Hobnail Creamer

Hobnail Creamer by Hobbs, Brockunier and Company

Medium

Pressed colorless and opaque cranberry glass

Dimensions

H. 4 1/2 in. (11.4 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

46.140.412

Art Historical Context

In the intimate engraving *Lucretia en Sextus Tarquinius* (1539), German artist Heinrich Aldegre captures a pivotal moment from ancient Roman legend. Aldegrever, a member of the "Little MastersRenaissance printmakers renowned for their exquisitely detailed small-scale works—depicts the tragic encounter between the virtuous Lucretia and tyrannical Sextus Tarquinius, son of Rome's last king. This scene alludes to Lucretia's rape, her subsequent suicide, and the spark that ignited the Roman Republic, a story that resonated deeply in 16th-century Europe as a symbol of chastity, justice, and resist...

About the Artist

Hobbs, Brockunier and Company · 18631891

**J. H. Hobbs, Brockunier and Company**, a pioneering American glass manufacturer, traces its origins to 1845 when John L. Hobbs and James B. Barnes, both former supervisory employees at the prestigious New England Glass Company in Massachusetts, leased the idle South Wheeling Glass Works in what is now Wheeling, West Virginia. After several reorganizations amid partner changes—including the addit...

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