In 1925, the Societe Holophane Francais established a subsidiary named Verlys to make art glass vases and bowls. Initially they made blown pieces with several layers of glass. In 1933, they focused on high quality press-molded glass.
They produced clear, frosted, opalescent, and colored items with designs typical of Lalique-style glass of the 1930's. Their designs were naturalistic and included plants, flowers, birds, fish and mermaids. Some pieces had abstract geometrical patterns. Each year they produced a catalog with new designs. Their production normally has a molded signature "Verlys France" or "Verlys Made in France".
Art glass production in both France and the USA stopped during World War II, as the company focused on war time production. After the war, Verlys production decreased in both countries until it ceased altogether in the United States in 1951-52 and in France in the early 1960s.
In 1955 some of the Verlys of America molds were leased to the Heisey Glass Company, also located in Newark Ohio. Heisey produced a limited range of Verlys products until 1957 at which time they returned the molds. Heisey did not sign their Verlys pieces.
In 1966, the Verlys molds were sold to Fenton Art Glass Company. Fenton produced some items using the Verlys molds from then through 2011 when Fenton closed. Fenton did not sign these pieces with a Verlys mark. In 1970, Fenton marked their contemporary carnival Verlys pieces with their standard "Fenton" in an Oval mark. In 1983, Fenton started to use a Scripted Capital "F" in an oval mark which signifies that the molds were not originally Fenton's. However, Fenton did not use this mark on Verlys molds. Fenton's catalogs often did use the term Verlys when listing a piece.
