This pair of candlesticks was among the earliest glass to enter Miss Hogg's collection. Historically they have been assigned to southern New Jersey and dated to the eighteenth century. Certainly the free-blown teardrop lower section relates to eighteenth-century shapes, as do the deep sockets. Yet the deep wine color of the knops and the ring at the base of the stem above the foot are more typical of the nineteenth century. Furthermore, the flat foot is not seen on other eighteenth-century examples. Similarly, the deeply everted rim of the nozzle is a feature found on vases of the mid-nineteenth century (see B.78.13).

Related examples: A pair of vases at Toledo have nearly identical amber knops on the stem and very similar amber flat feet. The upper section of these vases has opaque applied white thread loop ornament of a type often seen in Jersey glass. One of them has an 1840 Colombian half dime in the hollow knop; the other an 1848 half dime (Wilson 1994, p. 147, no. 139).

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.