has become so firmly established in everyday life that it is now difficult to separate the original glassware with Mary’s painting from its subsequent imitations. And yet it is possible, even for non-professionals.

The fact is that the works of the twentieth century are inferior in quality of painting to the original works of the nineteenth century. Handwork was eventually reduced to stencil painting. The liveliness and volume inherent in drawings with a live brush disappeared. Repeated firings were too expensive and were abandoned. But in Mary’s time, this was a necessary stage. After the first firing, bright small details and strokes were added to the drawing, giving the plot expressiveness. Such details were easier to create by “carrying out” – removing part of the paint layer.