Spoon Holder

Place of OriginProbably New England

Date1860-1870

DimensionsH: 11.1 cm (4 3/8 in.); Rim Diam: 8.7 cm (3 7/16 in.); Base Diam: 7.7 cm (3 1/32 in.)

MediumCanary-yellow lead glass.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Harold G. Duckworth

Object number

1965.23

Not on View

DescriptionPressed upright in a female mold of three vertical sections bearing the Comet pattern that formed the upper surface of the foot, stem, and body, with a cap ring that formed the plain side and top of rim, by a plain male plunger, in conjunction with a second male plunger, or plug, that formed the plain cylinder below. The moldmarks extend from the lower edge of the foot across the top of the foot, then vertically to the right edge of the lowest circle in the tail of every other comet and then follow the curved right edge of the comet to the underside of the plain rim. Held in a snap tool and the short hollow cylinder below reheated and tooled to form the outer portion of the foot. Rim heavily fire-polished. Polished pontil mark.

Published ReferencesLee, Ruth Webb, Early American Pressed Glass, Wellesley Hills, MA, author, 1960, pp. 147-157 (Comet, or horn-of-plenty, pattern), form no. 20, pls. 32, 47, 48.

McKearin, George S. and Helen McKearin, drawings by James L. McCreery, American Glass, New York, Crown, 1941; rev. ed., 1948, pp. 395, 396, 400, 401, repr. pl. 205, no. 7; also pl. 205, no. 2 (plate), no. 10 (tumbler); pl. 211, no. 2 (covered casket); pl. 213, no. 3 (compote).

Innes, Lowell, Pittsburgh Glass, 1791-1891: A History and Guide for Collectors, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1976, pp. 334-335.

Spillman, Jane S., American and European Pressed Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning Museum of Glass Catalog Series, Corning, NY, Corning Museum of Glass, 1981, pp. 258-260, nos. 1018-1034 (pattern).

M'Kee and Brothers, M'Kee Victorian Glass: Five Complete Glass Catalogs from 1859/60 to 1871, ed. with intro. and test by Lowell Innes and Jane S. Spillman, Corning, N.Y., and New York, Corning Museum of Glass in association with Dover, 1981, p. 18 (repr. of page from M'Kee 1859-60 catalogue: "6 in. Comet nappie and cover, $2.50 per doz."), p. 55 (repr. of page from M'Kee 1864 catalogue: "6 in. Comet nappie and cover," not on price list), p. 131 (repr. p. 9 from M'Kee 1868 catalogue: "6 in. Comet nappie and cover," not on price list).

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. 483, no. 792, colorpl. 792, p. 263.