people · updated 2026-08-28
Texas Glass, 1989
confidence: single-source weakest: ev-0042
Michael David Smith, author of the only book-length history of Three Rivers Glass, published in 1989
Michael David Smith published Texas Glass: An Illustrated History of The Three Rivers Glass Company, 1922-1937 in September 1989 through his own Austin imprint, Starsmith. It is the only dedicated book-length history of the company, and the expert wiki holds it as ev-0039. The book’s acknowledgments name people who also appear in ev-0041 — members of the Tips family, and participants in the 1973 marker dedication. Thirty years after its first printing, the Bottle Research Group’s 2019 chapter on Three Rivers Glass marks cited it throughout alongside Toulouse, Roller, and Creswick as a primary reference.
The book
Smith published Texas Glass under the imprint Starsmith | Austin. The book’s colophon records: “1st Printing: September 1989, printed by Atwood Printing, New Braunfels, Texas” [ev-0039]. A contact address appears in the book: 4400 Adelphi Lane, Austin, Texas 78727 [ev-0039]. The book is forty-five pages in the held edition, an illustrated history that covers the company from its founding in 1922 to the foreclosure in 1937 and closes with a collector price list for Three Rivers glassware.
Starsmith is Smith’s own imprint. No held document records it publishing any work other than Texas Glass.
The acknowledgments
Smith acknowledged five names in the book’s front matter: Martha and David Tips, Mrs. Viola Ebel Adlof, Mr. S. J. Stewart and family, Mr. Lonnie Stewart, and photographer Mr. Charles Arnott [ev-0039].
Martha and David Tips were members of the founder’s family. Their presence in the acknowledgments indicates Smith had access to the Tips household; no held document identifies them further or states what they provided. Viola Ebel Adlof appears in ev-0041: she was present at the May 26, 1973 marker dedication and read Charles Tips’ prepared address aloud after the car accident at Waco prevented Tips from attending. S. J. Stewart and family appear in ev-0041: a July 5, 1973 letter from S. J. Stewart to Thelma Lindholm thanks her for allowing him to photograph the dedication events, noting that “practically all my family, wife, mother and brothers, and of course myself, worked there at one time or another.” Lonnie Stewart is named in the acknowledgments alongside S. J. Stewart; he appears in ev-0041 in a separate context, as someone connected to the factory’s ownership records. What he provided to Smith’s research is not stated. Charles Arnott is identified as the book’s photographer; no other held document names him.
The overlap between Smith’s acknowledged sources and the people documented in ev-0041 is the clearest evidence of how the book was constructed: Smith had access to Tips’ extended circle — family members, factory employees, and participants in the same 1973 marker project that produced the core of ev-0041.
The book’s standing
The Bottle Research Group’s 2019 chapter — ev-0042, the most rigorous published treatment of Three Rivers Glass marks — cites Smith 1989 throughout. The opening paragraph of the BRG’s history section draws on “Roller 1997; Smith 1989:1-7” for founding detail [ev-0042]. The chapter cites Smith alongside Toulouse and Roller — standard references in American glass-marks research — placing the book in the secondary literature the marks-research community treats as authoritative. BRG published thirty years after Smith’s first printing; its citation confirms the book’s standing as a reference work in the field.
What this expert does not hold about him
No held document gives Smith’s birth year, education, occupation, or any personal history beyond the Austin contact address on the book’s cover. How he came to research Three Rivers Glass Company — whether through collector interest, family connection, or access to a specific archive — is not stated in any held account. Whether the five people he acknowledged represent the full set of his informants, or whether additional people, archives, or documents contributed to the book, is not stated. What materials the acknowledged sources provided to him — and whether any of those materials are or are not among the evidence items in this evidence base — is not in any held account. How the collector price list values were established, and whether they drew on collector-community input beyond Smith himself, is not stated. Whether his Austin imprint produced any work beyond this book is not in the held record.