Casket, Cover, and Tray

Place of OriginMassachusetts

Date1835-1840

DimensionsH (together): 13.3 cm (5 1/4 in.); H (casket with cover): 12.5 cm (4 15/16 in.); H (casket without cover): 7.1 cm (2 25/32 in.); L (casket rim): 16.3 cm (6 13/32 in.); W (casket rim): 10.2 cm (4 in.); L (casket base): 12.8 cm (5 1/32 in.); W (casket base): 6.5 cm (2 17/32 in.); L (stand): 17.8 cm (7 in.); W (tray rim): 11.3 cm (4 7/16 in.)

MediumOpalescent deep blue glass, pressed.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Harold G. Duckworth

Object number

1968.34A-C

Not on View

DescriptionCasket: pressed upright in a female mold of four vertical sections, opening at the corners, with the sides bearing a pattern of ribs with Gothic arches and hearts on the body and a vesica-and-dome pattern on the rim, with a base plate that formed the almost flat base with 20-rayed elongated medallion, by a plain male plunger that formed that interior and probably the top rim of alternating shallow arches and points. Cover: pressed upside down in a plain one-piece female mold, in conjunction with a female mold of two sections opening diagonally that formed the finial, by a male plunger bearing a pattern of three arches on each side and on each end, with three rows of short ribbing on each corner, and two four-pointed stars at each end of its lower section. Tray: pressed upside down over a plain male mold that formed the interior and exterior of the alternating shallow scallop-and-point rim by a female plunger bearing the pattern of hearts and stars on the sides and conventional pattern on the base, with a cap ring that formed the underside of the rim and the narrow vertical edge below it. The foot ring is a fine cable on the outer edge of a flat band.

Label TextWhen viewed by backlight or other transmitted light, the blue color of this three-part casket reveals a fiery opalescence, an appropriate transformation for an object designed to evoke the romantic mystery of the Gothic medieval past. In its decoration and its form, which may represent a medieval jewel box or even a tomb, the casket expresses the Gothic Revival style that became fashionable during the second quarter of the 19th century.Published ReferencesLee, Ruth Web, Sandwich Glass: The History of the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company, 7th ed., Northboro, Mass., author, 1947, pp. 418, 426, pl. 168, right;

McKearin, George S. and Helen McKearin, drawings by James L. McCreery, American Glass, New York, Crown, 1941; rev. ed., 1948, p. 338, pl. 134, no. 2.

Rose, James H., The Story of American Pressed Glass of the Lacy Period, 1825-1850, exh. cat., Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, N.Y., 1954, p. 71, no. 81, cover ill.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Art in Glass: A Guide to the Glass Collections, Toledo, Ohio, 1969, color repr. p. 82;

Winchester, Alice, Editorial, Antiques, vol. 100, July 1971, repr. p. 82 frontis., p. 83b;

Wilson, Kenneth M., New England Glass and Glassmaking, Old Sturbridge Village Book, New York, Crowell, 1972, p. 276, fig. 239, top left;

Innes, Lowell, Pittsburgh Glass, 1791-1891: A History and Guide for Collectors, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1976, p. 271, fig. 278 (tray); pp. 276-277, fig. 288.

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. 68, no. 158.

The Elsholz Collection of Early American Glass, 3 vols., Hyannis, Mass., Richard A. Bourne, 1987, vol. 1, no. 237 (colorless).

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, p. 31, no. 49, p. 93.

Barlow, Raymond E. and Joan E. Kaiser, The Glass Industry in Sandwich, ed. Lloyd C. Nickerson, 3 vols., Windham, N.H., authors, vol. 1, 1993, repr. p. 121, no. 1051.

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. 364, no. 485, colorpl. 485, p. 252.

Page, Jutta-Annette, The Art of Glass: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art, 2006, p. 149-150, repr. (col.) Fig. 63.1, p. 149.

Exhibition HistorySpillman, Jane Shadel and Suzanne K. Frantz, intro. by Nina A. Asharina, Shedevri Amerikanskogo Stekla [Masterpieces of American Glass from the Collections of the Corning Museum of Glass and the Toledo Museum of Art], exh. cat., Moscow, Soviet Press, 1990, p. 59, no. 46, repr. p. 61.