Sugar Bowl

ManufacturerPROBABLY South Boston Flint Glass Works (American, 1813-1827)

ManufacturerOR New England Glass Company (American, 1818-1888)

Place of OriginUnited States

Date1820-1830

DimensionsH with cover: 14.0 cm (5 1/2 in.); Bowl H: 10.3 cm (4 1/16 in.); Rim L: 11.2 cm (4 13/32 in.); Rim W: 8.7 cm (3 7/16 in.); Base L: 9.0 cm (3 9/16 in.); Base W: 6.9 cm (2 23/32 in.)

MediumColorless glass.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1953.14

Not on View

DescriptionBowl: blown, by the blow-over and crack-off process, in a mold of two, or perhaps four, vertical sections and a base plate bearing a series of 43 rays radiating from an irregular oval in the center to the edge. Rim ground and polished. No pontil mark. Cover: blown in the same manner as the bowl in a similar two-piece mold. Lower edge ground and polished. Applied finial formed in a finely ribbed dip mold, then twisted to produce a swirl pattern. No pontil mark.

Label TextWhile the reputation of a flint glassworks might rest upon the quality of its luxury cut glass, its ultimate success probably depended upon its goods made to appeal to middle class taste and middle class pocketbooks. American glassmakers made imitation luxury cut ware for the middle market by perfecting a process of blowing a molten gather of glass into a multi-part, hinged mold that determined the glass object’s shape, size, and pattern. Designs could be modeled after the geometric patterns of cut glass thereby satisfying stylistic demands, while the use of molds assured a uniformity and speed of production that made the ware affordable.Published ReferencesWatkins, Lura Woodside, "An Antecedent of Three-Mold Glass," Antiques, vol. 36, August 1939, pp. 68-70 (Reprint 1, pp. 57-59), pp. 69-70, repr. fig. 4.

McKearin, George S. and Helen McKearin, drawings by James L. McCreery, American Glass, New York, Crown, 1941; rev. ed., 1948, p. 144, repr. pl. 124, no. 9.

Ruth Davidson, "Toledo and Glass," Antiques, vol. 84, November 1963, repr. p. 596.

Wilson, Kenneth M., New England Glass and Glassmaking, Old Sturbridge Village Book, New York, Crowell, 1972, p. 211, fig. 161.

Fauster, Carl U., Libbey Glass Since 1818, Toledo, Ohio, Len Beach Press, 1979, repr. p. 192, no. 38.

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. 213, no. 225.

Page, Jutta-Annette, The Art of Glass: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art, 2006, p. 144-145, repr. (col.) fig. 60A, p. 145.

Exhibition HistoryThe Toledo Museum of Art, The New England Glass Company, 1818-1888, exh. cat., Toledo, Ohio, 1963, p. 67, no. 75, repr. p. 52.