This little bowl is distinguished by its skillfully engraved American eagle and accompanying cipher, which clearly indicates that it along with others from the set were a special commission for an as yet unidentified family.

The term “finger bowl” dates to the 1810s; however, the form had been long in use by that time. Citations, beginning in 1750, refer to them as “wash-hand” glasses or basins and later “finger cups.” In spite of their earlier existence, almost a century passed before they were in widespread use. Fanny Kemble, the popular British actress, bemoaned the absence of a finger bowl at a dinner she attended in New York City in the 1830s. “The dinner was plenteous and tolerably well-dressed, but ill-served:  there were not thalf servants enough, and we had neither water-glasses nor finger-glasses. Now, though, I don’t eat with my fingers…yet do I hold a finger-glass at the conclusion of my dinner a requisite to comfort.”