The firm was founded by Frederick Stuart who purchased the Red House Cone in Stourbridge in 1881. It rapidly became one of the big three glassworks in Stourbridge (Stevens and Williams, and Webb being the other two), although the range of production is probably the least well known. It was famously at the Red House Cone site that Philip Pargeter produced the blank for John Northwood‘s Portland vase. Stuart produced much cameo glass, but lead crystal was also produced here, a range Stuart would continue for the rest of its years of operation. They specialised in Art Nouveau forms, for example trailed glass vases were blown into moulds interrupting the threads. Trails and teardrop motifs were used by many factories, Stuart followed suit. Arguably the best of these were ‘Peacock trails’. These consists of a trail with a decorative form in two shades of green, appearing as Peacock feather eyes. These were also produced in clear on clear, mauve on clear, and chocolate on citron.

At the end of the First World War the celebrated Bohemian engraver Ludwig Kny (1869-1937) became chief designer and worked closely with Robert Stuart designing new cut patterns which became the main production of the factory. In the 1920s the first coloured enamelled patterns appeared, either applied freehand or by using a transfer from an engraved copper plate for the initial outline, with many of these copper plates made personally by Kny. The enamelling was often applied to cocktail sets, some with very Art Deco patterns or with designs featuring flowers, fruit and butterflies and even spiders. Fighting cocks and huntsmen were other popular themes. The colours used were mainly strong shades and those designs using enamelling over acid etching have the strongest colours.

Engraved forms followed the modernist movement. Stuart cutting is extremely well executed and a range of top artists designed for them including Vanessa Bell, Dame Laura Knight, Paul Nash, Ernest Proctor, Eric Ravilious, Graham Sutherland, Gordon and Moira Forsythe. In the late 1940s John Luxton introduced a number of successful modern designs. The 1950s saw Stuart follow the designer themes of the age and this continued into the 1970s when traditional patterns were re-introduced. In 1995 the Stuart family sold the concern to the Wedgwood Waterford group. Sadly poor management and a lack of vision lead to the closure of the Stourbridge site.