Pocket bottle
Medium
Pattern-molded blown glass
Dimensions
12.1 × 8.9 × 6.4 cm (4 3/4 × 3 1/2 × 2 1/2 in.)
Classification
flask (bottle)
Department
Arts of the Americas
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
89366
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This pocket bottle, with its continental shape, molded decoration, and high-quality colored glass, exemplifies the combined German and English influences within Henry William Stiegel’s American Flint Glass factory. During the colonial period, there were few American-born glassmakers. Stiegel’s glass house employed exclusively German immigrants until 1769 when Stiegel hired five English workers. The Germans had been trained in making window glass and common wares of blown green bottle glass, whil...