Figured Flask

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Figured Flask

Manufacturer Kensington Glass Works (American, 1816-1833)

Place of OriginKensington, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Date1824-1830

Dimensions6 3/4 in. (17.1 cm)

Mediumglass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1917.366

Not on View

DescriptionAlmost colorless. Blown in a full-size two-part mold (McKearin G.I-91) that formed body and base. On the obverse: a three-quarter profile bust of the Marquis de Lafayette in uniform. On the reverse: an American eagle with rays above and grasping an oval cartouche in its talons. The base is plain except for a moldmark and a faint, rough, open pontil mark. Capacity: one pint.

Label TextThe fashion for flasks bearing the likenesses of patriots and politicians was largely spawned by the celebrated tour of the United States that the Marquis de Lafayette made between 1824 and 1825. As a young French aristocrat, Lafayette (1757–1834) had fought in the American Revolutionary War alongside General George Washington. Fifty years later Lafayette received a hero’s welcome as he traveled across the nation over a period of 13 months. The resulting “Lafayette mania” was unprecedented in American consumerism and was arguably the beginning of the trade in souvenir and commemorative glassware that continues to this day. The flask also features De Witt Clinton, Governor of New York.Published ReferencesMcKearin, 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-91, pp. 530-531, no. 91.

Helen McKearin, Bottles, Flasks, and Dr. Dyott, New York, Crown, 1970, G.I-91, p. 96, no. 5 (91); p. 36, fig. 7; p. 37, fig. 8; pp. 92-96.

McKearin, Helen A., and Kenneth M. Wilson, American Bottles and Flasks and Their Ancestry, New York, Crown, 1978, G.I-91, pp. 546-547, 79-88, 441-445, 456-463.

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. 114, no. 46.