New England Glass Company
Wine Glass

MakerEast Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1818–1888
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Wine Glass
Datec. 1882
Made inCambridge, Massachusetts, United States
MediumLead glass
Dimensions5 1/8 × 2 1/2 in. diameter (13 × 6.4 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, museum purchase funded by friends of Mrs. Fred T. Couper, Jr., in her memory
Object numberB.2011.12
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Washington Hall
Exposé

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Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

Louis Vaupel is one of America’s well-known 19th-century glass artisans. He has long been admired for the superbly designed and executed engravings that he made for the New England Glass Company for more than three decades. Founded in 1812 in East Cambridge, Massachusetts, the glassworks produced wares of the highest quality, including free blown, mold blown, cut, engraved, and art glass. Vaupel’s tenure began there in 1851, within a few months of his emigration from the Prussian kingdom of Hanover. There he would perfect his expertise in engraving a design into glass with a rapidly spinning copper wheel fed with abrasives. The wheel presses the abrasive against the glass so that it removes the surface by grinding. In recognition of his exceptional talent, three years later he was designated “First Engraver.”

Another factor that has contributed to Vaupel’s reputation is the existence of a family archive that records in remarkable detail his life and industry. This elegant goblet is engraved with the initials “ES” for Vaupel’s daughter Emilie (b. 1858) and postdates her marriage to William Schuebeler in 1882.

Related examples: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Toledo Museum of Art, the Saint Louis Art Museum, and the New Orleans Museum of Art.


ProvenanceFamily of Louis Vaupel; Dorothy-Lee Jones, East Baldwin, Maine; [W. M. Schwind, Jr. Antiques and Fine Art, Yarmouth, Maine]; purchased by MFAH, 2011.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
on bottom in black paint " 99.3.1 "
on bottom radiating from center in black " NASH 3 "
on bottome red ink illegible and mostly removed
in center of cartouche, the initials ES

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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