SHORELINES | ART & CULTURE
LET IT Smith Mountain Lake resident Tony Giesen is preserving important remnants of history for future generations to enjoy. S
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ony Giesen’s official title is professor of mathematics. He is the longest-serving faculty member at Ferrum College, and students from four different decades will tell you numbers are definitely his passion. But perhaps the numbers that excite Giesen the most are ones that represent his other love — collecting and preserving cut glass from the American Brilliant Period. “It is the only major collection in the state of Virginia, one of only a few across the nation, and I’ve been putting it together since I was 15. I’ll be 75 in February,” said Giesen. In 2007, Giesen permanently lent the more than 250-piece collection to Ferrum College to create the Anthony Giesen Gallery of American Brilliant Cut Glass. A pitcher cut in the herringbone pattern is one of its signature pieces. “After being named winner of the best design for American Brilliant Cut Glass at the 1904 World’s Fair, it was purchased by relatives of the Bunn family, of Bunn coffee makers,” he explained. “It was part of this lineage for 90 years until I bought it. It is the rarest of the rare.” It is the history of the artwork that fascinates Giesen as much as its rarity and beauty. Glass cutting dates back to around 1,500 B.C., when ancient Egyptians
LEFT Ferrum College professor Tony Giesen stands inside the gallery created to showcase his collection of cut glass from the American Brilliant Period. RIGHT A pitcher cut in Libbey’s herringbone pattern is one of the signature pieces in Giesen’s collection.
began cutting shapes into glass for decoration, he said. Centuries later, the American cut-glass industry began producing its own style, which reached its peak between 1876 and 1917. Giesen said the period, known to cut glass aficionados as the Brilliant Period, produced works that rivaled those produced in other, more established countries such as England and Ireland. Such frivolities became less important in the wake of World War I, leaving only 40 years’ worth of the luxury items to memorialize the era. What each sparkling item represents is priceless to a collector such as Giesen. “My mother had a couple cut glass pieces, and one day I was looking at them, thinking they were SMITHMOUNTAINLAKE.COM
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