Vase

Manufacturer Libbey Glass Company (American, 1892-1919)

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

Date1883-1893

DimensionsH: 20.1 cm (7 29/32 in.); Max Rim Diam: 8.0 cm (3 3/32 in.); Base Diam: 13.7 cm (5 3/8 in.); Max W: 24.7 cm (9 23/32 in.)

MediumAmberina glass; blown and molded

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Marie W. Greenhalgh in memory of her parents, Alice Libbey Walbridge and William S. Walbridge

Object number

1958.63

Not on View

DescriptionBlown and patterned in an eight-rib dip mold, then finished by tooling. Joined by an irregular knop to a base patterned in the same mold, blown, and finished by tooling. Rim of bowl ground and polished irregularly at a later date to repair damage. Rough pontil mark.

Label TextTwo Massachusetts glasshouses, the Mount Washington Glass Company in New Bedford and the New England Glass Works in East Cambridge, simultaneously created a transparent glass that shaded from yellow-amber to ruby red. Frederick Shirley of Mount Washington apparently made his “Rose Amber” first, but Joseph Locke at the rival firm filed for a patent for his version, known as Amberina, in July 1883, before Shirley did. The innovative glass was made by mixing a small amount of colloidal gold into a batch of transparent amber glass.Published ReferencesBaer, Nell Jaffe, "Joseph Locke and His Art Glass," Auction (Parke-Bernet Galleries), vol. 2, no. 8, April 1968, pp. 10-12; reprinted The Glass Club Bulletin of the National Early American Glass Club, no. 98, August 1971, pp. 8-12, repr. p. 11.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Art in Glass: A Guide to the Glass Collections, Toledo, Ohio, 1969, repr. p. 111.

Fauster, Carl U., Libbey Glass Since 1818, Toledo, Ohio, Len Beach Press, 1979, p. 197, no. 204; repr. p. 225, no. 1.

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. 604, no. 968, colorpl. 968, p. 577.

Page, Jutta-Annette, The Art of Glass: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art, 2006, p. 158, repr. (col.) p. 159.

"2007 NAGC seminar, Toledo, May 9-12," Glass Shards (Newsletter of the National American Glass Club), Winter 2006-2007, repr. p. 2.

Exhibition HistoryThe Toledo Museum of Art, Art in Crystal: A Historical Exhibition of Libbey Glass, exh. brochure, Toledo, Ohio, 1951, n.p. (8) (lent by Mrs. Greenhalgh).

The Toledo Museum of Art, Libbey Glass: A Tradition of 150 Years, 1818-1968, Toledo, Ohio, 1968, p. 67, no. 204, repr. p. 41.

Brooklyn, N.Y., Brooklyn Museum, The American Renaissance, 1876-1917, 1979, repr. p. 140, fig. 107, p. 220.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Libbey Glass: Triumphs of the Factory, 1888-1920, August 14-September 25, 1988 (no catalog).