Jar and Cover

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Jar and Cover

ManufacturerPossibly Boston and Sandwich Glass Works (American, 1826-1888)

Place of OriginUnited States, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

Date1860-1880

Dimensionswith cover: 5 1/8 × 2 3/8 in. (13 × 6 cm)
without cover: 3 3/8 in. (8.6 cm)

Mediumglass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1917.585

Not on View

DescriptionJar (body): pressed upright in a female mold of two or three vertical sections, opening on opposite sides and possibly at the middle of the back, with a base plate that formed the underside of the feet and the slightly indented base of the body, with a cap ring that formed the top of the jar, by a plain male plunger. No pontil mark. Cover (head): pressed upside down in a female mold of three vertical sections, one for each side of the face and the head strap of the muzzle and one for the back of the head, with a cap ring that formed the shoulder on which it rests on the body and a short extension that extends inside the body, by a plain male plunger. No pontil mark. So-called black, probably dense amethyst, lead glass.

Label TextThis type of bear-shaped jar was probably used to contain bear-grease pomade, a popular men’s hair dressing in the second half of the 19th century.Published ReferencesLee, Ruth Webb, Early American Pressed Glass, Wellesley Hills, Mass., author, 1960, pp. 495-496 (discusses bear jars and illustrates several, pl. 207, but none like this); p. 641, pl. 127, row 3, no. 25 (drawing).

Spillman, Jane S., American and European Pressed Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning Museum of Glass Catalog Series, Corning, N.Y., Corning Museum of Glass, 1981, p. 284, nos. 1115-1118 (smaller types).

Spillman, Jane Shadel, Glass Bottles, Lamps, and Other Objects, New York, Knopf, 1983, no. 112.

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. 500, no. 831.