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Classic Sugar Bowl

Collections

American Decorative Arts

ClassificationsDECORATIVE ARTS

Dateca. 1882

Mediumglass

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Purchased with funds from the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation

Status

Not on view

Label TextActive in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, between 1867 and 1900, Gillinder and Sons was one of several American glassware manufacturers specializing in pressed glass in the last quarter of the 19th century. The company is best known for colorless glass designed in a wide variety of forms and styles to appeal to the changing tastes of America's burgeoning middle classes. The frosted glass surface of this ware was created by using an acid-etching technique developed around 1870.

Gillinder's popular "Pioneer" pattern was introduced about the time of the United States' Centennial celebration in 1876. With its frontier theme, complete with log cabin, buffalo, deer, and kneeling Native American, this pattern—known today as "Westward Ho"—reflects a national nostalgia for the fast-disappearing Western wilderness.

The decorative motifs in Gillinder and Sons' "Classic" pattern allude to forms seen in neoclassical sculpture, for example in Chauncey Bradley Ives's Pandora in the collection. The vessels' pointed gothic arches and rustic log feet, however, also reflect the rich stylistic eclecticism that characterized much mid-19th century American art.

Object number2001.27.9