Salt Caster
after 1883
Medium
Blown glass
Dimensions
H. 3 5/8 in. (9.2 cm)
Classification
Salt caster
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Emily Winthrop Miles, 1946
Accession Number
46.140.502a, b
Art Historical Context
Nestled in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's American Wing, this delicate *Salt Caster* from New England Glass Company exemplifies finesse of late 19th-century American glass. Standing just 3 5/8 inches (9.2 cm) tall, this blown glass vessel was designed for the dining table, allowing salt to be elegantly dispensed through a perforated top. The blown glass technique—where molten glass is gathered on a blowpipe and shaped by skilled inflation and tooling—enabled the creation of slender, graceful forms that balanced functionality with ornamental appeal. Produced after 1883 by the esteemed New En...
About the Artist
New England Glass Company · 1818–1888
**The New England Glass Company: Pioneers of American Flint Glass** The New England Glass Company was established on February 16, 1818, in East Cambridge, Massachusetts, by a quartet of prominent local businessmen: Amos Binney, Edmund Munroe, Daniel Hastings, and Deming Jarves. Jarves, drawing on his dry goods background and talent for recruiting Europe's finest cutters, served as operational man...