Pair of Lamps, Whale-Oil
Pair of Lamps, Whale-Oil
Place of OriginNew England
Date1827-1830
DimensionsH: 7 3/4 in. (19.7 cm); Base W: 3 7/32 in. (8.15 cm)
MediumColorless glass
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Mrs. Harold G. Duckworth
Object number
1969.147A-B
Not on View
DescriptionFont blown and finished by tooling. Joined by a multiribbed knop to a short stem on a three-tiered pedestal on a square plinth. Base pressed by a bench press upside down in a one-piece female mold bearing the pattern of leaves on its middle tier by a male plunger conforming to the shape of the exterior and bearing the balance of the pattern for the interior of the hollow base and also forming the undersurface of the perimeter of the base. Rough pontil mark in the uppermost part of the hollow base. The slightly everted lip indicates that this lamp was intended to be fitted with a threaded collar.
Published ReferencesLee, Ruth Webb, Sandwich Glass: The History of the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company, 7th ed., Northboro, Mass., author, 1947, pl. 189, no. 3 (similar lamp).
McKearin, George S. and Helen McKearin, drawings by James L. McCreery, American Glass, New York, Crown, 1941; rev. ed., 1948, p. 380, pl. 190, no. 2 (lamp with the same base).
The Elsholz Collection of Early American Glass, 3 vols., Hyannis, Mass., Richard A. Bourne, 1987, vol. 2, no. 1115 (pair of lamps with the same base, or possibly a slight variant of it with additional stippling above the inverted fleur-de-lis).
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. 315, no. 369.
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