Sherry Glass

Art Historical Context

This delicate sherry glass, crafted by the New England Glass Company around 1888, exemplifies the finesse of late 19th-century American glassmaking. Produced in Cambridge, Massachusetts—just before the company's merger into the Libby Glass Company—this blown glass piece stands at a modest 4 3/8 inches tall, perfectly suited for savoring sherry, a popular fortified wine of the era. Housed in The American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was generously gifted by Mrs. Emily Winthrop Miles in 1946, highlighting its enduring appeal as a collector's treasure. Blown glass technique was a hallmark of the period, where skilled artisans gathered molten glass on a blowpipe, inflated it into shape, and manipulated it with tools for elegant, thin-walled forms. The New England Glass Company, a leader in American decorative arts since 1818, excelled in such methods, producing tableware that rivaled European imports. This sherry glass reflects the Gilded Age's taste for refined domestic luxury, when American manufacturers innovated to meet growing demand for sophisticated glassware. Culturally, it captures a moment of industrial pride and household elegance in post-Civil War America, bridging handmade craft with emerging mass production. Imagine it gleaming on a Victorian sideboard, toasting the era's prosperity— a small but sparkling testament to Yankee ingenuity.

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...