Image scanned from a transparency and color-corrected by Pat Cagney.

Rich-Cut Dish

Manufacturer T.G. Hawkes & Co. (American, 1880 - 1962)

CultureAmerican

Date1850-1899

MediumCut lead glass

DimensionsOverall: 2 1/4 in. (5.7 cm)
Overall, Rim: 13 1/8 in. (33.3 cm)
Base: 6 1/4 in. (15.9 cm)

InscribedAcid-stamped near center trifoil trademark over "HAWKES". Note-this mark could have been added by Hawkes at a later date, since this dish remained in company hands.

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick V. Martin in memory of T. G. Hawkes and Samuel Hawkes.

Object number91.81

On View

Not on view

Description13-Inch Dish of colorless lead glass. Round with a flat bottom. Gently sloping sides. Scalloped rim. Cut hexagon diamond (or hobnail) pattern. Large hobstar with thirty-two points inscribed in a ring cut into the flat bottom. Sides cut with six concentric bands of hexagons that get progressively larger towards the edge of the dish. Good condition, very small minor flakes on rim. Numerous flakes.

Label Text13-Inch Rich-Cut Dish in Hobnail Pattern T. G. Hawkes & Co., Corning, New York, ca. 1889 Blown lead-formula glass, cut Mark acid-stamped near the center: trefoil trademark with rebus / HAWKES Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick V. Martin in memory of T. G. Hawkes and Samuel Hawkes 91.81 This handsome cut glass dish is an important documentary object. It descended in the Hawkes family to Frederick V. Martin, who is the great-grandson of T. G. Hawkes and the grandson of Samuel Hawkes. According to family tradition it was shown as part of T. G. Hawkes & Co.'s grand-prize winning display of rich-cut glass at the Paris World's Fair in 1889. Photographic evidence and a partial inventory of that display confirm that Hawkes included a large punch bowl and at least several other objects cut in the same pattern. With its repeating geometric motifs, "hobnail" may be regarded as a typical rich-cut pattern of the 1880s. It was extremely popular, for other companies cut this pattern as well, although at least one, the Mount Washington Glass Co. of New Bedford, Massachusetts, called it "hexagon diamond." Inexpensive pressed glass versions of the pattern were also sold as "imitation cut glass." Such imitations no doubt fostered the increasingly elaborate cut-glass patterns of the 1890s, as the makers of luxury glasses sought to distance themselves from their imitators. Edited By: GLYExhibition History"Treasures for the Community: The Chrysler Collects, 1989-1996," October 25, 1996 - February 16, 1997. "Clear as Crystal: Colorless Glass from the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, December 19, 2020 - July 11, 2021.Published ReferencesFarrar & Spillman, THE COMPLETE CUT AND ENGRAVED GLASS OF CORNING, fig. 112, pg. 55, lower right. Jane Shadel Spillman, THE AMERICAN CUT GLASS INDUSTRY: T.G. HAWKES AND HIS COMPETITORS (Corning, NY: The Corning Museum of Glass, 1996), Fig. 2-2 (b/w ill.) p. 45.