Sugar Bowl

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

Place of OriginEast Cambridge, Massachusetts

Dateabout 1830-1840

DimensionsH with cover 25.2 cm (9 15/16 in.); H bowl 14.3 cm (5 5/8 in.); D rim bowl 12.85 cm (5 1/16 in.); D foot 10.5 cm (4 1/8 in.)

MediumColorless glass; Bowl: blown and finished by tooling.

ClassificationGlass

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

Object number

1953.75

Not on View

DescriptionTwo applied ribs around neck. Over-gather around lower section patterned in a 16-rib dip mold. Rim wound with fine thread. Joined by a double wafer to a medial knop stem, then by a wafer to the large circular foot. Rough pontil mark. Cover: blown and finished by tooling. Domed top and finial patterned in a 16-rib dip mold. Rough pontil mark on interior of cover under finial. Applied ribs and thread.

Label TextThe shape of this large sugar bowl (and inversely, the cover) is derived from that of classical urns. The interplay of horizontal and diagonal lines characterizes the design from finial to foot and creates an overall effect of controlled motion. The New England Glass Company, known for its quality production, concentrated on the production of flint glass—highly refined glass made with lead oxide. It operated for 70 years in East Cambridge until relocating in 1888 to Toledo, Ohio. There, it continued to produce fine glassware as W. L. Libbey & Son and later as the Libbey Glass Company, under the leadership of Edward Drummond Libbey, founder of the Toledo Museum of Art.Published ReferencesMcKearin, George S. and Helen McKearin, drawings by James L. McCreery, American Glass, New York, Crown, 1941; rev. ed., 1948, pp. 159-160, pl. 55, no. 5.

Rogers, Millard F., Jr., "American Glass: 1608-1940, " Toledo Museum News, vol. 4, no. 3, Summer 1961, pp. 51-70, repr. p. 65.

Rogers, Millard F., Jr., "The Story of American Glass," Toledo Museum News, vol. 9, no. 3, Autumn 1966, pp. 51-70; rev. and reprinted as a Toledo Museum handbook, repr. p. 60.

Rogers, Millard F., Jr., "American Glass [TMA's purchase from McKearin collection]," Antiques, vol. 78, October 1960, pp. 364, 370, p. 484, fig. 17.

Schwartz, Marvin D., Collector's Guide to Antique American Glass, Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, 1969, repr. p. 74.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Art in Glass: A Guide to the Glass Collections, Toledo, Ohio, 1969, repr. p. 74.

Keefe, John W., "A Comparison of the Products of the New England and the Boston and Sandwich Glass Companies," pt. 1, The Glass Club Bulletin of the National Early American Glass Club, nos. 96-97, December 1970-March 1971, pp. 3-12; pt. 2, The Glass Club Bulletin of the National Early American Glass Club, no. 98, August 1971, pp. 3-7, p. 5, repr. fig. 3.

Newman, Harold, An Illustrated Dictionary of Glass, London, Thames and Hudson, 1977, repr. p. 250.

Fauster, Carl U., Libbey Glass Since 1818, Toledo, Ohio, Len Beach Press, 1979, repr. p. 192, no. 5; p. 217, no. 1.

Spillman, Jane Shadel and Suzanne K. Frantz, Masterpieces of American Glass, Corning Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, Lilian Nassau, Ltd., New York, Crown, 1990, repr. p. 21, fig. 30, p. 92.

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, 1994, p. 185, no. 156, colorpl. 156, p. 153.

Page, Jutta-Annette, The Art of Glass: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art, 2006, p. 135-136, repr. (col.) p. 135.

Exhibition HistoryToledo, Ohio, The Toledo Museum of Art, The New England Glass Company, 1818-1888, 1963, p. 62, no. 13, repr. p. 40.

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 19th Century America, 1970, no. 49. repr.

Toledo, Ohio, The Toledo Museum of Art, Libbey Glass: A Tradition of 150 Years, 1818-1968, 1968, p. 55, no. 5.

Tallinn (USSR), Museum of Applied Ats; Leningrad, State Hermitage Museum; Moscow, Museum of the State Institute of Glass, Masterpieces of American Glass, 1990, p. 21, 23, fig. 30 (col.).