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. Vaupel engraved the goblet presented here with “ES” for his daughter Emilie (b. 1858); it 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.