Greece’s first glasswork factory

Among the enterprises that shaped the industrial history of Hermoupolis, the glassworks of Dimitrios Argyropoulos stands out as the first of its kind in Greece.

Dimitrios Christou Argyropoulos was born in Argos in 1834 and, at around the age of fifteen, moved to Syros. He began his career in commerce, but gradually turned to industry, undertaking an ambitious venture for the time: establishing an organized glass manufacturing plant in Syros, at a moment when Greece was only beginning to develop its first modern industrial enterprises.

The business became known as the “Hermes Anonymous Glassmaking Company”, while on the company’s letterhead Argyropoulos himself used the distinctive wording:

“Greek Glassworks Hermes. The first in Greece — Founded in Syros in 1870.”

“Hermes” began operating with a 15-horsepower steam engine and 55 workers. Production required specialized equipment, technical expertise, and skilled glassmakers. As the years passed, the enterprise became increasingly connected with European industrial know-how. By 1882, the factory was equipped primarily with machinery of French origin and employed skilled French and Austrian craftsmen. The fine clay used in production was imported from Fontainebleau, France. Thus, Syros received not only goods, but also the materials and technical expertise required by modern industry.

The result was a remarkable variety of products.

The “Hermes” manufactured vases, plates, serving dishes, bonbonnières, carafes, bottles, containers, lamp glasses, wine bottles, crystalware, and lighting fixtures, as well as many other utilitarian and decorative objects.

Production followed French and Bohemian techniques, and the factory also produced colored glass. Particularly striking is the surviving information concerning red glass: during the early years, gold was used as a coloring agent.

The glassworks’ products were distributed mainly throughout the Cyclades and the Peloponnese, as the port of Ermoupolis enabled Syros’s industrial production to connect with a wider commercial network. The same city that imported European goods and raw materials could, in turn, export Greek manufactured products to other parts of the country.

By the end of the nineteenth century, the history of the “Hermes” shifted geographically. In 1894, Argyropoulos purchased the Meletopoulos glassworks in Piraeus. Two years later, in 1896, the business appears to have been operating in Piraeus, while, according to the surviving accounts, the Syros plant continued to operate until 1898.

The “Hermes” was passed down to subsequent generations of the Argyropoulos family. In 1935–1936, Christos D. Argyropoulos was a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Greek Industrialists and Manufacturers. By then, “Hermes” had become part of the organized world of Greek industry.

At the Industrial Museum of Hermoupolis, products manufactured by Ermis are preserved and displayed, allowing visitors to witness first hand a small fragment of this largely forgotten industrial history, together with the most tangible traces of an era when Hermoupolis was not merely a beautiful neoclassical port, but one of the most ambitious industrial centers of the modern Greek state.