Stiegel, Henry William (1729–1785)

German-born US ironmaster and glassmaker who emigrated to Philadelphia in 1750. By 1758 he was operating an iron manufactory in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, which soon was one of the most successful in the colonies. In 1764 he began the first of his three glass factories; in addition to making standard sheet glass, he employed German, Venetian, and English glassblowers to make some of the most widely marketed glass tableware of the time.

He was born in Cologne, Germany. Although his glass wares were not signed and there are several varieties of ‘Stiegel ware’ – including those coloured wine-red, amethyst, and blue, and some with molded patterns – purists prefer to limit the term to a fine flint or green variety of glassware with engraved or enameled decoration. Legendary for his lavish expenditures, by 1774 he was bankrupt and imprisoned for debt, and his business never truly recovered after that.