Dish

Boston & Sandwich Glass Company

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

America's greatest contribution to glassmaking technology was the invention of the glass press by which a vessel could be formed and decorated in one motion with the use of a mold and a plunger. In the earliest years, designers mimicked the geometric patterns on cut glass. Soon, they broke free of the limitations of those cut patterns with the new-found ability to introduce designs that would not have been technically possible in cut glass. This oval dish is a superb example of that critical moment. Rather than diamonds and squares, typical of cut patterns of the day, the dish features bold S-scrolls. The dish is also innovative in its background design of fine ribbing, which contributes to the overall brilliance.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art