Covered Butter Dish 1850 - 1870

Curator: Here we have a covered butter dish made by Bakewell, Pears and Company, dating roughly between 1850 and 1870. It's currently housed here at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: Oh, isn’t it lovely? It feels like a bubble, capturing light in a most delicate way. So simple and elegant all at once. But, you know, almost like a magical orb fit for a fairy's butter. Curator: Precisely! Such decorative arts pieces gained prominence as they reflected middle-class aspirations during the era, where specialized tableware became a status symbol. The production techniques allowed for wide distribution. Editor: You know, it strikes me, thinking about butter under glass feels almost like enshrining the mundane, elevating the everyday into something worthy of display. Is there something deeply American about that impulse? Curator: I would say that industrialization made luxury accessible, and owning refined items, like this pressed glass, allowed families to showcase their economic progress and adherence to social standards of taste. Editor: That makes perfect sense! It is really beautiful in its construction with an appealing shape and careful design of light-refracting patterned glass. One can tell that much craftsmanship was devoted. I wonder if its owner ever regretted hiding creamy butter within! Curator: Well, there might have been instances, yet such glassware tells us more than simple food consumption, it provides insights into economic change, and it demonstrates the rising expectations of beauty and luxury in domestic life. Editor: It does. I look at this piece, and it makes me consider that even the humblest object carries the stories of the generations. Who would have thought something so simple could inspire such thoughts about people? Curator: Precisely. Every artefact invites such journeys through time. It tells tales of taste, society, aspiration. Editor: I like that. What’s hidden tells so much about what is visible.