Main Menu

Figured Flask

Skip to main content
Collections Menu

Figured Flask

Manufacturer Kensington Glass Works (American, 1816-1833)
Place of OriginKensington, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Date1824-1838
Dimensions8 3/16 in. (20.8 cm)
Mediumglass
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1917.358
Not on View
DescriptionPuce-colored. Blown in a full-size two-part mold (McKearin G.I-96) that formed body and base. On the obverse: a profile bust of Benjamin Franklin. On the reverse: a three-quarter profile bust of Thomas W. Dyott, M.D., proprietor of Kensington Glass Works. The base is plain except for a rough pontil mark. Capacity: one quart.
Label TextThe portrait of Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) on this flask was based on a print after Jean-Antoine Houdon's bust of Franklin sculpted in 1778 (the Museum has a cast of this bust in Gallery 28A of the main building). On the reverse is a three-quarter profile bust of Thomas W. Dyott, M.D., proprietor of Kensington Glass Works. Dyott was a druggist and patent-medicine manufacturer who extended the use of traveling agents (salesmen), designed phials and bottles for his products (including figured flasks), and eventually owned and operated several glasshouses until his bankruptcy in 1838.Published ReferencesBarber, Edwin AtLee, American Glassware, Old and New: A Sketch of the Glass Industry in the United States and Manual for Collectors of Historical Bottles, Philadelphia, Patterson and White, 1900, p. 41, no. 4.

McKearin, George S., and Helen McKearin, drawings by James L. McCreery, American Glass, New York, Crown, 1941; rev. ed., 1948; McKearin, Helen and Kenneth M. Wilson, American Bottles and Flasks and Their Ancestry, New York, Crown, 1978; etc., G.I-96, p. 530, no. 96.

Helen McKearin, Bottles, Flasks, and Dr. Dyott, New York, Crown, 1970, G.I-96, pp. 96-97, no. 8.

McKearin, Helen A., and Kenneth M. Wilson, American Bottles and Flasks and Their Ancestry, New York, Crown, 1978, G.I-96, pp. 547, 79-88, 413, fig. 117; pp. 455, 513-514, no. 11.

Wilson, Kenneth M., American Glass, 1760-1930: The Toledo Museum of Art, New York: Hudson Hills Press in association with the Toledo Museum of Art, [Lanham, Md.]: National Book Network [distributor], c1994; 2 v. (879 p.): ill. (some col.); 32 cm., 1994, p. 113, no. 44, colorpl. 44, p. 79.

Exhibition HistoryNew York World's Fair, 1939.
Figured Flask
Kensington Glass Works
1826-1835
Union Glass Works, Kensington, Pennsylvania
1826-1835
Figured Flask
Dyottville Glass Works
1847-1855
Figured Bottle (Calabash)
Whitney Brothers Glass Works
1851-1855
Figured Bottle (Calabash)
Ravenna Glass Works
1857-1865

Membership

Become a TMA member today

Support TMA

Help support the TMA mission