Creamer
Medium
Pressed purple marble glass
Dimensions
H. 5 1/16 in. (12.9 cm); Diam. 4 in. (10.2 cm)
Classification
Cream pot
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Emily Winthrop Miles, 1946
Accession Number
46.140.687
Art Historical Context
This delicate creamer, crafted by Challinor, Taylor and Company between 1870 and 1890, exemplifies the ingenuity of late 19th-century Americanmaking. Made of pressed purple marble glass—a technique where molten glass is into intricate molds—this small pitcher (5 1/16 inches high, 4 inches in diameter mimics the veined luxury of natural marble at an affordable price. The swirling purple hues create a mesmerizing, stone-like effect, perfect for cream in middle-class Victorian households. Pressed glass revolutionized decorative arts during the Gilded Age, enabling mass production of elegant tabl...
About the Artist
Challinor, Taylor and Company · 1866–1891
Challinor, Taylor and Company was an American pressed glass manufacturer founded in 1866 and based in Tarentum, Pennsylvania, a community along the Allegheny River that was home to several of the nineteenth century's most innovative glassmakers. The firm operated until 1891, when it was absorbed into the United States Glass Company as Factory C — part of the great industrial consolidation that res...