Figured Flask

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Figured Flask

Manufacturer Coventry Glass Works (American, 1813-1850)

Place of OriginCoventry, Connecticut, United States

Date1824-1830

Dimensions7 7/16 in. (18.9 cm)

Mediumglass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1917.399

Not on View

DescriptionOlive-amber glass. Blown in a full-size two-part mold (McKearin G.I-80) that formed body and base and the horizontal ribs on the sides. On the obverse: a profile bust of the Marquis de Lafayette in civilian dress. On the reverse: a profile bust of De Witt Clinton, governor of New York, in civilian dress. The base is plain except for a moldmark and a rough 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 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 DeWitt Clinton, governor of New York, who initiated the building of the Erie Canal.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, pp. 56, 58, no. 31.

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-80, pp. 528-529, no. 80.

White, Harry Hall, "More Light on Coventry and Its Products," pt. 2, "Flasks Other than 'Railroad,'" Antiques, vol. 38, November 1940, pp. 225-227 (Reprint 1, pp. 150-152), pp. 225-227, figs. 10, 11.

McKearin, Helen A., and Kenneth M. Wilson, American Bottles and Flasks and Their Ancestry, New York, Crown, 1978, G.I-80, pp. 544-545, 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.); p. 113, no. 43, colorpl. 43, p. 78.

Page, Jutta-Annette, The Art of Glass: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art, 2006, p. 131-132, repr. (col.) fig. 53.1, p. 131.