New England Glass Company
Two-Handled Urn

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Two-Handled Urn
Datec. 1830–1840
Made inMassachusetts, United States
MediumLead glass and silver
Dimensions7 3/4 × 7 1/2 × 4 1/8 in. (19.7 × 19.1 × 10.5 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, museum purchase funded by the Jack R. McGregor Endowment Fund
Object numberB.2019.2
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Washington Hall
Exposé

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Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

Among the industries that colonial settlers sought to establish in America were glass manufactories, with much early production focused on utilitarian window glass and bottles. By the early 1800s, American glasshouses were producing a wider array of goods, including much more highly refined table glass and ornaments that employed a range of fabrication and decoration techniques—blowing, pressing, cutting, and engraving. Exemplifying the best of American blown glass of the time is a two-handled urn, probably made between 1830 and 1840 by the New England Glass Company near Boston. Founded in 1818, the New England Glass Company later moved to Toledo, Ohio, and was renamed the Libbey Glass Company; it continues today as Libbey, Inc. Made of brilliant lead glass, this urn is remarkable for its decorative features and for its successful design.

With a form derived from the krater of classical antiquity, the urn expresses the fashion of its day for ancient Greek prototypes. The lower half of the urn’s body is decorated with dramatic, swirling gadrooning that contrasts with the fine spiral threading that surrounds the urn’s mouth and neck. Boldly profiled handles sweep outward from the neck and return to the body, attached with rigaree (crimped, ribbon-like bands of glass) and open-loop finials. Enclosed within a void in the stem is a United States silver half-dime coin dated 1830; the ringed treatment of the rest of the stem continues as concentric rings on the foot.

Urns such as this example are extremely rare and would not have been part of the regular production of the factories where they were made. For example, some are known to have been commissioned as presentation objects for weddings or similar events. They would have been treasured reminders of important milestones or achievements, and today they continue to provide sparkling testimony to their makers’ skills.


ProvenancePrivate collection from 1960s, until 2017; purchased by [Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York]; purchased by MFAH, 2019.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Goblet
New England Glass Company
c. 1882
Blown, cut, and engraved lead glass
B.2014.2
Wine Glass
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c. 1882
Lead glass
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Goblet
New England Glass Company
c. 1860–1885
Lead glass
B.2011.10
Sugar Bowl
New England Glass Company
c. 1827–1830
Lead glass
B.2011.11.A,.B
scan from file photograph
New England Glass Company
c. 1850–1870
Lead glass
B.69.58.1-.6
Wine Glass
New England Glass Company
c. 1882
Lead glass
B.2011.13
Oil Lamp
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c. 1840–1860
Glass
B.78.14
Vase
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c. 1840–1860
Glass
B.78.13
Sinumbra Lamp
New England Glass Company
c. 1835–1850
Glass and brass
B.2009.1.A-.C
Decanter
New England Glass Company
c. 1860–1880
Nonlead glass
B.2013.10
Sugar Bowl Cover
New Bremen Glass Manufactory
c. 1784–1795
Nonlead glass
B.85.11
Tumbler
New Bremen Glass Manufactory
c. 1788–1795
Nonlead glass
B.99.20