Small glass pouring vessels for cream were an important part of tea table equipment. Often the design echoed more expensive silver prototypes. This swirled pattern molded example represents the continuum of the Stiegel tradition into the early nineteenth century. The petal-like design of the foot is seen on both Pennsylvania and Midwestern products, making a specific attribution difficult.

Related examples: McKearin and McKearin 1941, pl. 80, no. 15, is virtually identical and identified as Midwestern; for an early Pennsylvania or Maryland sugar bowl with a similar low flat version of the lobed foot (Palmer 1993, p. 194, no. 153); a later Ohio pitcher has the higher version of the lobed foot (Palmer 1993, p. 162, no. 120).

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.