Covered Dish 1835 - 1840

Curator: It gives me a fairy tale feeling, almost like Cinderella’s slipper made into a cozy dish for field mice! Editor: Indeed, this “Covered Dish,” created by the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company between 1835 and 1840, is a stunning example of pressed glass. You know, its creation wasn't so far removed from the cinder-filled hearths of fairytales! The advent of pressing technologies and mechanization brought previously unattainable luxury glassware to the burgeoning middle classes. Curator: Well, those mice were fancy! Thinking of the making of this dish I am drawn to that moment when they demold this still glowing hot, slightly distorted in all that detail but still with the clear hope of that eagle frozen forever onto it! Editor: I find the repetitive patterns almost industrial, but there’s no denying the charm that rises above this particular medium. Considering glassblowing predates glass-pressing, with both processes relying on silica, alkali and stabilizers heated to incredible temperatures. Its interesting to consider how decorative molded elements add another dimension to consumption and display rituals of the period. Curator: So you’re saying mass-produced doesn’t necessarily equal soulless? Editor: Exactly! The craftsmanship involved in design and production meant individual skill informed output at every point of creation from the laborers to the overseers and eventual distributors of the merchandise to the final purchaser. What does this decorative piece say to us, today, about wealth and access to it during its historical moment of production? What did having a decorative piece of useful dishware communicate to a household? Curator: Perhaps something like, "We've arrived! Come on in, have a cucumber sandwich and admire my American eagle!” Editor: Precisely, even while suggesting deeper implications around issues like nationalism or capitalism depending on a household's ideological bent during the moment they owned this luxury item... Thank you, it has really made me reconsider it. Curator: Me too! Time for me to re-examine what fills my own covered dishes, and what stories they tell.