Tumbler
after 1886
Medium
Pressed cranberry with opalescent glass
Dimensions
H. 4 3/4 in. (12.1 cm)
Classification
Tumbler
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Emily Winthrop Miles, 1946
Accession Number
46.140.466
Art Historical Context
This elegant tumbler, crafted by the Hobbs, Brockunier Company after 1886, exemplifies pinnacle of American pressed glass production during the late Victorian era. Standing just 4 3/4 inches tall, its vibrant cranberry hue—achieved through the addition of gold chloride to molten glass—pairs strikingly with an opalescent sheen that shifts iridescently in the light, creating a jewel-like allure. As part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's American Wing, gifted by Mrs. Emily Winthrop Miles in 1946, it showcases the ingenuity of West Virginia's glass factories, where Hobbs, Brockunier excelled in ...
About the Artist
Hobbs, Brockunier and Company · 1863–1891
**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...