American Flint Glass Company
Pocket Bottle

Factory ownerAmerican, 1729–1785
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Pocket Bottle
Datec. 1764–1774
Made inManheim, Pennsylvania, United States
MediumPotash-lime glass
Dimensions5 1/4 × 3 13/16 × 2 3/4 in. (13.3 × 9.7 × 7 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.59.80
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Washington Hall
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

Although the exact usage of the pocket bottle is not entirely clear, evidence indicates that in the eighteenth century they were intended to hold alcoholic beverages. The factory of Henry William Stiegel produced thousands of pocket bottles. The most famous of the Stiegel patterns is the so-called diamond and daisy. Until the 1963 Corning-Smithsonian dig at the Frederick, Maryland, site of the Amelung factory where diamond and daisy shards were discovered, the pattern was thought to be unique to Stiegel. It is clear, however, that the diamond and daisy, which has no exact European prototype, originated in America with Stiegel.

Related examples: Winterthur (Palmer pp. 361–64, nos. 354–56); PMA (Garvan 1982, pp. 238–40, nos. 1–12); Toledo (Wilson p. 67, no. 2); McKearin and McKearin 1941, pl. 231, no. 1; MMA (Davidson and Stillinger 1985, p. 251, fig. 378).

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.


ProvenanceAldrich Collection; [Abraham and May Antiques, West Granville, Massachusetts]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1959; given to MFAH, by 1966.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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