Water Pitcher
Medium
Pressed purple marble glass
Dimensions
H. 8 3/4 in. (22.2 cm); Diam. 6 1/2 in. (16.5 cm)
Classification
Water pitcher
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Emily Winthrop Miles, 1946
Accession Number
46.140.682
Art Historical Context
This graceful **Water Pitcher** frominor, Taylor and Company1870–90) the Victorian era's blend of functionality and ornamentation in American homes. Crafted from pressed purple marble glass, stands 8¾ inches tall with a ½-inch diameter, its swirling, mottled purple surface elegantly imitating the veining of natural marble. Donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's American Wing in 1946 by Mrs. Emily Winthrop, it showcases the firm's skill in industrial glass production. Pressed glass, a hallmark of 19th-century innovation, allowed for mass-manufactured yet decorative items using molds to sh...
About the Artist
Challinor, Taylor and Company · 1866–1891
Challinor, Taylor and Company was an American pressed glass manufacturer founded in 1866 and based in Tarentum, Pennsylvania, a community along the Allegheny River that was home to several of the nineteenth century's most innovative glassmakers. The firm operated until 1891, when it was absorbed into the United States Glass Company as Factory C — part of the great industrial consolidation that res...