Blown of unrefined window or bottle glass, “lily pad” vessels were made at factories in southern New Jersey, New York State, and New England. The glassblower applied an outer layer of glass that was tooled and shaped into irregular peaks or C-scrolls. Because the ends of the scrolls and peaks are finished with a wide pad of glass, early 20th-century collectors of American glass likened the design to water lilies, giving the vessels their modern name. In the 19th century, glassworkers were permitted to use factory glass to make objects such as these on their own time at no cost. Because these objects were made after-hours by the glassblowers and given to family and friends, each is unique and are some of the most fanciful objects made in American glasshouses. This ornament, which is unknown on earlier European glass, is considered to be an American innovation. The best period occurred between 1820 and 1850; after that, increasing mechanization of the American glass industry caused a decline in individual glassblowing.

In their 1941 publication American Glass, the father and daughter team George S. and Helen McKearin detailed a little known glasshouse in Harrisburg, New York, which produced only lily pad glass unlike other glass factories that allowed their glassblowers to make it only afterhours. Around 1922, the McKearins acquired a sugar bowl (Corning Museum of Glass) from Della M. Curtice, the granddaughter of John Rice, the proprietor of this Harrisburg glasshouse. According to Mrs. Curtice, Mr. Rice and Matthew Johnson, a skilled glassblower, agreed to begin a glassworks. She said, “Mr. Rice furnished the capital; Mr. Johnson was to create the glass. No window glass was made but glassware such as pitchers, sugar bowls, jugs, sauce dishes, and similar tablewares were made for local sale.” By 1843, Mr. Johnson apparently became unreliable and the glasshouse was closed. He moved to Stoddard, New Hampshire, where he created lily pad glassware.