Standard Oil Red Crown Gas Globe — Rodefer-Gleason Mold Reproduction | The Faded Label Co.

The mold outlived the company that cut it. Rodefer-Gleason Glass Co. of Bellaire, Ohio operated for over a century before it closed for good in 1982, and when the factory went to auction, this globe's original tooling is what we came home with. Every piece in this run is cast from that same mold — not a modern reinterpretation, not a resin knockoff, but glass pulled from the genuine article. This is a reproduction, cast new and sold as such.

Milk-glass gas globe, single-lens crown form, standing approximately 16-17" tall including base. Cast in heavy glass with raised lettering and crown detail on both faces. This is the September drop — 30 pieces are in production now and prepared to ship September 1st. It's a limited run, not a one-time run; more will follow as future batches are cast. Ships in reinforced glass packaging with "Fragile — Glass" marking and double-boxed for transit — photos of the actual shipping carton are included so you can see exactly how it travels.

Rodefer-Gleason traced its roots back to 1869, when the National Glass Works opened on the same Bellaire site the company would occupy for over a hundred years. The Rodefer family took ownership in the 1870s, and by 1952 a merger with Gleason-Tiebout gave the company its final name. Rodefer-Gleason spent its life making industrial and lighting glass for other manufacturers — lantern globes, lamp parts, glass components built to spec rather than sold under its own name. The Red Crown trademark it's now known for by way of this mold belonged to Standard Oil of Indiana, which began topping its pumps with cast-glass crown globes around 1917 — red for Red Crown Regular, with white, blue, gold, and green following for other grades. The crown became one of the most recognized shapes on the American roadside, visible from a distance long before a driver could read the pump.

The perfect piece for petroliana collectors rounding out a globe display, classic car enthusiasts finishing a garage build, gas station history buffs who missed the originals at auction, man-cave centerpieces that need real presence, and gifts for the collector who has the mugs and clocks already and wants something with weight to it — literally and otherwise.

The Faded Label Co. — keeping the golden age of American roadside art alive, one product at a time.