The Federal Glass Co. has its origins around 1900 and was started up in Columbus, Ohio.It was closed around 1979 having had a long and storied history of glassmaking in the U.S. Most people knew it originally as a maker of glass jars and bottles, but they branched out with tableware and other glass items in the 1920s.

They are probably most well known as a maker of Depression glass - I've found very little information about their later opal white glass mugs with decal and fired-on designs. At least it is pretty easy to tell when you've found one of their mugs - the "F" inside a Shield mark is unmistakable (except for beginning collectors who sometimes think it stands for "Fire King"). There are several different shapes of mugs available which I'll try to detail here later on. Other than that, I really have no information about Federal mugs. They are readily available and collector demand for them does not appear to be as high as some of the other manufacturers.


Federal - Zodiac Mugs