Egg Cup 1870 - 1880

Curator: Standing here, we're looking at a delightful piece of late 19th-century glasswork: an egg cup crafted sometime between 1870 and 1880 by Adams and Company. Editor: You know, my first thought is, wow, that's some serious commitment to breakfast! I mean, an egg cup this elaborate? It's like saying, "My eggs deserve the VIP treatment." The colour reminds me of sweet lime. Curator: The color is certainly striking. The choice of this translucent, almost glowing, light green in decorative-art pieces of this era can be connected to growing trends for certain materials and tastes among an emergent middle-class striving to signal their adherence to the aesthetics of gentility. This piece reflects the period's investment in material culture. Editor: I can see that. I'm also just wondering what breakfast conversations took place around a table featuring this little beauty. Was it serious discussions of industry and empire, or gossip about who was courting who? What type of domestic life it inhabited is a mystery I find compelling, in a romantic kind of way. Curator: Precisely! And how the function of such an object is inherently tied to gender and class norms is crucial for a better and fuller interpretation. Its materiality, of molded glass, implies the rise of industrial production that defined the era's ability to decorate new forms of household interiors with formerly unavailable goods and shapes. Editor: It makes me think of family heirlooms. Something passed down, each little bump on the glass holding stories and the residue of countless breakfasts. Curator: Absolutely. And thinking of that passing down – this egg cup is a poignant reminder of the narratives embedded within the domestic sphere, but also of the global dynamics shaping material tastes in a world becoming increasingly interconnected. Editor: Yes, like this little glass vessel is somehow a container not just for eggs, but for history. Curator: A vessel containing personal, local, and world history.