Vase
Manufacturer
Sowerby & Co.
(English)
CultureEnglish
Dateca. 1870
MediumPressed glass
DimensionsOverall: 6 7/8 in. (17.5 cm)
Overall, Rim: 3 1/2 in. (8.9 cm)
Base: 3 in. (7.6 cm)
Overall, Rim: 3 1/2 in. (8.9 cm)
Base: 3 in. (7.6 cm)
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number71.5151
Not on view
Label TextGLASS FOR THE MASSES
A great revolution in glassmaking technology occurred in the mid-nineteenth century: the machine press. First developed in America in the late 1820s, it was quickly adopted by the British glass industry. Machine presses required less-skilled laborers and allowed for greater productivity in the factory. Thus, glassware became less expensive for the growing consumer market. Even a middle-class home in the mid-nineteenth century could afford a complete table setting of pressed glass in a matching pattern. Pressed glass often imitated more expensive cut glass, but increasingly featured more fashionable styles or cutting-edge colors for a highly decorative effect.
Sowerby & Co.
Gateshead-on-Tyne, England
Vase, ca. 1870
Pressed glass
Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.5151
Exhibition History"Cheers to Queen Victoria: British Glass from the Chrysler Collection," Waitzer Community Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, September 22, 2010 - March 20, 2011.Published ReferencesMorris, VICTORIAN TABLE GLASS, color plate III and similar ill. #15, pg. 11 & 13 (called Newcastle about 1880).
