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Altaglass

Altaglass was a glass compnay in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada begun in 1950 by John Furch.

John Furch, his wife and daughter immigrated from Czechoslovakia in the late 1930's, stopping first in England before moving to Ontario, Canada in 1949.

John was trained as a welder in Czechoslovakia but took up glass making while in England, working at the Nasing Glass Works. In Ontario John worked for the Glass Guild Company in Stratford Ontario and Chalet Glass in Cornwall, Ontario. He was interested in setting up his own glass company but could not find adequate fuel resources. John's searching lead to dicussions with the Medicine Hat's Chamber of Commerce who indicated that a good source of gas was readily available at Medicine HatList of city nicknames in Canada.

John and his family, now including son-in-law, Les Stagg, moved to Medicine Hat and along with his daughter and son-in-law, designed and built the furnaces, kilns and tools to start their new glass company, Altaglass. The glass was hand made daily by John, and later Les. . Throughout the following years other glass artists worked for Altaglass contributing their vast taletns to the Altaglass legacy.

Altaglass produced products in clear as well as coloured glass. Their products were manufactured using pressed, blown and free form techniques. Their products ranged from the functional, lamps, buttons,pitchers, and vases to the more decorative including animal figurines and paperweights.

The Altaglass furnaces were in continual use from 1950 until 1981 when they were shut down due to soaring fuel costs. Altaglass kept their doors open using Pyrex glass rods heated with blowtorches, but finally closed its doors in 1988.