Sugar Bowl

ManufacturerPossibly Providence Flint Glass Works (American, 1831-1833)

Place of OriginPossibly Providence, Rhode Island

Date1831-1833

DimensionsH (with cover): 14.4 cm (5 21/32 in.); H (without cover): 9.45 cm (3 23/32 in.); Rim Diam: 12.5 cm (4 15/16); Base Diam (bowl): 6.9 cm (2 23/32 in.); Max Diam (lid): 11.3 cm (4 7/16 in.)

MediumDeep cobalt-blue glass; pressed.

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Harold G. Duckworth

Object number

1968.57

Not on View

DescriptionBowl: pressed upright in a female mold of three vertical sections bearing the pattern of three double-headed eagles, each surmounted by a basket of flowers and fruit, with an acanthus leaf separating the eagles, the scalloped foot, and the leaf or tongue motif around the rim, including its top surface, with a base plate that formed the bottom of the foot and hollow base, decorated with a series of triangular cross-section rays terminating on the underside of the base in a ring of dots surrounded by a ring of diamonds whose points are oriented between the dots, by a plain male plunger. Cover: pressed, apparently upside down, in a one-piece female mold bearing the pattern for the six acanthus leaves, in conjunction with a female mold of two vertical sections that formed the mushroom-knopped finial, by a plain male plunger.

Label TextIn the beginning, pressed designs copied the angular, geometric patterns of luxury cut glass, but a genre of so-called “lacy” designs unique to pressed glass quickly evolved. These were extremely intricate and typically incorporated scrolls, hearts, flowers, and other motifs against a stippled background. Besides the patriotic motif of double-headed eagles above shields, the design on this sugar bowl includes floral baskets and classical acanthus leaves. It is a rare example of colored glass made in New England in the 1830s.Published ReferencesMcKearin, George S. and Helen McKearin, drawings by James L. McCreery, American Glass, New York, Crown, 1941; rev. ed., 1948, p. 363, pl. 163, no. 3.

Lee, Ruth Web, Sandwich Glass: The History of the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company, 7th ed., Northboro, Mass., author, 1947, p. 400, pls. 154, bottom left, 156, top right;

Keyes, Homer Eaton, "Museum Examples of Sandwich Glass," editorial, Antiques, vol. 34, July 1938, pp. 20-22 (Reprint 2, pp. 45-46), fig. 5, left.

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, nos. 163, 218, 223.

Wilson, Kenneth M., New England Glass and Glassmaking, Old Sturbridge Village Book, New York, Crowell, 1972, p. 287, fig. 244;

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. 45, no. 76, pl.

Barlow, Raymond E. and Joan E. Kaiser, The Glass Industry in Sandwich, ed. Lloyd C. Nickerson, 3 vols., Windham, N.H., authors, vol. 4, 1983, repr. p. 118, no. 1043.

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. 348, no. 441, colorpl. 441, p. 251.

Page, Jutta-Annette, The Art of Glass: Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, Toledo Museum of Art, 2006, p. 149-150, repr. (col.) p. 151.