Creamer

Maker Unknown, American

Collections

American Decorative Arts

ClassificationsDECORATIVE ARTS

Dateca. 1850

Mediumcolorless pressed glass

Dimensions5 7/16 x 5 3/4 in. (13.8 x 14.6 cm.) base (diameter): 2 3/4 in. (7 cm.)

DescriptionBaby-thumb print pattern, four concentric rows of fifteen thumbprints each, Ogee-shaped rim with wide pouring lip, applied handle with folded and pitched lower attachment, round foot with nine sided step

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of John Mathern and Lucy Borders

Status

Not on view

Label TextIn 1607 a small glasshouse was erected at the settlement in Jamestown, Virginia, thereby distinguishing glassmaking as one of the first industries practiced in the North American colonies. The industry did not become firmly established until the nineteenth century, however, when a technological innovation allowed Americans to mass-produce glass tableware at affordable prices. As an alternative to the labor-intensive and highly skilled process of glass blowing, manufacturers developed heavy metal presses that could stamp hot glass into finished form in cast molds. This new technology revolutionized the industry. Pressed glass could be made quickly and cheaply in a wide variety of attractive patterns. By the 1840s celebrated makers such as the Boston Sandwich Glass Co. of Sandwich, Massachusetts, and Bakewell, Pears & Co. of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, were pressing tableware forms in matching patterns featuring both geometric and stylized, representational matifs. This glass has an especially high lead content, giving it the weight, bell-like resonance, and brilliance so prized by collectors.

Object number2000.18.12